Contextual Variation in Automatic Evaluative Bias to Racially-Ambiguous Faces

Three studies examined the implicit evaluative associations activated by racially-ambiguous Black-White faces. In the context of both Black and White faces, Study 1 revealed a graded pattern of bias against racially-ambiguous faces that was weaker than the bias to Black faces but stronger than that to White faces. Study 2 showed that significant bias was present when racially-ambiguous faces appeared in the context of only White faces, but not in the context of only Black faces. Study 3 demonstrated that context produces perceptual contrast effects on racial-prototypicality judgments. Racially-ambiguous faces were perceived as more prototypically Black in a White-only than mixed-race context, and less prototypically Black in a Black-only context. Conversely, they were seen as more prototypically White in a Black-only than mixed context, and less prototypically White in a White-only context. The studies suggest that both race-related featural properties within a face (i.e., racial ambiguity) and external contextual factors affect automatic evaluative associations.     

Type-based associations in grapheme-color synaesthesia revealed by response time distribution analyses

Determining the nature of binding in grapheme-color synaesthesia has consequences for understanding the neural basis of synaesthesia and visual awareness in general. We evaluated type- and token-based letter-color binding using a synaesthetic version of the object-reviewing paradigm. Although mean response times failed to reveal any significant differences between synaesthetes and control participants, RT analyses with ex-Gaussian distributions revealed that the response facilitation in the synaesthesia group reflected type representations exclusively, while response facilitation in the control group, who learned letter-color associations, was dominated by token representations. Thus, letter-color associations in associator synaesthetes are type-based, and do not involve binding to object tokens, consistent with their subjective reports. Contrary to recent studies that failed to find differences between synaesthetes and non-synaesthetes with behavioral measures, response time distribution analyses indicate that color sensations in synaesthetes are not simply the extreme form of normal letter-color associations, and cannot be attributed to demand characteristics.     

Beta-adrenergic receptor activation rescues theta frequency stimulation-induced LTP deficits in mice expressing C-terminally truncated NMDA receptor GluN2A subunits

Through protein interactions mediated by their cytoplasmic C termini the GluN2A and GluN2B subunits of NMDA receptors (NMDARs) have a key role in the formation of NMDAR signaling complexes at excitatory synapses. Although these signaling complexes are thought to have a crucial role in NMDAR-dependent forms of synaptic plasticity such as long-term potentiation (LTP), the role of the C terminus of GluN2A in coupling NMDARs to LTP enhancing and/or suppressing signaling pathways is unclear. To address this issue we examined the induction of LTP in the hippocampal CA1 region in mice lacking the C terminus of endogenous GluN2A subunits (GluN2AΔC/ΔC). Our results show that truncation of GluN2A subunits produces robust, but highly frequency-dependent, deficits in LTP and a reduction in basal levels of extracellular signal regulated kinase 2 (ERK2) activation and phosphorylation of AMPA receptor GluA1 subunits at a protein kinase A site (serine 845). Consistent with the notion that these signaling deficits contribute to the deficits in LTP in GluN2AΔC/ΔC mice, activating ERK2 and increasing GluA1 S845 phosphorylation through activation of β-adrenergic receptors rescued the induction of LTP in these mutants. Together, our results indicate that the capacity of excitatory synapses to undergo plasticity in response to different patterns of activity is dependent on the coupling of specific signaling pathways to the intracellular domains of the NMDARs and that abnormal plasticity resulting from mutations in NMDARs can be reduced by activation of key neuromodulatory transmitter receptors that engage converging signaling pathways.     

Cohort Effects in the Lateral Preference of Japanese People

Handedness data of the Japanese were collected twice with an interval of 20 years, using an identical handedness inventory. In the second cohort, non-right-handers among male and female students numbered 11.5% and 5.9%, respectively. The results showed that the incidence of non-right-handedness among Japanese females has increased from 20 years ago.     

Compensatory Coordination of Release Parameters in a Throwing Task

The consistency and coordination of release parameters in ball-throwing movements were investigated. The authors used a newly developed index of coordination for release parameters (ICRP) that quantifies the degree of improvement of performance consistency caused by compensatory relationships among parameters (i.e., not caused by consistency of parameters). Eight participants practiced for 150 trials, with the nondominant hand, a ball-throwing task aimed at a stationary target. The magnitude of the ball-release velocity vector, among release parameters, as well as the performance was found to become consistent with practice. The ICRP score suggested that the release parameters were complementarily coordinated with one another, and that the coordination improved with practice. Those results indicate that compensatory relationships among varying release parameters contribute to reducing the variability of performance in a ball-throwing task whose goal is accuracy.     

Visual Evoked Potentials to Geometric Forms: Effects of Spatial Orientation

Five outlined geometric figures of equal contour length were presented monocularly below the fixation point (FP); an upright equilateral triangle (upright triangle), an inverted equilateral triangle (inverted triangle), an upright square (square), a 45°-tilted square (diamond) and a circle. The angular separation between FP and the top of the figures was held constant. Transient visual evoked potentials (VEPs) were recorded monopolarly from inion, 4, 7, 10 cm above it (l, l4, l7, l10) and Cz for ten subjects. The grand-averaged subtracted waves were obtained between the figure and blank (control) conditions. N1 (mean peak latency: 155 ms) and P2 (240 ms) waves were identified. ANOVAs were conducted for the latency and amplitude values. Main results were as follows: On the N1 amplitude at l4 and l, the upright triangle, inverted triangle and diamond figures evoked significantly larger responses than did the square and the circle. However, no significant difference was found among the former three figures. These findings on the N1 amplitude suggest that the effect of a triangle is orientation-free and that of a square is orientation-bound.     

Cerebellar learning in the vestibulo-ocular reflex

The vestibulo-ocular reflex, because of its close relationship with the cerebellum and its marked adaptiveness, has become a model system for studying the functions of the cerebellum. It has been hypothesized that an evolutionarily old part of the cerebellum, the flocculus, forms a modifiable accessory pathway for the vestibulo-ocular reflex arc for adaptive control, and that the modification is due to the synaptic plasticity induced by retinal errors conveyed by a unique structure of the cerebellum, the climbing fibers. The flocculus hypothesis has been supported by several lines of evidence, including lesioning or functionally impairing the flocculus and recording the activity of flocculus Purkinje cells, and, more recently, from pharmacologically or genetically inhibited synaptic plasticity, which produces long-term depression. There has also been debate on a possible site for memory retention in vestibulo-ocular-reflex adaptation, and about the signal content in flocculus Purkinje cells. This article reviews recent studies on the learning mechanisms of the cerebellum that underlie the adaptation of the vestibulo-ocular reflex.     

School-Based Intervention Program Based on Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Japanese Students Affected by the Hiroshima Heavy Rain Disaster of July 2018

This study examined the effects of a group cognitive behavioral intervention on senior school students affected by the Hiroshima heavy rain disaster and investigated the effects of reducing depression by enhancing resilience. A total of 229 second-grade senior school students affected by the Hiroshima heavy rain disaster participated in the study. The intervention was performed in the following order: psychological education on daily stress, problem-solving training for daily stress, psychological education on traumatic reactions derived from traumatic experiences, and instruction on the merits of utilizing information acquired from the intervention in daily life. The results showed that the high-depression group's depression score was reduced by the intervention. Resilience score was increased both in the high- and low-depression groups as a result of the intervention. Therefore, the intervention program used in this study was proven effective in reducing depression and improving resilience. Prospectively, strategies for psychological support during and after large-scale disasters should be established by applying the findings obtained in this research.     

The Role of Ideal Affect in the Experience and Memory of Emotions

According to Affect Valuation Theory (Tsai et al. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 54, 1031–1039), culture influences how people want to feel (ideal affect). Integrating Affect Valuation Theory with the Time-sequential Framework of Subjective Well-being (Kim-Prieto et al. Journal of Happiness Studies, 6, 261–300), we proposed that cultural norms influence the memory, but not the experience, of emotion. The present study examined the role of ideal affect in relation to experience sampling and retrospective reports of emotion. Ideal affect correlated with retrospective reports but not experience sampling reports. Extraversion and neuroticism were more strongly related to experience sampling reports than to ideal levels of emotion. Results suggest that retrospective reports of emotion involve a dynamic process that incorporates cultural information into the reconstruction whereas on-line emotions are more constrained by temperament.