Acquired dyslexia in three writing systems: study of a Portuguese-Japanese bilingual aphasic patient

The Japanese language is represented by two different codes: syllabic and logographic while Portuguese employs an alphabetic writing system. Studies on bilingual Portuguese-Japanese individuals with acquired dyslexia therefore allow an investigation of the interaction between reading strategies and characteristics of three different writing codes. The aim of this study was to examine the differential impact of an acquired brain lesion on the reading of the logographic, syllabic and alphabetic writing systems of a bilingual Portuguese-Japanese aphasic patient (PF). Results showed impaired reading in the logographic system and when reading irregularly spelled Portuguese words but no effects on reading regular words and nonwords in syllabic and alphabetic writing systems. These dissociations are interpreted according to a multi-route cognitive model of reading assuming selective damage in the lexical route can result in acquired dyslexia across at least three different writing codes.     

The NK3 receptor agonist senktide ameliorates scopolamine-induced deficits in memory for object, place and temporal order

Senktide, a potent neurokinin-3 receptor (NK₃-R) agonist, increases acetylcholine (ACh) release in the striatum, the prefrontal cortex (Schäble et al., 2011), the amygdala and hippocampus, presumably via postsynaptic mechanisms. A promnestic action of NK₃-R agonists has been described in a variety of learning/memory tasks. The memory-enhancing effects of NK₃-R agonists and their activating influence on ACh suggest a possible role of the NK₃-R in learning and memory via cholinergic modulation. Deterioration of the cholinergic system in the basal forebrain has been associated with learning and memory deficits and cholinergic agents have promnestic effects in a variety of learning paradigms. The anticholinergic drug, scopolamine, a muscarinic ACh receptor antagonist, incurs deficits in a variety of learning tasks and provides a useful tool to investigate the role of the cholinergic systems in mechanisms underlying learning and memory. The aim of this study was to ascertain the effect of the NK₃-R agonist, senktide, in the scopolamine-induced deficit model. We hypothesized that senktide treatment would attenuate scopolamine-induced (subcutaneous – s.c. 0.75 mg/kg) memory impairment in three novelty preference paradigms based on spontaneous object exploration: namely object recognition, object–place recognition and object recognition for temporal order. Administration of senktide reversed the scopolamine-induced memory deficits by re-establishing object recognition (s.c. 0.2 mg/kg), object–place recognition (0.2 and 0.4 mg/kg), as well as object recognition for temporal order (0.4 mg/kg) in adult Wistar rats. These results indicate memory enhancing effects of senktide in animals subjected to scopolamine-induced memory impairments and indicate that the promnestic action of NK₃-R agonists is mediated by muscarinic cholinergic mechanisms.     

Family functioning and socioaffective competencies of children in the beginning of schooling

The aim of this short-term longitudinal study, based on the system theory, was to test the association between different aspects of family functioning of preschoolers and their socioaffective competencies at the end of the first grade. The total sample included 278 children (137 boys and 141 girls) and their families. The analysis of variance results regarding the aspects of family cohesion and harmony showed that preschoolers from more cohesive families display more social skills, while those from more conflicting families display more externalizing behavior problems (aggression and irritability). With respect to the family's ability to resolve problems, it was observed that, especially for middle and upper class families, this aspect is associated with better social skills and fewer internalized behavior problems. Overall, results of the present study suggest that the family functioning at early stage might influence children's abilities to regulate their emotions and to establish/maintain important relationships with peers and teachers in their early school years.     

The role of children’s negative attributions on depressive symptoms: an inherited characteristic or a product of the early environment?

Negative attributional style has been associated with depressive symptoms in children. Yet, it is unclear whether these cognitive biases reflect inherited characteristics of the broader depressive phenotype or are a product of children's environments. While existing data in adolescents show that negative attributions reflect a genetic predisposition, elevating depressive responses to stress, other data suggest that negative attributions in children are more likely to reflect early environmental experiences on symptoms. Here, we assess the degree to which negative attributional style and depressive symptoms arise from common genetic, shared and non-shared environmental influences in childhood. Monozygotic and dizygotic twins reported on attributional style and depressive symptoms at age 8 (n = 300 pairs) and at age 10 (n = 250 pairs). Two multivariate models with varying assumptions on the nature of the relationship between negative attributions and depressive symptoms within and across time were fit to the data. The Common Pathway model provided better fit than the Cholesky decomposition. A common, latent factor influenced both attributional style and depressive symptoms at both time-points in children. The only significant influences on this factor were shared and non-shared aspects of the environment. Placing the present findings with those of adolescents suggests possible developmental differences in the relationship between attributional style and depressive symptoms.     

Cognition, daily living, and health-related quality of life in 85-year-olds in Sweden

This study investigates how cognition influences activities of daily living and health-related quality of life in 85-year-olds in Sweden (n = 373). Data collection included a postal questionnaire comprising demographics and health-related quality of life measured by the EQ-5D. The ability to perform personal activities of daily living (PADL) was assessed during a home visit that included administering the Mini Mental State Examination (MMSE). Cognitive impairment was shown in 108 individuals (29%). The majority were independent with respect to PADL. A larger number of participants with cognitive impairment reported that they needed assistance in instrumental activities of daily living (IADL) compared to the group without cognitive impairment. Impaired cognition was significantly related to problems with IADL. Significant but low correlations were found between cognition and health-related quality of life - higher ratings on perceived quality of life correlated with higher results on the MMSE.     

Emotion words shape emotion percepts

People believe they see emotion written on the faces of other people. In an instant, simple facial actions are transformed into information about another's emotional state. The present research examined whether a perceiver unknowingly contributes to emotion perception with emotion word knowledge. We present 2 studies that together support a role for emotion concepts in the formation of visual percepts of emotion. As predicted, we found that perceptual priming of emotional faces (e.g., a scowling face) was disrupted when the accessibility of a relevant emotion word (e.g., anger) was temporarily reduced, demonstrating that the exact same face was encoded differently when a word was accessible versus when it was not. The implications of these findings for a linguistically relative view of emotion perception are discussed.     

Using hippocampal-striatal loops for spatial navigation and goal-directed decision-making

The hippocampus plays a central role in spatial representation, declarative and episodic memory. In this area, so-called place cells possess high spatial selectivity, firing preferentially when the individual is within a small area of the environment. Interestingly, it has been found in rats that these cells can be active also when the animal is outside the location or context of their corresponding place field producing so-called "forward sweeps". These typically occur at decision points during task execution and seem to be utilized, among other things, for the evaluation of potential alternative paths. Anticipatory firing is also found in the ventral striatum, a brain area that is strongly interconnected with the hippocampus and is known to encode value and reward. In this paper, we describe a biologically based computational model of the hippocampal-ventral striatum circuit that implements a goal-directed mechanism of choice, with the hippocampus primarily involved in the mental simulation of possible navigation paths and the ventral striatum involved in the evaluation of the associated reward expectancies. The model is validated in a navigation task in which a rat is placed in a complex maze with multiple rewarding sites. We show that the rat mentally activates place cells to simulate paths, estimate their value, and make decisions, implementing two essential processes of model-based reinforcement learning algorithms of choice: look-ahead prediction and the evaluation of predicted states.     

Hyperbole, abstract motion and spatial knowledge: sequential versus simultaneous scanning

Hyperbole is an interesting trope in the perspective of Space Grammar, since it is related to the displacing of a limit (Lausberg in Elemente der literarischen Rhetorik. M.H. Verlag, Munchen 1967; see the Ancient Greek meaning 'to throw over' > 'exaggerate'). Hyperbole semantic mechanisms are related to virtual scanning (Holmqvist and P?uciennik in Imagery in language. Peter Lang, Frankfurt am Main, pp 777-785, 2004). Basic concepts of SIZE and QUANTITY, related image-schemas (IS) and conceptual metaphors (UP IS MORE; IMPORTANT IS BIG: Lakoff 1987, Johnson 1987) are implied in hyperbole processing. The virtual scanning is the simulation of a perceptual domain (here, the vertically oriented space). The virtual limit is defined by expected values on the relevant scale. Since hyperbole is a form of intensification, its linguistic interest lies in cases involving the extremes of a scale, for which a limit can be determined (Schemann 1994). In this experimental study, we analyze the concept of 'limit' in terms of 'abstract motion' and 'oriented space' domains (Langacker 1990) with respect to hyperboles expressed by Italian Verbs of movement. The IS considered are PATH and SOURCE-PATH-GOAL. The latter corresponds to a virtual scale whose limit is arrived at, or overcome, in hyperboles.     

Context-specific control and the Stroop negative priming effect

The present study highlights the utility of context-specific learning for different probe types in accounting for the commonly observed dependence of negative priming on probe selection. Using a Stroop priming procedure, Experiments 1a and 1b offered a demonstration that Stroop priming effects can differ qualitatively for selection and no-selection probes when probe selection is manipulated between subjects, but not when it is manipulated randomly from trial to trial within subject (see also Moore, 1994). In Experiments 2 and 3, selection and no-selection probes served as two contexts that varied randomly from trial to trial, but for which proportion repeated was manipulated separately. A context-specific proportion repeated effect was observed in Experiment 2, characterized by modest quantitative shifts in the repetition effects as a function of the context-specific proportion repeated manipulation. However, with a longer intertrial interval in Experiment 3, a context-specific proportion repeated manipulation that focused on the no-selection probes changed the repetition effect qualitatively, from negative priming when the proportion repeated was .25 to positive priming when the proportion repeated was .75. The results are discussed with reference to the role of rapid, context-specific learning processes in the integration of prior experiences with current perception and action.