Relations between infants’ emerging reach‐grasp competence and event‐related desynchronization in EEG

Recent reports of similar patterns of brain electrical activity (electroencephalogram: EEG) during action execution and observation, recorded from scalp locations over motor‐related regions in infants and adults, have raised the possibility that two foundational abilities – controlling one's own intentional actions and perceiving others’ actions – may be integrally related during ontogeny. However, to our knowledge, there are no published reports of the relations between developments in motor skill (i.e. recording actual motor skill performance) and EEG during both action execution and action observation. In the present study we collected EEG from 21 9‐month‐olds who were given opportunities to reach for toys and who also observed an experimenter reach for toys. Event‐related desynchronization (ERD) was computed from the EEG during the reaching events. We assessed infants’ reaching‐grasping competence, including reach latency, errors, preshaping of the hand, and bimanual reaches, and found that desynchronization recorded in scalp electrodes over motor‐related regions during action observation was associated with action competence during execution. Infants who were more competent reachers, compared to less competent reachers, exhibited greater ERD while observing reaching‐grasping. These results provide initial evidence for an early emerging neural system integrating one's own actions with the perception of others’ actions.     

Cued repetition of self-directed behaviors in macaques (Macaca nemestrina)

Two macaques (Macaca nemestrina) were trained to perform 3 self-directed behaviors on signal and to repeat behaviors after a 'repeat' signal. The cognitive processes underlying the monkeys' repeat performance were evaluated via multiple repetitions of the repeat signal, extended delay periods between target behavior and repeat signal, and by transferring the repeat signal to novel behaviors. The monkeys seemed to use representations of their own past behaviors as a basis for repetition performance, but they mostly failed to correctly repeat target behaviors after extended delays and during transfer tasks. Implications for episodic memory abilities are discussed.     

Prevalence and Significant Determinants of Post-traumatic Stress Disorder in a Large Sample of Patients with Multiple Sclerosis

Chronic and life-threatening neurodegenerative diseases may be associated with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Therefore, the current study was an investigation of the prevalence of PTSD in multiple sclerosis (MS) patients, and identification of significant determinants of PTSD. Two hundred thirty-two MS patients were consecutively recruited and screened for the presence of PTSD with the Impact of Event Scale-Revised, corroborated by the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV. Furthermore, participants were administered the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale and the Fatigue Severity Scale. Twelve patients (12/232, i.e. 5.17 %) were diagnosed as suffering from PTSD. Levels of education, anxiety and depression were significant determinants of the presence of PTSD. The role played by the levels of education, anxiety and depression in determining the presence of PTSD has been discussed. Further research on the psychological features of neurodegenerative diseases is urgently needed in order to plan appropriate treatments and improve patients’ quality of life.     

A goal-based perspective on eye movements in visual world studies

There is an emerging literature on visual search in natural tasks suggesting that task-relevant goals account for a remarkably high proportion of saccades, including anticipatory eye movements. Moreover, factors such as “visual saliency” that otherwise affect fixations become less important when they are bound to objects that are not relevant to the task at hand. We briefly review this literature and discuss the implications for task-based variants of the visual world paradigm. We argue that the results and their likely interpretation may profoundly affect the “linking hypothesis” between language processing and the location and timing of fixations in task-based visual world studies. We outline a goal-based linking hypothesis and discuss some of the implications for how we conduct visual world studies, including how we interpret and analyze the data. Finally, we outline some avenues of research, including examples of some classes of experiments that might prove fruitful for evaluating the effects of goals in visual world experiments and the viability of a goal-based linking hypothesis.     

Negative Thoughts in Children with Symptoms of Anxiety and Depression

This study examined whether negative thoughts are different in anxious, depressed, and chronically ill children. Screening of 1,316 children on anxiety, depression, and asthma resulted in the selection of 118 children. Four groups were formed: (1) a high anxiety group, (2) a high anxiety/depression group, (3) an asthma group, and (4) a low anxiety, low depression, and no chronic disease (control) group. The data yielded no pure depression group. Subsequently, the Negative Affectivity Self-Statement Questionnaire (NASSQ) and a Worry scale were administered. Results showed that cognitive scores were different in all groups. Highest scores were obtained from the high anxiety/depression group, and lowest from the control group. Children with asthma scored high on anxiety, not on depression. High correlations between scores on negative thoughts and conventional measures of negative emotions suggested that negative thoughts provided no unique information about the problems underlying emotional states in different groups of children. Implications for cognitive assessment in emotionally disturbed children are discussed.     

Self-speech and self-regulation of high-and low-anxious children in the dental situation: An interview study

This study is conducted to assess children's self-speech and self-regulation during a dental visit. Forty children, aged 8–12 yr, were interviewed individually in the dental clinic. There were 20 children with high, phobic-like dental fear and 20 with low dental fear. Results showed that two-thirds of the children, equally distributed over high- and low-anxious children, reported self-speech. High dental fear was related to a specific type of self-speech, while low dental fear was not. Less than one-half of the children reported self-regulation. Level of fear was neither related to the occurrence nor the nature of the self-regulation. Moreover, the self-regulation, which the children reported, was not of the complex variety as described in various theoretical models.