Does action make the link between number and space representation? Visuo-manual adaptation improves number bisection in unilateral neglect

If the visual world is artificially shifted by only 10 degrees, people initially experience difficulty in directing their actions toward visual goals, but then rapidly compensate the visual distortion. The consequence of such adaptation can be measured as visual and proprioceptive aftereffects, as well as by performance on pointing tasks without visual feedback. Recent work has shown that more cognitive deficits can be improved following prism adaptation in patients with unilateral neglect. Here we show that a short visuo-manual adaptation to prisms improves performance on a mental number-bisection task recently shown to be impaired in unilateral neglect. The association previously found between space and number representation (the mental number line) may thus be grounded in common action principles. Our results suggest that visuo-motor plasticity functionally links parietal areas involved in space and number representation.     

A Japanese short form of the Swanson Cognitive Processing Test to measure working memory: reliability, validity, and differences in scores between primary school children of the United States and Japan

The purpose of this study was to examine the reliability and validity of a Japanese short form of the Swanson Cognitive Processing Test, which assesses capacity of working memory. Test-retest reliability was acceptable (r = .76). Concurrent validity was suggested through comparison of scores on the Reading Span Task (r = .55). Means on the Japanese short form were comparable with means for the 3 subtests for the older group and 2 subtests for the younger group. With the exception of the Auditory Digit Sequence, results suggested that both the Japanese short form and the initial Swanson Cognitive Processing Test measured comparably the working memory in the two samples of children.     

Microplasticity of copper thin films on silicon substrates

Internal friction in polycrystalline copper films 0.2-1.5 w m thick on silicon substrates has been measured as a function of strain amplitude. The internal friction in the films increases with increasing strain amplitude but at a value of the strain amplitude that is at least two orders of magnitude greater than the similar increase in bulk copper. Analysis of the amplitude-dependent internal friction provides the plastic strain of the order of 10 -9 as a function of effective stress on dislocation motion. Since the grain size is larger than the film thickness, the microflow stress at a constant level of plastic strain varies inversely with the film thickness. The film thickness effect in the microplastic range can be explained on the basis of a dislocation-bowing model.