A case of literal alexia: evidence for a disconnection syndrome

We describe a patient with literal alexia, agraphia, and only minimal aphasia, resulting from a left occipito-parietal ischemic infarction. Neither impaired visual processing nor impaired oral output could explain the patient's letter reading deficit, since he retained the ability to match letters of mixed case, and remained able to spell aloud and to pronounce and comprehend orally spelled words. His residual word reading was characterized by better performance for nouns and highly imageable words than for functors , poorly imageable words, and nonwords. We propose that this patient's letter reading deficit was due to a partial disconnection of his visual from his linguistic systems, with residual word reading accomplished by a semantically mediated compensatory mechanism. We suggest, further, that the dissociations between word and letter reading observed in some alexic individuals may be attributed, in part, to a difference in the relative contributions of dorsal and ventral occipital structures to the reading process.     

Recognition and discrimination of emotional faces and pictures

In order to learn whether patients with right-hemisphere disease (RHD) had a deficit in their ability to discriminate and comprehend emotional faces and pictures, we studied nine patients with RHD, nine patients with left-hemisphere disease (LHD), and nine controls. The subjects were presented with six picture tests that comprised either emotional faces or emotional scenes. Their task was either to denote (name or choose) an emotion or to discriminate (same, different) between two faces or emotions. Patients with RHD performed significantly worse than subjects with LHD when asked to discriminate between faces, to discriminate between emotional faces, and to name emotional scenes. There was also a trend for the RHD group to be more impaired than the LHD group when asked to name the emotional face or choose the emotional face. Except for the facial and emotional discrimination tests, the LHD patients also performed worse than controls.     

Phoneme-based rehabilitation of anomia in aphasia

This study investigated the effects of phonologic treatment for anomia in aphasia. We proposed that if treatment were directed at the level of the phonologic processor, opportunities for naming via a phonological route, as opposed to a strictly whole word route, would be enhanced, thereby improving naming. The participants, ten people with anomia and aphasia due to left hemisphere stroke, received 96 h of phoneme based treatment in 12 weeks. To learn if treatment improved naming, a single-subject, repeated probe design with replication was employed. The primary outcome measure was confrontation naming. Secondary outcome measures included phonologic production, nonword repetition and discourse production. Results suggest a positive treatment effect (confrontation naming), improvements in phonologic production and nonword repetition, and generalization to discourse production. When tested 3 months after the completion of treatment the effects appeared to be maintained.     

Hemispheric connectivity and the visual–spatial divergent-thinking component of creativity

Background/hypothesis

Divergent thinking is an important measurable component of creativity. This study tested the postulate that divergent thinking depends on large distributed inter- and intra-hemispheric networks. Although preliminary evidence supports increased brain connectivity during divergent thinking, the neural correlates of this characteristic have not been entirely specified. It was predicted that visuospatial divergent thinking would correlate with right hemisphere white matter volume (WMV) and with the size of the corpus callosum (CC).

Methods

Volumetric magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) analyses and the Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking (TTCT) were completed among 21 normal right-handed adult males.

Results

TTCT scores correlated negatively with the size of the CC and were not correlated with right or, incidentally, left WMV.

Conclusions

Although these results were not predicted, perhaps, as suggested by Bogen and Bogen (1988), decreased callosal connectivity enhances hemispheric specialization, which benefits the incubation of ideas that are critical for the divergent-thinking component of creativity, and it is the momentary inhibition of this hemispheric independence that accounts for the illumination that is part of the innovative stage of creativity. Alternatively, decreased CC size may reflect more selective developmental pruning, thereby facilitating efficient functional connectivity.     

Wimpy and undeserving of respect: Penalties for men’s gender-inconsistent success

Results of an experimental study varying the sex of the employee and the gender-type of the job demonstrated that men, as well as women, are penalized when they are successful in areas that imply that they have violated gender norms. But the nature of these penalties differed. When depicted as being successful at a female gender-typed job, men were characterized as more ineffectual and afforded less respect than women successful at the same job or than men successful in a gender-consistent position. Women, in contrast, were more interpersonally derogated and disliked when said to be successful at a male gender-typed job. Regardless of these differing characterizations, both men and women successful in gender-inconsistent jobs were reported to be less preferable as bosses than their more normatively consistent counterparts. These results suggest that success, when it violates gender norms, can be disadvantageous for both men and women, but in different ways.     

What’s in a Name? The Dilemma of Title and Geography for Contemporary Hasidism

This paper examines the importance of “branding” in hasidic life. It considers the impact of place names associated with the title of a particular rebbe or tsadik and his followers. When there is more than one claimant to succeed to the role of rebbe for a particular group of hasidim, the competition is often intensified because even though each claimant may have his own followers, there is only one name available for the group and its leader. This situation, different from the one that existed earlier in the history of Hasidism, makes the circumstances of succession today more fraught than they once were.     

The Potential Role for Group Psychotherapy in the Treatment of Internalized Homophobia in Gay Men

In order to develop a healthy sense of self, gay males must developmentally move beyond feelings of self-hatred concerning their homosexuality and conquer feelings of internalized homophobia. The struggle with internalized homophobia occurs throughout the lifespan and is detrimental to the physical and mental health of gay men. In order to spur the creation of interventions, a literature review was conducted to show how group psychotherapy could be of service in ameliorating the root causes of shame central to internalized homophobia. While the literature focused on the importance to gay men of feeling a sense of belonging within the gay community—a concept similar to group cohesion—as central to creating affective interventions, group psychotherapy has yet to be sufficiently explored quantitatively in the treatment of internalized homophobia.     

Effect of regulating anger and sadness on decision-making

The aim of the current study was to investigate the effects of reappraisal, acceptance, and rumination for regulating anger and sadness on decision-making. Participants (N = 165) were asked to recall two autobiographical events in which they felt intense anger and sadness, respectively. Participants were then instructed to reappraise, accept, ruminate, or not use any strategies to regulate their feelings of anger and sadness. Following this manipulation, risk aversion, and decision-making strategies were measured using a computer-based measure of risk-taking and a simulated real-life decision-making task. Participants who were instructed to reappraise their emotions showed the least anger and sadness, the most adaptive decision-making strategies, but the least risk aversion as compared to the participants in the other conditions. These findings suggest that emotion regulation strategies of negative affective states have an immediate effect on decision-making and risk-taking behaviors.     

Exposure to successful women: Antidote to sex discrimination in applicant screening decisions?

This research is designed to examine the proposition that exposure to the successes of women in traditionally male occupations will mitigate against subsequent sex bias in selection decisions. Prior to making initial screening decisions about a male or female applicant for a traditionally male job, i.e., finance manager trainee, 147 college students read an editorial documenting the successful performance of an individual woman or a group of women employed in a nontraditional job that either was or was not related to the job about which the personnel recommendations were to be made. A neutral information group read an editorial unrelated to women or work. As predicted, the discrepant ratings of male and female applicants in the neutral baseline condition were significantly reduced only when the information presented concerned a group of women and there also was a direct connection between the occupation in which they were successful and the occupation for which the screening decision was being made. Additional analyses supported the idea that this effect was due to the lessening of the stereotypie attributes used to characterize the female applicants. These results suggest that although exposure to successful women in heretofore male dominated occupations can reduce sex bias in personnel selection decisions, the conditions under which this is likely to occur are very limited. The implications of these results, both theoretical and practical, are discussed.     

Processing of faces by patients with unilateral hemisphere lesions. I. Dissociation between judgments of facial affect and facial identity

In this study, right-hemisphere-damaged (RHD) subjects performed significantly worse than LHD and NHD controls across a series of seven facial identity and facial affect tasks. Even when the patient groups were statistically equated on a measure of visuoperceptual ability, the RHD group remained impaired on three emotional tasks--naming, picking, and discriminating emotional faces. These findings suggest that the defects shown by RHD patients on facial affect tasks cannot be solely attributed to defects in visuoperceptual processing and that the right-hemisphere superiority for processing facial affect exists above and beyond its superiority for processing facial identity.