How the brain understands intention: different neural circuits identify the componential features of motor and prior intentions

In this paper we present theoretical and experimental evidence for a set of mechanisms by which intention is understood. We propose that three basic aspects are involved in the understanding of intention. The first aspect to consider is intention recognition, i.e., the process by which we recognize other people's intentions, distinguishing among different types. The second aspect concerns the attribution of intention to its author: the existence of shared neural representations provides a parsimonious explanation of how we recognize other people's intentions (what they are doing), but in and of itself, is not sufficient to determine who the agent is. Once the intention has been recognized and attributed to an agent, the reasons for, and the aim of, the intention are to be considered. Hence, the third aspect concerns the aim-intention motivating the execution of a certain action. We discuss the neural basis of these three theoretical aspects suggesting a conceptual synthesis.     

Schizotypy and verbal memory in the adolescent general population

The following study examines the relationship between verbal memory deficits and schizotypal traits measured psychometrically from a non- clinical adolescent population. In this transversal analytical study participated 139 subjects. They were secondary school students, with ages ranging from 13 to 16 years old (mean= 14, 35; Sta.Dev.= 0, 548). After administrating the scales O-LIFE (psychometrical schizotypy), CVLT (verbal memory), and Letters and Numbers subtest of WAIS-III (working memory), data was analyzed utilizing Pearson correlations and mean comparison test. Results showed lack of relations between schizotypy measures and working memory. Nonetheless, some of the O-LIFE dimensions correlated with verbal memory. These findings support partly the literature reviewed. Yet, more work focused on schizotypy and cognitive deficits as risk factors are suggested.     

The effects of metabolic stress and vagotomy on emotional learning in an animal model of anxiety

The aim of the present study is to evaluate the role of the blood glucose (BG) level in emotional learning in the elevated plus maze (EPM), an animal model of anxiety. In Experiment 1, male Wistar rats were submitted to different EPM trial lengths (1- or 5-min). Blood samples were withdrawn before and after the maze exploration, through a polyethylene cannula chronically implanted into the jugular vein. In Experiment 2, the animals received either saline or 2-deoxy-D-glucose, a glucoprivic drug (2-DG, 250 or 500 mg kg(-1)) by i.p. route, 30 min before a 5-min EPM exposure and were retested in the maze (Trial1/Trial2 EPM procedure) 24 h later. In an independent group of rats, blood samples were withdrawn 0, 5, 15, and 30 min after 2-DG administration, through the jugular vein, to determine BG. In Experiment 3, the animals underwent a vagotomy and were tested in a Trial1/Trial2 EPM procedure four weeks later. The results showed that rats exploring the EPM for 5 min displayed increased fear and higher hyperglycemia than those exploring the EPM for 1 min. In addition, rats submitted to 5-min EPM Trial1 length displayed higher level of fear on Trial2, as well as higher percentage of shortening of the %Open arm entries and %Open arm time from Trial1 to Trial2, which characterizes the occurrence of emotional learning. In contrast, rats previously vagotomized or treated with 2-DG (500 mg kg(-1)) showed the same level of fear on both EPM trials and a low percentage of shortening, from Trial1 to Trial2, of the %Open arm entries and %Open arm time, indicating poor emotional learning. The data is discussed regarding the role of glycaemia in emotional learning in the EPM.     

Hypnotic suggestion modulates cognitive conflict: the case of the flanker compatibility effect

The present work was aimed at investigating whether the flanker compatibility effect can be eliminated by means of a posthypnotic suggestion influencing attentional focusing. In Experiment 1, participants who scored high and low on hypnotic susceptibility performed the flanker compatibility task when naturally awake and when under a posthypnotic suggestion aimed at increasing the target's discriminability from the flankers. Results showed that the posthypnotic suggestion effectively eliminated the flanker compatibility effect in highly susceptible participants, whereas low-susceptibility participants did not show any reduction in the effect. In Experiment 2, highly susceptible participants performed the task after receiving a suggestion but without the induction of hypnosis. Results showed that the suggestion alone was not sufficient to reduce the flanker compatibility effect. These results support the view that in highly susceptible participants, hypnotic suggestion can influence the ability to focus on relevant information.     

Attachment and motivational strategies in adolescence: exploring links

Within the framework of attachment theory and of motivation goal theory, this study explored the relation between quality of attachment strategies and quality of motivational strategies in a sample of young adolescents. Specifically, this study examined patterns of thoughts, behaviors, and emotions as they related to representations of attachment and motivational functioning in situations that challenge or threaten three psychological needs (emotional security, competence, and autonomy). Forty-four students, aged 11 to 14 years, responded to imagined stressful situations in order to: (a) assess attachment strategies; (b) identify and assess students' motivational strategies in stressful classroom circumstances; (c) assess motivational strategies of students with high and low control and agency beliefs; and (d) examine the relations between attachment and motivational strategies. Four distinct action patterns were identified: flexible action, rigid action, passive behavior, and disorganized behavior. Significant relations were found between control beliefs and motivational strategies, as well as a trend toward relations between attachment and motivational strategies, suggesting that secure adolescents show more constructive motivational strategies and less disorganized strategies when compared to insecure adolescents.     

Cognition at risk: Gestalt/feature-intensive processing,attention deficit,and substance abuse

Attention deficit hyperactive disorder (ADHD) is associated with elevated levels of substance abuse, but the cognitive linkages involved have been little explored. The present study builds upon earlier work showing that more gestalt, as opposed to feature-intensive, styles of processing are conductive to substance abuse, especially in those with ADHD symptoms. The work reported here indicates that a protective factor against substance abuse may lie in relatively efficient heuristic processing, especially synthetic or inferential heuristic processing, but further demonstrates that those with ADHD symptoms tend to have poorer abilities in this regard, even at the subclinical, nondiagnosed level. Results are discussed in terms of the gestalt/featureintensive processing theory of cognition.     

Situated robotics: from learning to teaching by imitation

This paper presents an approach to imitation learning in robotics focusing on low level behaviours, so that they do not need to be encoded into sets and rules, but learnt in an intuitive way. Its main novelty is that, rather than trying to analyse natural human actions and adapting them to robot kinematics, humans adapt themselves to the robot via a proper interface to make it perform the desired action. As an example, we present a successful experiment to learn a purely reactive navigation behaviour using robotic platforms. Using Case Based Reasoning, the platform learns from a human driver how to behave in the presence of obstacles, so that no kinematics studies or explicit rules are required.     

Predicting infant attachment classification from multiple, contemporaneous measures of maternal care

This investigation was designed to test whether stylistic differences in maternal caregiving were associated with both secure and insecure mother-infant attachment classifications in a low-income sample. Multiple measures of maternal interactive behavior and care were collected from a sample of 95 urban, low-income mothers and their 12-month-old infants. Contemporaneous relations to attachment were found only at the broad level of composite scores of caregiving. Scores derived from different measures were aggregated to create composites reflecting three caregiver styles—sensitive, controlling, and unresponsive. Mothers of infants with secure attachment classifications showed greater sensitivity and less controlling behavior than mothers of infants with resistant and avoidant attachments, respectively. Mothers of infants with resistant attachments appeared less responsive to their infants' signals than those of infants with avoidant attachments. Group differences were significant, but modest. These results contribute to the growing body of studies relating parental care with infant attachment patterns and indirectly support the more recent conceptual work on intergenerational transmission of attachment. They also raise methodological issues that need to be considered in future work on caregiving and infant-mother attachment.