Children's and adolescents' perception of the authenticity of smiles

Recently, Thibault and colleagues described the Duchenne marker as a cultural dialect for the perception of smile authenticity. The current study had the goal to follow up on this finding and to investigate the cues that French Canadian children use to evaluate the authenticity of smiles from members of three ethnic groups. The authenticity of six smiles differing in intensity and presence of orbicularis oculi (Duchenne marker) was rated by 1206 children from 4 to 17 years of age. No differences were found as a function of encoder group. All children perceived medium Duchenne smiles as more authentic than equally intense medium non-Duchenne smiles. Furthermore, results suggest a decrease in the reliance on intensity across the age span. Younger children use the intensity marker along the whole continuum to infer authenticity. In contrast, older children (14- to 17-year-olds) rated all smiles that did not contain the Duchenne marker as roughly equally low in authenticity.     

Sleep-related improvements in motor learning following mental practice

A wide range of experimental studies have provided evidence that a night of sleep may enhance motor performance following physical practice (PP), but little is known, however, about its effect after motor imagery (MI). Using an explicitly learned pointing task paradigm, thirty participants were assigned to one of three groups that differed in the training method (PP, MI, and control groups). The physical performance was measured before training (pre-test), as well as before (post-test 1) and after a night of sleep (post-test 2). The time taken to complete the pointing tasks, the number of errors and the kinematic trajectories were the dependent variables. As expected, both the PP and the MI groups improved their performance during the post-test 1. The MI group was further found to enhance motor performance after sleep, hence suggesting that sleep-related effects are effective following mental practice. Such findings highlight the reliability of MI in learning process, which is thought consolidated when associated with sleep.     

Neural Systems Mediating American Sign Language: Effects of Sensory Experience and Age of Acquisition

ERPs were recorded from deaf and hearing native signers and from hearing subjects who acquired ASL late or not at all as they viewed ASL signs that formed sentences. The results were compared across these groups and with those from hearing subjects reading English sentences. The results suggest that there are constraints on the organization of the neural systems that mediate formal languages and that these are independent of the modality through which language is acquired. These include different specializations of anterior and posterior cortical regions in aspects of grammatical and semantic processing and a bias for the left hemisphere to mediate aspects of mnemonic functions in language. Additionally, the results suggest that the nature and timing of sensory and language experience significantly impact the development of the language systems of the brain. Effects of the early acquisition of ASL include an increased role for the right hemisphere and for parietal cortex and this occurs in both hearing and deaf native signers. An increased role of posterior temporal and occipital areas occurs in deaf native signers only and thus may be attributable to auditory deprivation.     

Zum Zusammenhang zwischen Projektionsoperatoren und Eigenschaften

Der nichtdistributive, orthokomplementäre Verband der Projektionsoperatoren in der Quantenmechanik hat Anlaß zu mancherlei Interpretationen gegeben, so z. B. als eine von der klassischen Logik abweichende Quantenlogik, oder man deutete die Projektionsoperatoren als Eigenschaften von Mikroobjekten. Wir glauben, mit dieser Arbeit ein wesentliches Argument für die letztere Interpretation liefern zu können:Es ist nämlich möglich, in der Menge der Eigenschaftsbegriffe eine Ordnungs-relation einzuführen. Mit dieser Ordnungsrelation bildet einen nichtdistributiven, orthokomplementären Verband. D.h. bei einer solchen Interpretation werden keinerlei Veränderungen — weder im Verband der Aussagen noch im Verband der Eigenschaftsbegriffe — durch die Entdeckung der Quantenmechanik notwendig.     

False memories

Problems in the context of so-called “false memories” and their topological classification and recommendations for their therapeutic handling are discussed. False memories are defined as constructs, rooted in the “transitional space” and containing partial realities, added fantasies as well as fantasmic transformations of reality. They thus contain a message about the inner state of the patient and a demand to the therapist. Narcissistic monadic forms of false memories are different. These forms serve to support the patient’s narcissistic balance, for example memories of incest, which apparently never took place. Furthermore, phenomena of actively generated false memories are discussed, which mainly arose in the USA, where therapists specialised in recovering incest memories, created them by direct or indirect suggestions in their patients. In many cases then, archaic images occurred, for example memories of having been captured by aliens or about ritual abuse in a sect. The potential psychodynamic background is discussed. These exciting and fascinating scenes form a temptation for the therapist to leave the ground of reality together with the patient and thus give up therapeutic neutrality.     

Neural substrates for verbal working memory in deaf signers: fMRI study and lesion case report

The nature of the representations maintained in verbal working memory is a topic of debate. Some authors argue for a modality-dependent code, tied to particular sensory or motor systems. Others argue for a modality-neutral code. Sign language affords a unique perspective because it factors out the effects of modality. In an fMRI experiment, deaf participants viewed and covertly rehearsed strings of non-sense signs; analyses focused on regions responsive in both sensory and rehearsal phases. Compared with previous findings in hearing subjects, deaf subjects showed a significantly increased involvement of parietal regions. A lesion case study indicates that this network is left-dominant. The findings support the hypothesis that linguistic working memory is supported by modality-specific neural systems, but some modality-neutral systems may also be involved.