Study effort versus distinctiveness in the recollection of veridical and illusory memories

In past research, stimulus distinctiveness and study effort have been claimed to promote the development of distinctive memories, which in turn have been considered critical for enhancing veridical recollection and reducing illusory memory experiences. In the present investigation, stimulus distinctiveness, obtained by displaying text-redundant pictorial information at study, was pitted against study effort to determine whether either factor would be more beneficial to veridical recall and more detrimental to illusory recall than the other. Subjects first completed word fragments with or without the aid of an image of each word’s referent and then performed a recall test. It was found that when images were useful to the encoding task (fragment completion), their presence at study enhanced veridical recall and reduced illusory memories more than any additional encoding effort.     

Na+,K(+)-ATPase activity is reduced in hippocampus of rats submitted to an experimental model of depression: effect of chronic lithium treatment and possible involvement in learning deficits

This study was undertaken to verify the effects of chronic stress and lithium treatments on the hippocampal Na+,K(+)-ATPase activity of rats, as well as to investigate the effects of stress interruption and post-stress lithium treatment on this enzyme activity and on spatial memory. Two experiments were carried out; in the first experiment, adult male Wistar rats were divided into two groups: control and submitted to a chronic variate stress paradigm, and subdivided into treated or not with LiCl. After 40 days of treatment, rats were killed, and Na+,K(+)-ATPase activity was determined. In the second experiment, rats were stressed during 40 days, and their performance was evaluated in the Water Maze task. The stressed group was then subdivided into four groups, with continued or interrupted stress treatment and treated or not with lithium for 30 additional days. After a second evaluation of performance in the Water Maze, rats were killed and Na+,K(+)-ATPase activity was also measured. Results showed an impairment in Na+,K(+)-ATPase activity and in Water Maze performance of chronically stressed rats, which were prevented by lithium treatment and reversed by lithium treatment and by stress interruption. These results suggest that the modulation of Na+,K(+)-ATPase activity may be one of the mechanisms of action of lithium in the treatment of mood disorders.     

Action observation network in childhood: a comparative fMRI study with adults

Very little is known about the action observation network and the mirror neuron system (AON/MNS) in children and its age‐related properties compared with those observed in adults. In the present fMRI study we explored the activation of areas belonging to the AON/MNS in children and adults during observation of complex hand‐grasping actions, as compared to observation of simple grasping acts executed with the left and the right hand, seen from a first person perspective. The results indicate that during the action observation tasks in children there was activation of a cortical network similar to that found in adults, including the premotor cortex, the posterior part of the inferior frontal gyrus and the posterior parietal lobe. However, the activation in children was more widespread and showed a higher inter‐subject variability compared with adults. Furthermore, the activated network seems more lateralized to the left hemisphere in adults and more bilateral in children, with a linear growth of lateralization index as a function of age. Finally, in children the activation in the anterior intraparietal cortex (AIP) of each hemisphere was higher during observation of the contralateral hand (hand identity effect) and during the observation of complex actions relative to simple grasping acts, confirming the role of AIP for action‐related hand identity previously described in adults. These results support the assumption that structure and size of action representations are sensitive to mechanisms of development and show physiological plasticity. These properties of the AON/MNS could constitute a powerful tool for spontaneous reorganization and recovery of motor deficits after brain injury in children and in adults, as well as for specific rehabilitation programmes.     

Aesthetic phenomena as supernormal stimuli: the case of eye, lip, and lower-face size and roundness in artistic portraits

In the first study, eye and lip size and roundness, and lower-face roundness were compared between a control sample of 289 photographic portraits and an experimental sample of 776 artistic portraits covering the whole period of the history of art. Results showed that eye roundness, lip roundness, eye height, eye width, and lip height were significantly enhanced in artistic portraits compared to photographic ones. Lip width and lower-face roundness, on the contrary, were less prominent in artistic than in photographic portraits. In a second study, forty-two art academy students were requested to draw two self-portraits, one with a mirror and one without (from memory). Eye, lip, and lower-face roundness in artistic self-portraits was compared to the same features derived from photographic portraits of the participants. The results obtained confirmed those found in the first study. Eye and lip size and roundness were greater in artistic self-portraits, while lower-face roundness was significantly reduced. The same degree of modification was found also when a mirror was available to the subjects. In a third study the effect of lower-face roundness on the perception of attractiveness was assessed: fifty-three participants had to adjust the face width of 24 photographic portraits in order to achieve the highest level of attractiveness. Participants contracted the face width by a mean value of 5.26%, showing a preference for a reduced lower-face roundness. All results are discussed in terms of the importance of the 'supernormalisation' process as a means of assigning aesthetic value to perceptual stimuli.     

Dominance interactions in young adult paper wasp (Polistes dominulus) foundresses: a playlike behavior?

The idea that insects play has often aroused skepticism. Nevertheless, the authors investigated the occurrence of a playlike behavior in young individuals of a paper wasp. Polistes dominulus foundresses hibernate in aggregations and found associative nests in the spring. In aggregations, wasps exhibit most of the rank-dependent behaviors that they will use in the nest 6 months later. In aggregations, precocious dominance interactions are performed with exaggerated frequencies, whereas aggression and trophallaxis are rare. Dominance behavior in aggregations is apparently useless, but it probably allows wasps to assess their dominance potential without any apparent reproductive competition. Surprisingly, these interactions may be best interpreted as play because dominance behavior in aggregations shares several features with mammalian play fighting.     

The impact of the new wine common market organization (CMO) on behavioural loyalty towards product attributes: A case from Italy

This paper explores the changes in consumers' loyalty towards wine after the launch of the new common market organization (CMO) (European Council Regulation (EC) No. 479/2008) in 2008. The analysis of wine purchases in the AC Nielsen Consumer Panel in 2009 and 2010 was compared to analogous work conducted in 2003–2005 and 2006–2008. Loyalty towards wine attributes— price, quality designation and packaging format—was measured using standard brand performance measures together with a newer metric, the polarization index, which has not been used before to highlight or explain the factors behind shifts in loyalty. The analysis revealed that post‐CMO reform increases in consumer loyalty towards the following: (i) standard 0.75‐L wine bottles; (ii) quality‐classified, protected designation of origin wines; and (iii) higher‐price‐point wines. The paper elaborates these findings, explaining how changes in consumers' loyalty patterns can be used to quantify the success of recent policy changes, which can be tracked in a reasonably short time frame thanks to the polarization index. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Parkinson’s disease disrupts both automatic and controlled processing of action verbs

The problem of how word meaning is processed in the brain has been a topic of intense investigation in cognitive neuroscience. While considerable correlational evidence exists for the involvement of sensory-motor systems in conceptual processing, it is still unclear whether they play a causal role. We investigated this issue by comparing the performance of patients with Parkinson’s disease (PD) with that of age-matched controls when processing action and abstract verbs. To examine the effects of task demands, we used tasks in which semantic demands were either implicit (lexical decision and priming) or explicit (semantic similarity judgment). In both tasks, PD patients’ performance was selectively impaired for action verbs (relative to controls), indicating that the motor system plays a more central role in the processing of action verbs than in the processing of abstract verbs. These results argue for a causal role of sensory-motor systems in semantic processing.