Multi- and unisensory decoding of words and nonwords result in differential brain responses in dyslexic and nondyslexic adults

The present functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study was designed, in order to investigate the neural substrates involved in the audiovisual processing of disyllabic German words and pseudowords. Twelve dyslexic and 13 nondyslexic adults performed a lexical decision task while stimuli were presented unimodally (either aurally or visually) or bimodally (audiovisually simultaneously).The behavioral data collected during the experiment evidenced more accurate processing for bimodally than for unimodally presented stimuli irrespective of group. Words were processed faster than pseudowords. Notably, no group differences have been found for either accuracy or for reaction times. With respect to brain responses, nondyslexic compared to dyslexic adults elicited stronger hemodynamic responses in the leftward supramarginal gyrus (SMG), as well as in the right hemispheric superior temporal sulcus (STS). Furthermore, dyslexic compared to nondyslexic adults showed reduced responses to only aurally presented signals and enhanced hemodynamic responses to audiovisual, as well as visual stimulation in the right anterior insula.Our behavioral results evidence that the two groups easily identified the two-syllabic proper nouns that we provided them with. Our fMRI results indicate that dyslexics show less neuronal involvement of heteromodal and extrasylvian regions, namely, the STS, SMG, and insula when decoding phonological information. We posit that dyslexic adults evidence deficient functioning of word processing, which could possibly be attributed to deficits in phoneme to grapheme mapping. This problem may be caused by impaired audiovisual processing in multimodal areas.     

Proprioception plays a different role for sensorimotor adaptation to different distortions

If proprioceptive feedback is degraded by agonist-antagonist muscle vibration, then adaptation to rotated vision remains intact while adaptation to a velocity-dependent force field worsens. Here we evaluate whether this differential effect of vibration is related to the physical nature of the distortion - visual versus mechanical - or to their kinematic coupling to the subjects’ hand - velocity versus position dependent. Subjects adapted to a velocity-dependent visual distortion, to a position-dependent force, or to a velocity-dependent force; one half of the subjects adapted with, and the other half without agonist-antagonist vibration at the wrist, elbow, and shoulder. We found, as before, that vibration slowed down adaptation to a velocity-dependent force. However, vibration did not modify adaptation to the other two distortions, nor did it influence the aftereffects of any distortion. From this we conclude that intact proprioception supports strategic compensatory processes when proprioceptive signals agree with visual ones, and provide relevant (dynamic) information not available to the visual system.     

The neurobiology of the stress-resistant brain

The 2010 Neurobiology of Stress Workshop brought together scientists from all over the world to share and discuss their results from studies examining the consequences of acute, repeated, and chronic stressor exposure on health and disease. Session IV entitled "The neurobiology of the stress-resistant brain" explored how we can intervene to promote stress resistance and stress resilience. Four scientists, who explore this topic from unique and convergent perspectives, presented their experimental results derived from studies in rat (Fleshner and Maier), non-human primates (Lyons), and human (Raskind). Summaries of each presentation, supporting publications, and overall take-home messages from the session are presented.     

The role of anxiety and perspective-taking strategy on affective empathic responses

Empathy is an important pro-social behaviour critical to a positive client–therapist relationship. Therapist anxiety has been linked to reduced ability to empathise and lower client satisfaction with therapy. However, the nature of the relationship between anxiety and empathy is currently unclear. The current study investigated the effect of experimentally-induced anxiety on empathic responses elicited during three different perspective-taking tasks. Perspective-taking was manipulated within-subjects with all participants (N = 52) completing imagine-self, imagine-other and objective conditions. A threat of shock manipulation was used to vary anxiety between-subjects. Participants in the threat of shock condition reported higher levels of anxiety during the experiment and lower levels of empathy-related distress for the targets than participants in the control condition. Perspective-taking was associated with higher levels of empathy-related distress and concern compared to the objective condition. The present results suggest that perspective-taking can to a large extent mitigate the influence of heightened anxiety on an individual’s ability to empathise.     

Effects of age on cross-modal emotion perception

Efficient navigation of our social world depends on the generation, interpretation, and combination of social signals within different sensory systems. However, the influence of healthy adult aging on multisensory integration of emotional stimuli remains poorly explored. This article comprises 2 studies that directly address issues of age differences on cross-modal emotional matching and explicit identification. The first study compared 25 younger adults (19-40 years) and 25 older adults (60-80 years) on their ability to match cross-modal congruent and incongruent emotional stimuli. The second study looked at performance of 20 younger (19-40) and 20 older adults (60-80) on explicit emotion identification when information was presented congruently in faces and voices or only in faces or in voices. In Study 1, older adults performed as well as younger adults on tasks in which congruent auditory and visual emotional information were presented concurrently, but there were age-related differences in matching incongruent cross-modal information. Results from Study 2 indicated that though older adults were impaired at identifying emotions from 1 modality (faces or voices alone), they benefited from congruent multisensory information as age differences were eliminated. The findings are discussed in relation to social, emotional, and cognitive changes with age.     

Social anxiety and anger regulation

Based on the assumption that social anxiety is associated with less assertive behaviour and that effective anger regulation is influenced by social anxiety, two studies were conducted to examine the relationship between social anxiety and anger regulation. In Study 1, questionnaires measuring social anxiety, assertiveness, and six habitual anger‐related responses were administered to 115 adults. Social anxiety had an independent effect on rumination and submission, whereas assertiveness was independently related to the use of humour and feedback. In Study 2 (N = 136 adults) self‐ and observer ratings of anger‐related behaviour were obtained after anger was experimentally induced. Social anxiety was related to self‐ratings of submission and rumination. However, independent observer ratings based on videotapes revealed no significant influence of social anxiety on anger‐related behaviour. Taken together, the results provide evidence that social anxiety is associated with the self‐perception of less assertive behaviour and the tendency to evaluate one's behaviour more negatively. These results are consistent with prior studies showing that socially anxious persons tend to underestimate their social performance relative to the ratings of independent observers. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Verhaltenstherapie bei dissoziativen Störungen

Zusammenfassung Epidemiologische Daten bezüglich dissoziativer Auffälligkeiten werden vorgestellt. Diagnostizierbare dissoziative Störungen werden im Bereich des pathologischen Pols eines Kontinuums dissoziativer Phänomene eingeordnet. Ausgehend von der allen dissoziativen Störungen gemeinsamen Kernsymptomatik der strukturierten Separation mentaler Prozesse aus der ganzheitlichen Wahrnehmung wird ein universelles Ätiologiemodell dieser Erkrankungen dargestellt. Es basiert im Wesentlichen auf neueren Erkenntnissen der Neurobiologie und Gedächtnisforschung und bezieht sich auf die Traumatisierung als zentralem pathologenetischem Agens. Hiervon ausgehend, wird ein 2-phasiges Therapiemodell vorgestellt. Als Ziel wird ein Aussetzen bzw. eine Reduktion der dissoziativen Symptome über eine Integration der traumatischen Erfahrungen angestrebt. Die beschriebenen therapeutischen Vorgehensweisen sind grundsätzlich bei allen traumatisch bedingten dissoziativen Störungen anwendbar. Auf Konversionssymptome sowie die dissoziative Identitätsstörung wird als Sonderfälle separat eingegangen.Der Text basiert auf dem gleichnamigen Vortrag, den die Autorin am 24.10.2003 auf dem 5. Wissenschaftlichen Kongress der Deutschen Ärztlichen Gesellschaft für Verhaltenstherapie in Bad Pyrmont gehalten hat.     

Predictors of Risky and Precautionary Sexual Behaviors Among Single and Married White Women1

Risky and precautionary sexual behaviors were examined in a community sample of 260 single and married/cohabitating White women. Structural equation modeling was used to assess the ability of age, socioeconomic status (SES), marital status, religiosity, and 9 health belief constructs to predict risky sexual behavior with one's partner, using a barrier method of birth control, unintended pregnancies, and number of sexual partners in the past year. The pattern of results suggests that single White women appear to feel more vulnerable to HIV and STD infection and more likely to engage in risky sexual behavior than do married White women. The discussion focuses on the importance of sociocultural factors in understanding risk behaviors within the social context of relationship status, the complexity of the concept of risk reduction, and the need for going beyond the health belief model in order to develop different HIV prevention strategies for single and married White women.     

幼儿对条件许诺的理解

通过给4、5、6岁儿童呈现一系列图片,分别代表孩子、妈妈以及双方违反约定的不同情况,考察了幼儿对条件许诺形式的社会约定的理解。结果表明：幼儿对条件许诺的认知表现出明显的发展趋势,绝大多数幼儿都能指出孩子违反,随年龄增大能指出妈妈违反、双违反的人次百分比逐渐增多,其中4岁组没有人能指出妈妈违反,5岁组没有人能指出双违反;幼儿对条件许诺中不同角色违背的检测存在“角色效应”和“同侪违背优先检测效应”;多数幼儿还没有将条件许诺理解为双条件规则。     

Exercise modulates the interaction between cognition and anxiety in humans

Despite interest in exercise as a treatment for anxiety disorders the mechanism behind the anxiolytic effects of exercise is unclear. Two observations motivate the present work. First, engagement of attention control during increased working memory (WM) load can decrease anxiety. Second, exercise can improve attention control. Therefore, exercise could boost the anxiolytic effects of increased WM load via its strengthening of attention control. Anxiety was induced by threat of shock and was quantified with anxiety-potentiated startle (APS). Thirty-five healthy volunteers (19 male, age M?=?26.11, SD ?=?5.52) participated in two types of activity, exercise (biking at 60–70% of heart rate reserve) and control-activity (biking at 10–20% of heart rate reserve). After each activity, participants completed a WM task (n-back) at low- and high-load during safe and threat. Results were not consistent with the hypothesis: exercise vs. control-activity increased APS in high-load (p?=?.03). However, this increased APS was not accompanied with threat-induced impairment in WM performance (p?=?.37). Facilitation of both task-relevant stimulus processing and task-irrelevant threat processing, concurrent with prevention of threat interference on cognition, suggests that exercise increases cognitive ability. Future studies should explore how exercise affects the interplay of cognition and anxiety in patients with anxiety disorders.