Perceptions of female body weight and shape among indigenous and urban Europeans

Two important cues to female physical attractiveness are body mass index (BMI) and body shape as measured by the waist-to-hip ratio (WHR). This study examined the relative contribution of both cues in three culturally distinct populations. A total of 119 Finnish, Sámi and British male observers rated a set of un-edited photographs of women with known BMI and WHR. The results showed that there were significant differences in preferences for physical attractiveness, with the indigenous Sámi preferring figures with larger BMIs and more tolerant of heavyweight figures than either Finnish participants in Helsinki or Britons in London, who were indistinguishable in their preferences for slim figures. The findings are discussed in terms of evolutionary psychological explanations of mate selection, and sociocultural theories which emphasizes the learning of preferences for body sizes in social and cultural contexts.     

Hemispheric differences in the time-course of semantic priming processes: evidence from event-related potentials (ERPs)

To investigate hemispheric differences in the timing of word priming, the modulation of event-related potentials by semantic word relationships was examined in each cerebral hemisphere. Primes and targets, either categorically (silk-wool) or associatively (needle-sewing) related, were presented to the left or right visual field in a go/no-go lexical decision task. The results revealed significant reaction-time and physiological differences in both visual fields only for associatively related word pairs, but an electrophysiological difference also tended to reach significance for categorically related words when presented in the left visual field. ERP waveforms showed a different time-course of associative priming effects according to the field of presentation. In the right visual field/left hemisphere, both N400 and Late Positive Component (LPC/P600) were modulated by semantic relatedness, while only a late effect was present in the left visual field/ right hemisphere.     

Sports participation outside school in total physical activity of children

This study of associations of sports participation with perceived and actual physical fitness, and total physical activity for 525 10- to 17-yr.-old boys and girls in groups of 10-11-yr. (56 boys and 64 girls), 12-13-yr. (68 boys and 68 girls), 14-15-yr. (70 boys and 71 girls), and 16-17-yr. (68 boys and 60 girls) was based on the Physical Activity Index derived from a questionnaire by Telama, Leskinen, and Young, and self-perceived endurance, strength, flexibility, and body composition. Questions about satisfaction with physical activity, participation in organized physical activity and competitions, or watching competitions were asked. Two EUROFIT tests were used, the 20-m endurance shuttle-run and sit-and-reach, plus the sum of 9 skinfold thicknesses. Children who participated in organized physical activity and in competitions had a higher Physical Activity Index. Passive watching of competitions was not related to children's physical activity or their perceived or measured motor abilities.     

Young infants' reasoning about hidden objects: evidence from violation-of-expectation tasks with test trials only

The present research examined alternative accounts of prior violation-of-expectation (VOE) reports that young infants can represent and reason about hidden objects. According to these accounts, young infants' apparent success in these VOE tasks reflects only novelty and familiarity preferences induced by the habituation or familiarization trials in the tasks. In two experiments, 4-month-old infants were tested in VOE tasks with test trials only. The infants still gave evidence that they could represent and reason about hidden objects: they were surprised, as indicated by greater attention, when a wide object became fully hidden behind a narrow occluder (Experiment 1) or inside a narrow container (Experiment 2). These and control results demonstrate that young infants can succeed at VOE tasks involving hidden objects even when given no habituation or familiarization trials. The present research thus provides additional support for the conclusion that young infants possess expectations about hidden objects. Methodological issues concerning the use of habituation or familiarization trials in VOE tasks are also discussed.     

Time intervals production in tapping and oscillatory motion

We applied spectral analysis on series of time intervals produced in a synchronization-continuation experiment. In the first condition intervals were produced by finger tapping, and in the second by an oscillatory motion of the hand. Results obtained in tapping were consistent with a discrete, event-based timing model. In the oscillatory condition, the spectra suggested a continuous, dynamic timing mechanism, based on the regulation of effector stiffness. It is concluded that the oscillatory character of movement can offer an important resource for timing control. The use of an event-based timing control such as postulated in the Wing-Kristoffersson model could be restricted to a quite limited class of rhythmic tasks, characterized by the concatenation of discrete events.     

Genes and memory: the neuroanatomical correlates of emotional memory in monozygotic twin discordant for schizophrenia

BACKGROUND: Brain morphology and physiological measures in schizophrenia have yielded inconsistent results. This may be due in part to difficulties in ascertaining precisely to what degree each measure deviates from its genetically and environmentally determined potential level. We attempted to surmount this problem in a paradigm involving monozygotic twin pair discordant for schizophrenia. In this paradigm, the difference score and reaction time between the unaffected member and affected member of a twin pair should represent the degree of pathologic involvement irrespective of actual level. METHOD: We investigated, using fMRI, the neural substrate underlying encoding and retrieval of aversive and neutral IAPS pictures. RESULTS: An ANOVA on reaction time (RT) between schizophrenia patient (J) and normal sister (D) significant difference, (F = 5.2, p < or = .02) for J had less RT than D. Conversely, the ANOVA for the correct pictures retrieved was insignificant (F = 1.8, p < or = .2). When the brain activity associated with the encoding and retrieval of the aversive pictures was subtracted (J-D and D-J) from that associated with the neutral ones, significant loci of activation were found. During encoding: for J-D the right fusiform gyrus was significantly activated (p < .0001) and for D-J the orbitofrontal cortex was significantly activated (p < .05). During retrieval: for J-D the right anterior cingulate (p < .0001) was activated and the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (p < .002). For D-J only the cerebellum showed activation (p < .0001). CONCLUSION: Results indicated subtle attenuations in some aspects of memory, thus providing another evidence for cognitive markers of a genetic component in schizophrenia. New approaches in neuropsychiatry-based on genetic methodologies should further define the cerebral physiology responsible for schizophrenia.     

Long-term effect of prefrontal lobotomy on verbal fluency in patients with schizophrenia

OBJECTIVE: This study investigated the long-term effects of bilateral prefrontal leukotomy on lexical abilities in schizophrenia subjects. METHOD: we compared performances of leukotomized (LSP), non-leukotomized schizophrenia patients (NLSP) and normal controls, using a test of verbal fluency. Multiple case and triple comparison design were implemented. i.e., the performance of each LSP was compared to that of NLSP and that of a normal control. The sample consisted of four LSP, four NLSP, and four normal subjects. Subjects were matched in sex, age, handedness, and schooling. In Addition, schizophrenia groups were matched in diagnosis and years of hospitalization. Quantitative and qualitative analyses of generated words and errors produced by subjects were carried out. RESULTS: A deficiency in both groups of schizophrenia was observed, although a better performance in LSP patients was detected. CONCLUSION: Intact Lexical ability in LSP indicates its poor relation to the frontal lobe.     

Infants' reasoning about hidden objects: evidence for event-general and event-specific expectations

Research over the past 20 years has revealed that even very young infants possess expectations about physical events, and that these expectations undergo significant developments during the first year of life. In this article, I first review some of this research, focusing on infants' expectations about occlusion, containment, and covering events, all of which involve hidden objects. Next, I present an account of infants' physical reasoning that integrates these various findings, and describe new experiments that test predictions from this account. Finally, because all of the research I discuss uses the violation-of-expectation method, I address recent concerns about this method and summarize new findings that help alleviate these concerns.     

Adaptive changes of response criterion in recognition memory

An experiment was conducted to investigate people’s ability to vary a response criterion strategically, in a recognition memory task, as a function of the length of time given to process the test stimuli (from 100 to 1,500 msec). The experiment used the response signal procedure, in which the participants responded after a signal that came at a variable time delay from stimulus onset. The proportion of new versus old test items was varied systematically with the time of the response signal, with the proportion of new test items rising, falling, or staying constant at later signals. It was found that the participants’ response biases changed adaptively, becoming more conservative at later signals in the rising condition, becoming less conservative in the falling condition, and not changing significantly in the constant condition. Theoretical and methodological implications for recognition memory research are discussed.     

Phosphorylation state of CREB in the rat hippocampus: a molecular switch between spatial novelty and spatial familiarity?

The activation of cAMP response element-binding protein (CREB) after a learning experience is a common feature in the formation of several associative memories. We recently demonstrated that the increase in the hippocampal phosphorylated CREB (pCREB) levels 1 h after a short exploration of an open field (OF) was associated to detection of spatial novelty and was not related to the memory formation of habituation in this non-associative learning paradigm. Moreover, after a long training of three OF sessions, hippocampal pCREB levels were below to that observed in control rats. The present results show that such decrease does not correlate with memory retrieval or improvement in long-term memory of habituation. Instead, it is associated with the familiarity to the arena. Our experiments revealed that the relevant variable to induce CREB deactivation was the prolonged exploration of the arena (30 min). A 15 min OF exploration was ineffective. Furthermore, the last 5 min period of a prolonged exploration was crucial to change CREB phosphorylation state: when exploration took place in a novel arena the level of pCREB increased; in contrast, when it was performed in the familiar OF, pCREB levels decreased. Taken as a whole, our results suggest that CREB phosphorylation state in the hippocampus switches in response to exposure to a novel or to a familiar spatial environment.