Eye movements and the identification of spatially ambiguous words during Chinese sentence reading

Readers of Chinese must generally determine word units in the absence of visually distinct inter-word spaces. In the present study, we examined how a sequence of Chinese characters is parsed into words under these conditions. Eye movements were monitored while participants read sentences with a critical four-character (C1234) sequence. Three partially overlapping character groupings formed legal words in the ambiguous condition (C12, C23, and C34), two of which corresponded to context-consistent words (C12 and C34). Two nonoverlapping groupings corresponded to legal words in the control conditions (C12 and C34). In two experiments, readers spent more time viewing the critical character sequence and its two center characters (C23) in the ambiguous condition. These results argue against the strictly serial assignment of characters to words during the reading of Chinese text.     

Cognitive modeling analysis of decision-making processes in cocaine abusers

This article examines the theoretical basis of decision-making deficits exhibited by cocaine abusers in a laboratory decision-making task first described by Bechara, Damasio, Damasio, and Anderson (1994). A total of 12 male cocaine abusers and 14 comparison subjects performed the task, and the cocaine group performed significantly worse than the comparison group. A cognitive modeling analysis (Busemeyer & Stout, 2002) was used to estimate three parameters that measure importance of the cognitive, motivational, and response processes for determining the observed performance deficit. The results of this analysis indicated, for the first time, that motivational and choice consistency factors, but not learning/ memory were mainly responsible for the decision-making deficit of the cocaine abusers in this task.     

短时作业中警戒绩效影响因素的实验研究:兼用信号检测论分析

本文研究了短时（１小时内）作业中警戒绩效的一些影响因素。实验采用ＥＰ７１０警戒仪,研究了短时作业中时间、信号密度（信噪比）以及信号显著性（占空比）对警戒绩效的影响。使用的方法为信号检测论。因变量指标为辨别力指数ｄ’和判断标准Ｂ。结果发现,作业时间和占空比对警戒绩效没有影响,信噪比对辨别力指数ｄ’有影响但对判断标准Ｂ没有影响。结果提示,在短时作业中,信噪比对警戒绩效起显著作用．     

Ⅰ期颈椎前后路手术治疗后纵韧带骨化症

为了探讨颈椎前后路手术治疗后纵韧带骨化症的疗效,对65例后纵韧带骨化症患者,Ⅰ期行颈椎前后路手术,采用JOA评分和X线,CT对手术效果进行评价。结果显示,按JOA标准评定,优良率为94％。术后X线及CT均示椎管有效矢状径增加,硬膜囊压迫解除。因此,颈椎前后路手术可以达到减压、稳定的目的,手术效果良好。     

Cocaine-but not methamphetamine-associated memory requires de novo protein synthesis

Context-induced drug craving and continuous drug use manifest the critical roles of specific memory episodes associated with the drug use experiences. Drug-induced conditioned place preference (CPP) in C57BL/6J mouse model, in this regard, is an appropriate behavioral paradigm to study such drug use-associated memories. Requirement of protein synthesis in various forms of long-term memory formation and storage has been phylogenetically demonstrated. This study was undertaken to study the requirement of protein synthesis in the learning and memory aspect of the conditioned place preference induced by cocaine and methamphetamine, two abused drugs of choice in local area. Since pCREB has been documented as a candidate substrate for mediating the drug-induced neuroadaptation, the pCREB level in hippocampus, nucleus accumbens, and prefrontal cortex was examined for its potential participation in the formation of CPP caused by these psychostimulants. We found that cocaine (2.5 and 5.0 mg/kg/dose)-induced CPP was abolished by the pretreatment of anisomycin (50 mg/kg/dose), a protein synthesis inhibitor, whereas methamphetamine (0.5 or 1.0 mg/kg/dose)-induced CPP was not affected by the anisomycin pretreatment. Likewise, cocaine-induced CPP was mitigated by another protein synthesis inhibitor, cycloheximide (15 mg/kg/injection) pretreatment, whereas methamphetamine-induced CPP remained intact by such pretreatment. Moreover, anisomycin treatment 2h after each drug-place pairing disrupted the cocaine-induced CPP, whereas the same treatment did not affect methamphetamine-induced CPP. An increase of accumbal pCREB level was found to associate with the learning phase of cocaine, but not with the learning phase of methamphetamine. We further found that intraaccumbal CREB antisense oligodeoxynucleotide infusion diminished cocaine-induced CPP, whereas did not affect the methamphetamine-induced CPP. Taken together, these data suggest that protein synthesis and accumbal CREB phosphorylation are essential for the learning and consolidation of the cocaine-induced CPP, whereas methamphetamine-induced CPP may be unrelated to the synthesis of new proteins.