Influence of feedback modality on sensorimotor adaptation: contribution of visual, kinesthetic, and verbal cues

In 4 studies, the authors tested the contributions of visual, kinesthetic, and verbal knowledge of results to the adaptive control of reaching movements toward visual targets. The same apparatus was used in all experiments, but the procedures differed in the sensory modality of the feedback that participants (N s = 5, 5, 6, and 6, respectively, in Experiments 1, 2, 3, and 4) received about their performances. Using biased visual, proprioceptive, or verbal feedback, the authors introduced a 5 degrees shift in the visuomanual relationship. Results showed no significant difference in the final amount of adaptation to the mismatch: On average, participants adapted to 79% of the perturbation. That finding is consistent with the view that adaptation is a multisensory, highly flexible process whose efficiency does not depend on the sensory channel conveying the error signal.     

Influence of ball type on home advantage in French professional soccer

The home advantage has been consistently found in soccer matches, but conclusive evidence of the origin of this home advantage has yet to be identified. One factor often thought to contribute is familiarity with a local facility. The present study examined home advantage in the French professional soccer male championships (20 teams in each Ligue 1 and 2) and explored the influence of soccer ball type on this phenomenon. Whether it is knowing how a soccer ball rolls on a particular grass surface or some other aspect, the home team can react to the situation better if they know from experience what is likely to happen. The results suggest that type of soccer ball may have an influence on home advantage. Confounding factors are discussed.     

Can medicalization be good? Situating medicalization within bioethics

Medicalization has been a process articulated primarily by social scientists, historians, and cultural critics. Comparatively little is written about the role of bioethics in appraising medicalization as a social process. The authors consider what medicalization means, its definition, functions, and criteria for assessment. A series of brief case sketches illustrate how bioethics can contribute to the analysis and public policy discussion of medicalization.     

Ethical and Social Aspects of Neurorobotics

Science and Engineering Ethics - The interdisciplinary field of neurorobotics looks to neuroscience to overcome the limitations of modern robotics technology, to robotics to advance our...     

Longitudinal links between childhood peer acceptance and the neural correlates of sharing

Childhood peer acceptance is associated with high levels of prosocial behavior and advanced perspective taking skills. Yet, the neurobiological mechanisms underlying these associations have not been studied. This functional magnetic resonance imaging study examined the neural correlates of sharing decisions in a group of adolescents who had a stable accepted status (n = 27) and a group who had a chronic rejected status (n = 19) across six elementary school grades. Both groups of adolescents played three allocation games in which they could share money with strangers with varying costs and profits to them and the other person. Stably accepted adolescents were more likely to share their money with unknown others than chronically rejected adolescents when sharing was not costly. Neuroimaging analyses showed that stably accepted adolescents, compared to chronically rejected adolescents, exhibited higher levels of activation in the temporo‐parietal junction, posterior superior temporal sulcus, temporal pole, pre‐supplementary motor area, and anterior insula during costly sharing decisions. These findings demonstrate that stable peer acceptance across childhood is associated with heightened activity in brain regions previously linked to perspective taking and the detection of social norm violations during adolescence, and thereby provide insight into processes underlying the widely established links between peer acceptance and prosocial behavior.     

The global workspace (GW) theory of consciousness and epilepsy

The global workspace (GW) theory proposes that conscious processing results from coherent neuronal activity between widely distributed brain regions, with fronto-parietal associative cortices as key elements. In this model, transition between conscious and non conscious states are predicted to be caused by abrupt non-linear massive changes of the level of coherence within this distributed neural space. Epileptic seizures offer a unique model to explore the validity of this central hypothesis. Seizures are often characterized by the occurrence of brutal alterations of consciousness (AOC) which are largely negatively impacting patients' lives. Recently, we have shown that these sudden AOC are contemporary to non-linear increases of neural synchrony within distant cortico-cortical and cortico-thalamic networks. We interpreted these results in the light of GW theory, and suggested that excessive synchrony could prevent this distributed network to reach the minimal level of differentiation and complexity necessary to the coding of conscious representations. These observations both confirm some predictions of the GW model, and further specify the physiological window of neural coherence (minimum and maximum) associated with conscious processing.     

Listen Out! Behavioural and Subjective Responses to Verbal Warnings

Both the behavioural and subjective impacts of single‐word spoken warnings were examined. Behaviourally, the effect of infrequently occurring warnings was studied through their disruptive impact on a visually presented serial recall task. In separate experiments, ratings of the same words were elicited. Experiment 1 showed a localized effect of the warnings (on the item immediately following the warning), with the urgently intoned warning having a greater disruptive effect than its valence (emotional content). Valence and intonation (urgency) did not interact. The performance changes were mirrored in the ratings of the words. Experiment 2 showed no systematic effect on performance of either the action‐relatedness of the word or its lexicality. There was, however, a systematic effect of lexicality but not action‐relatedness on ratings. The study demonstrates the feasibility of using objective performance methods to establish the likely effects of verbal warnings and the utility of using such methods for the design of alarm systems. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Exercise Improves Cognitive Control: Evidence from the Stop Signal Task

The aim of this study was to test the hypothesis that exercise improves executive control. We compared the performance of physically active and passive young participants in two versions of the stop signal task: a strategic (more executive) and a standard version. The results showed that active participants were more efficient than passive at inhibiting a response in the strategic version, suggesting that (1) physical exercise appears positively associated with improved cognitive control in healthy young participants, adding to evidence gathered in children, aging and clinical populations; and that (2) the strategic version of the stop signal task constitutes a more sensitive task than executive tasks previously used. Although the data point out a link between physical activity and executive control, they also have potential practical implications for health authorities and the general public by strengthening the view that exercise, beyond its physical health benefits, also has positive effects on cognitive functioning. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.