The cognitive and neural correlates of "tactile consciousness": a multisensory perspective

People's awareness of tactile stimuli has been investigated in far less detail than their awareness of stimuli in other sensory modalities. In an attempt to fill this gap, we provide an overview of studies that are pertinent to the topic of tactile consciousness. We discuss the results of research that has investigated phenomena such as "change blindness", phantom limb sensations, and numerosity judgments in tactile perception, together with the results obtained from the study of patients affected by deficits that can adversely affect tactile perception such as neglect, extinction, and numbsense. The similarities as well as some of the important differences that have emerged when visual and tactile conscious information processing have been compared using similar experimental procedures are highlighted. We suggest that conscious information processing in the tactile modality cannot be separated completely from the more general processing of spatial information in the brain. Finally, the importance of considering tactile consciousness within the larger framework of multisensory information processing is also discussed.     

Addressing moral problems through practical reasoning

In this paper, following the work of Hare, we consider moral reasoning not as the application of moral norms and principles, but as reasoning about what ought to be done in a particular situation, with moral norms perhaps emerging from this reasoning. We model this situated reasoning drawing on our previous work on argumentation schemes, here set in the context of Action-Based Alternating Transition Systems. We distinguish what prudentially ought to be done from what morally ought to be done, consider what legislation might be appropriate and characterise the differences between morally correct, morally praiseworthy and morally excusable actions. We also describe an implementation which simulates this reasoning and discuss some issues arising from the simulation.     

Impulsiveness and resource allocation: Testing Humphreys and Revelle’s (1984) explanation of impulsive personality

Humphreys and Revelle [Humphreys, M. S., Revelle, W. (1984). Personality, motivation and performance: A theory of the relationship between individual differences and information processing. Psychological Review, 91, 153–184] suggest that impulsive individuals have relatively greater capacity to improve performance through task-directed resource allocation. This implies that there will be a differential effect of increases in effort intensity on performance for high and low impulsive individuals. Two quasi-experiments tested this prediction using a relative-judgement task (total N = 108, 68 females), however neither revealed the predicted interaction. In light of these findings, we re-consider the Humphreys–Revelle model in relation to independent but potentially related theory and research.     

Perceptions of Type 1 Diabetes among Affected Youth and their Peers

Management of type 1 diabetes (T1D) involves balancing several components including diet, exercise, and medication. Peer involvement in management tasks is an important, but understudied, issue in T1D. This study presents results of a preliminary examination of perceptions of disease management in youth with T1D and their peers. Data were collected using a mixed methods (qualitative and quantitative data) approach during medical education time at a camp for youth with T1D and their peers. Results suggest that both youth with T1D and their peers believe that peers need more information about medical consequences of having diabetes. Further, youth with T1D and their peers would like coaching on how peers may help the child with T1D manage their illness better. Results provide preliminary ideas for intervention (i.e., including peers, assessing social support) in the medical setting as well as ideas for future research (i.e., examining relationships among perceptions and gender, time since diagnosis).     

Auditory context effects in picture naming investigated with event-related fMRI

Naming an object entails a number of processing stages, including retrieval of a target lexical concept and encoding of its phonological word form. We investigated these stages using the picture-word interference task in an fMRI experiment. Participants named target pictures in the presence of auditorily presented semantically related, phonologically related, or unrelated distractor words or in isolation. We observed BOLD signal changes in left-hemisphere regions associated with lexical-conceptual and phonological processing, including the midto-posterior lateral temporal cortex. However, these BOLD responses manifested as signal reductions for all distractor conditions relative to naming alone. Compared with unrelated words, phonologically related distractors showed further signal reductions, whereas only the pars orbitalis of the left inferior frontal cortex showed a selective reduction in response in the semantic condition. We interpret these findings as indicating that the word forms of lexical competitors are phonologically encoded and that competition during lexical selection is reduced by phonologically related distractors. Since the extended nature of auditory presentation requires a large portion of a word to be presented before its meaning is accessed, we attribute the BOLD signal reductions observed for semantically related and unrelated words to lateral inhibition mechanisms engaged after target name selection has occurred, as has been proposed in some production models.     

An investigation into the temporal dimension of the Mozart effect: evidence from the attentional blink task

In the present study, we examined whether the 'Mozart effect' would influence participants' temporal attention using a visual attentional blink (AB) task that provides a reliable measure of the temporal dynamics of visual attention. The 'Mozart effect' refers to the specific claim that listening to Mozart's Sonata for Two Pianos in D Major, K.448 can improve the performance in spatio-temporal tasks. Participants had to try and identify two target digits (in their correct order of presentation) presented amongst a stream of distractor letters in three different conditions (presented in separate blocks of trials): while listening to the Mozart sonata played normally, while listening to the same Mozart sonata played in reverse, and while in silence. The results showed that the participants were able to detect the second target (T2) significantly more accurately (given the correct detection of the first target, T1) in the AB stream when the Mozart sonata was played normally than in either of the other two conditions. Possible explanations for the differential effects of Mozart's music being played normally and in reverse and potential confounds in previous studies reporting a facilitatory 'Mozart effect' are discussed. Our results therefore provide the first empirical demonstration supporting the existence of a purely temporal component to the 'Mozart effect' using a non-spatial visual AB task.     

The effects of worry and rumination on affect states and cognitive activity

The effects of worry and rumination on affective states and mentation type were examined in an unselected undergraduate sample in Study 1 and in a sample of individuals with high trait worry and rumination, high rumination, and low worry/rumination in Study 2. Participants engaged in worry and rumination inductions, counterbalanced in order across participants to assess main and interactive effects of these types of negative thinking. During mentation periods, the thought vs. imaginal nature and the temporal orientation of mentations were assessed 5 times. Following mentation periods, negative and positive affect, relaxation, anxiety, and depression were assessed. Both worry and rumination produced increases in negative affect and decreases in positive affect. Worry tended to generate greater anxiety, and rumination tended to generate greater depression. Interactive effects were also found indicating that worry may lessen the anxiety experienced during subsequent rumination. Moreover, worry lessened the depressing effects of rumination. Worry was associated with significantly greater thought than imagery, compared to rumination. Rumination involved a progression from mentation about the past to mentation about the future over time. Implications for understanding the generation of negative affect and comorbid anxiety and depression are discussed.     

Do people's self-views matter? Self-concept and self-esteem in everyday life

Recent scholars have dismissed the utility of self-esteem as well as programs designed to improve it. The authors challenge these contentions on conceptual, methodological, and empirical grounds. They begin by proposing that the scope of recent analyses has been overly narrow and should be broadened to include specific as well as global self-views. Using this conceptualization, the authors place recent critiques in historical context, recalling that similarly skeptical commentaries on global attitudes and traits inspired theorizing and empirical research that subsequently restored faith in the value of both constructs. Specifically, they point to 3 strategies for attaining more optimistic assessments of the predictive validity of self-views: recognizing the utility of incorporating additional variables in predictive schemes, matching the specificity of predictors and criteria, and using theoretically informed standards for evaluating predictor- criterion relationships. The authors conclude that self-views do matter and that it is worthwhile and important to develop and implement theoretically informed programs to improve them.     

Visual Prior Entry

It has long been claimed that attended stimuli are perceived prior to unattended stimuli–the doctrine of prior entry. Most, if not all, studies on which such claims have been based, however, are open to a nonattentional interpretation involving response bias, leading some researchers to assert that prior entry may not exist. Given this controversy, we introduce a novel methodology to minimize the effect of response bias by manipulating attention and response demands in orthogonal dimensions. Attention was oriented to the left or right (i.e., spatially), but instead of reporting on the basis of location, observers reported the order (first or second) of vertical versus horizontal line segments. Although second-order response biases were demonstrated, effects of attention in accordance with the law of prior entry were clearly obtained following both exogenous and endogenous attentional cuing.     

Influence of Motor Cortex Stimulation During Motor Training on Neuroplasticity as a Potential Therapeutic Intervention

Rehabilitation options to promote neuroplasticity may be enhanced when patients are engaged in motor practice during repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS). Twelve participants completed 3 separate sessions: motor practice, motor practice with rTMS, and rTMS only: motor practice consisted of 30 isometric contractions and subthreshold rTMS was 30, 3-s trains at 10 Hz. Assessments included the Box and Block Test (BBT), force steadiness (10% of the maximum voluntary contraction), and TMS (cortical excitability, intracortical inhibition, and intracortical facilitation). Participants significantly increased BBT scores following the combined condition. Force steadiness improved after all 3 conditions (p < .05). TMS outcomes depended on intervention condition with significant increases in facilitation following the motor practice plus rTMS condition. All interventions influenced motor control, yet are likely modulated differently when combining motor practice plus rTMS. These results help guide the clinical utility of rTMS as an intervention to influence motor control.