Attenuated audiovisual integration in middle-aged adults in a discrimination task

Numerous studies have focused on the diversity of audiovisual integration between younger and older adults. However, consecutive trends in audiovisual integration throughout life are still unclear. In the present study, to clarify audiovisual integration characteristics in middle-aged adults, we instructed younger and middle-aged adults to conduct an auditory/visual stimuli discrimination experiment. Randomized streams of unimodal auditory (A), unimodal visual (V) or audiovisual stimuli were presented on the left or right hemispace of the central fixation point, and subjects were instructed to respond to the target stimuli rapidly and accurately. Our results demonstrated that the responses of middle-aged adults to all unimodal and bimodal stimuli were significantly slower than those of younger adults (p < 0.05). Audiovisual integration was markedly delayed (onset time 360 ms) and weaker (peak 3.97%) in middle-aged adults than in younger adults (onset time 260 ms, peak 11.86%). The results suggested that audiovisual integration was attenuated in middle-aged adults and further confirmed age-related decline in information processing.     

羞怯与受欺负:社交回避与被他人容纳的多重中介效应

采用大学生羞怯量表、被他人容纳量表、大学生社交回避及苦恼量表和欺负问卷测量了369名大学生,探讨社交回避和被他人容纳在羞怯与受欺负之间的作用。结果表明:(1)羞怯、社交回避和受欺负三个变量彼此之间均呈显著正相关,这三个变量与被他人容纳均呈显著负相关;(2)羞怯不仅直接影响受欺负,也通过社交回避-被他人容纳的链式中介作用间接影响受欺负。     

Word Detection in Sung and Spoken Sentences in Children With Typical Language Development or With Specific Language Impairment

Background: Previous studies have reported that children score better in language tasks using sung rather than spoken stimuli. We examined word detection ease in sung and spoken sentences that were equated for phoneme duration and pitch variations in children aged 7 to 12 years with typical language development (TLD) as well as in children with specific language impairment (SLI ), and hypothesized that the facilitation effect would vary with language abilities. Method: In Experiment 1, 69 children with TLD (7–10 years old) detected words in sentences that were spoken, sung on pitches extracted from speech, and sung on original scores. In Experiment 2, we added a natural speech rate condition and tested 68 children with TLD (7–12 years old). In Experiment 3, 16 children with SLI and 16 age-matched children with TLD were tested in all four conditions. Results: In both TLD groups, older children scored better than the younger ones. The matched TLD group scored higher than the SLI group who scored at the level of the younger children with TLD . None of the experiments showed a facilitation effect of sung over spoken stimuli. Conclusions: Word detection abilities improved with age in both TLD and SLI groups. Our findings are compatible with the hypothesis of delayed language abilities in children with SLI , and are discussed in light of the role of durational prosodic cues in words detection.     

AINSWORTH'S STRANGE SITUATION PROCEDURE: THE ORIGIN OF AN INSTRUMENT

The American‐Canadian psychologist Mary Ainsworth (1913–1999) developed the Strange Situation Procedure (SSP) to measure mother‐child attachment and attachment theorists have used it ever since. When Ainsworth published the first results of the SSP in 1969, it seemed a completely novel and unique instrument. However, in this paper we will show that the SSP had many precursors and that the road to such an instrument was long and winding. Our analysis of hitherto little‐known studies on children in strange situations allowed us to compare these earlier attempts with the SSP. We argue that it was the combination of Ainsworth's working experience with William Blatz and John Bowlby, her own research in Uganda and Baltimore, and the strong connection of the SSP with attachment theory, that made the SSP differ enough from the other strange situation studies to become one of the most widely used instruments in developmental psychology today.     

High-magnetic-field-induced formation of aligned equiaxed grains during directional solidification

The application of a high magnetic field is capable of inducing the formation of aligned equiaxed grains in alloys during directional solidification. The alignment and refinement of the grains is enhanced as the magnetic field intensity increases. The thermoelectric power difference at the liquid/solid interface in four alloys has been measured in situ during directional solidification and it is concluded that the formation of aligned equiaxed grains in a magnetic field should be attributed to the combined action of a thermoelectric magnetic force and a magnetization force.     

Hippocampal train stimulation modulates recall of fear extinction independently of prefrontal cortex synaptic plasticity and lesions

It has been shown that long-term potentiation (LTP) develops in the connection between the mediodorsal thalamus (MD) and the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) and between the hippocampus (HPC) and the mPFC following fear extinction, and correlates with extinction retention. However, recent lesion studies have shown that combined lesions of the MD and mPFC do not interfere with extinction learning and retention, while inactivation of the dorsal HPC disrupts fear extinction memory. Here we found in rats that immediate post-training HPC low-frequency stimulation (LFS) suppressed extinction-related LTP in the HPC-mPFC pathway and induced difficulties in extinction recall. HPC tetanus, applied several hours later, failed to re-establish mPFC LTP but facilitated recall of extinction. Delayed post-training HPC LFS also provoked mPFC depotentiation and difficulties with extinction recall. HPC tetanus abolished these two effects. We also found that damage to the mPFC induced fear return only in rats that received HPC LFS following extinction training. HPC tetanus also reversed this behavioral effect of HPC LFS in lesioned rats. These data suggest that the HPC interacts with the mPFC during fear extinction, but can modulate fear extinction independently of this interaction.     

Electrolytic lesions of the medial prefrontal cortex do not interfere with long-term memory of extinction of conditioned fear

Lesion studies indicate that rats without the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) have difficulty recalling fear extinction acquired the previous day. Several electrophysiological studies have also supported this observation by demonstrating that extinction-related increases in neuronal activity in the mPFC participate in expression of fear extinction. However, a more recent study has shown that fear extinction can be recalled, in certain circumstances, without mPFC potentiation, suggesting contribution of other circuits. Here, we examined this possibility in rats that were subjected to auditory fear conditioning, extinction training, and extinction retention test 7 d later. Electrolytic lesions were made in the mPFC, the motor cortex (MO), the dorsal septum (SEP), or the mediodorsal thalamus (MD), because of their potential participation in conditioned fear inhibition; combined lesions including the mPFC with the MO, SEP, or MD were also made. The lesions were made either 1 wk before conditioning or 1 d after extinction training. All rats normally extinguished their conditioned freezing behavior during extinction training and did not display any return of this behavior during the retention test. These data reveal that the mPFC is not required for the acquisition, the expression, or the retrieval of extinction memories but do not exclude the possibility that the mPFC normally participates in these processes.     

The impact of emotion on perception: bias or enhanced processing?

Recent studies have shown that emotionally significant stimuli are often better identified than neutral stimuli. It is not clear, however, whether these results are due to enhanced perceptual processing or to a bias favoring the identification of emotionally significant stimuli over neutral stimuli. The present study used a two-alternative forced-choice perceptual identification task to disentangle the effects of bias and enhanced processing. We found that emotionally significant targets were better identified than neutral targets. In contrast, the emotional significance of the foil alternative had no effect on performance. The present results support the hypothesis that perceptual encoding of emotionally significant stimuli is enhanced.