Apparent motion by edge discontinuities

When the eyes move vertically across a jagged diamond, a local shift (LS) of edge discontinuities and a global shape distortion (GD) (ie expansion/contraction opposite to that expected by the aperture effect) are perceived. These phenomena cannot be accounted for by a local motion signals integration rule based either on the intersection of constraint lines or on the velocity vector summation. The threshold for GD perception and the salience of LS and GD (1 to 10 scale) were measured in two experiments by different methods and displays. In experiment 1 we induced GD through mimicking LS with a kinetic pattern constituted of a set of circular illusory apertures revealing drifting gratings. The point of subjective equality for compression/expansion was reached for gratings the linear extrapolations of which form an angle of 94.4 degrees. In experiment 2 observers followed a dot moving along the vertical elongation axis of a static jagged diamond (with 70 degrees or 90 degrees angles), varying in the shape (triangular, wave, square), frequency, and amplitude of edge discontinuities. GD scores were correlated with LS scores that were inversely related to frequency/amplitude ratios of triangular edge discontinuities. Data are partially accounted for by averaging neighbouring local motion-capture vectors. Results prove that there are strong interrelations between phenomena in which visual motion affects visual localisation and phenomena involving apparent deformation of global shape.     

Recognition memory and prefrontal cortex: dissociating recollection and familiarity processes using rTMS

Recognition memory can be supported by both the assessment of the familiarity of an item and by the recollection of the context in which an item was encountered. The neural substrates of these memory processes are controversial. To address these issues we applied repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) over the right and left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) of healthy subjects performing a remember/know task. rTMS disrupted familiarity judgments when applied before encoding of stimuli over both right and left DLPFC. rTMS disrupted recollection when applied before encoding of stimuli over the right DLPFC. These findings suggest that the DLPFC plays a critical role in recognition memory based on familiarity as well as recollection.     

Differentiated forgetting rates of spatial knowledge in humans in the absence of repeated testing

Spatial knowledge, necessary for efficient navigation, comprises route knowledge (memory of the landmarks along a route) and survey knowledge (map-like). Available data on the retention in humans of spatial knowledge show that this does not decline systematically over months or years. Here, two groups of participants elaborated route and survey knowledge during navigation in a complex virtual environment before performing route and survey tasks. Both groups were tested 5 minutes after learning and 3 months later, while one group was also tested 1 week and 1 month later (repeated testing). Performance was similar in both groups on the first testing session, remained stable in the repeated tested group, but decreased in the non-repeated tested group, especially on route tasks. These results are the first to reveal a substantial and selective decline of spatial knowledge, occurring only if there is no possibility of reactivating knowledge along repeated testing.     

Right hemisphere involvement in non-fluent primary progressive aphasia

We described a 56-years-old man with a diagnosis of "non-fluent primary progressive aphasia" (NfPPA). An accurate neuropsychological, neurological and neuroimaging evaluation was performed in order to assess clinical and behavioural features of the patient. From a neuropsychological point of view, the patient showed a typical cognitive profile of subjects affected by NfPPA: a prominent language deficit, associated with impairments in several cognitive domains after three years from the onset of the symptomatology. The most intriguing feature is that SPECT revealed hypoperfusion in the right frontal cortex, albeit the patient is right-handed. This unexpected finding shows that NfPPA may arise not only from cortical abnormalities in the language-dominant left hemisphere, but also from right hemisphere involvement in a right hander (crossed aphasia).     

Psychogenic and organic amnesia: a multidimensional assessment of clinical, neuroradiological, neuropsychological and psychopathological features

Psychogenic amnesia is a complex disorder characterised by a wide variety of symptoms. Consequently, in a number of cases it is difficult distinguish it from organic memory impairment. The present study reports a new case of global psychogenic amnesia compared with two patients with amnesia underlain by organic brain damage. Our aim was to identify features useful for distinguishing between psychogenic and organic forms of memory impairment. The findings show the usefulness of a multidimensional evaluation of clinical, neuroradiological, neuropsychological and psychopathological aspects, to provide convergent findings useful for differentiating the two forms of memory disorder.     

Referral to group psychotherapy: a retrospective study on patients' personality features associated with clinicians' judgments

This study was designed to explore selected personality features of patients that are associated with clinicians' judgments about whom to refer to dynamic group psychotherapy versus individual therapy. Results suggested that an aspect of patients' adult attachment style, namely level of confidence and level of hostility, may have influenced the clinicians' judgments and decision making about treatment referrals.     

Acculturative stress, social support, and coping: relations to psychological adjustment among Mexican American college students

This study examined the relations between acculturative stress and psychological functioning, as well as the protective role of social support and coping style, in a sample of 148 Mexican American college students (67% female, 33% male; mean age = 23.05 years, SD = 3.33). In bivariate analyses, acculturative stress was associated with higher levels of anxiety and depressive symptoms. Moreover, active coping was associated with better adjustment (lower depression), whereas avoidant coping predicted poorer adjustment (higher levels of depression and anxiety). Tests of interaction effects indicated that parental support and active coping buffered the effects of high acculturative stress on anxiety symptoms and depressive symptoms. In addition, peer support moderated the relation between acculturative stress and anxiety symptoms. Implications for reducing the effects of acculturative stress among Mexican American college students are discussed.     

Temporal order judgment reveals how number magnitude affects visuospatial attention

The existence of spatial components in the mental representation of number magnitude has raised the question regarding the relation between numbers and spatial attention. We present six experiments in which this relation was examined using a temporal order judgment task to index attentional allocation. Results demonstrate that one important consequence of numerical processing is the automatic allocation of spatial attention, which in turn affects the perception of the temporal order of visual events. Given equal onset time, left-side stimuli are perceived to occur before right-side stimuli when a small number (1, 2) is processed, whereas right-side stimuli are perceived to occur before left-side stimuli when a larger number (8, 9) is processed. In addition, we show that this attentional effect is specific to quantity processing and does not generalize to non-numerical ordinal sequences.     

Parenting styles or practices? Parenting, sympathy, and prosocial behaviors among adolescents

In the present study, the authors examined the relations among parenting styles, parental practices, sympathy, and prosocial behaviors in adolescents. The participants were 233 adolescents (M age = 16.7 years; 69% girls; mostly White) from public high schools in the Midwestern region of the United States who completed measures of prosocial behaviors, parenting styles, parenting practices, and sympathy. Overall, the authors found evidence that parenting practices were significantly associated with adolescents' prosocial behaviors. However, the associations between parenting practices and prosocial behaviors occurred mostly through the indirect relations with sympathy. The relations among parenting practices, sympathy, and prosocial behaviors varied as a function of the specific parenting practice and the specific prosocial behavior. Implications for future research on the study of prosocial development and parenting among adolescents are discussed.     

Right-left prevalence effect with horizontal and vertical effectors

We investigated the right-left prevalence effect in spatial compatibility tasks by assessing subjects' performance on a two-dimensional task in which both the horizontal and vertical spatial dimensions were task relevant. Two experiments were performed, in which stimulus-response mappings were one-dimensional (Experiment 1) and two-dimensional (Experiment 2). The subjects responded by using either horizontal or vertical effectors to stimuli appearing in four possible locations. With the one-dimensional mapping, the spatial compatibility effect was present only in the dimension relevant to the mapping. With the two-dimensional mapping, the horizontal compatibility effect was always present, whereas the vertical compatibility effect was present only when vertical effectors were used. This pattern of results indicates that horizontal coding takes place with either horizontal or vertical effectors, whereas vertical coding takes place only when vertical effectors are used.