The human lateral lemniscus and its nuclei: The human auditory pathways: A quantitative study

Quantification of the human lateral lemniscus and its nuclei in 15 brains of patients without hearing impairment revealed these average values: Cross-sectional surface area of the bundle at the level of the nucleus of cranial nerve IV of 2.5 mm², fiber density of 77,000/mm²; 194,000 total fibers on each side; grouping of the nerve cells in three nuclei (olive remnant, ventral, and dorsal) the largest of which is the ventral; cell density in the olive remnant of 5009/mm³, in the ventral nucleus of 15,184/mm³, and 13,169 cells per mm³ in the dorsal nucleus; total cell populations in all nuclei of 20,063 on the left and 26,137 on the right; glial-neuronal index of 9.2; cell dimensions of 23.6 × 15.4 microns in the olive remnant and 21.2 × 12.2 in the other nuclei; combined nuclear volume of 1.91 mm³. Loss of neurons was not apparent in the aged brains but a significant reduction in counts of axons and in lemniscal bulk appeared in two of the older brains of the series (77 and 91 years).     

Normative data for number of word meanings

A corpus of 576 words and orthographically legal pseudowords was rated by 150 undergraduates to obtain a subjective estimate of the number of meanings possessed by the stimuli. The information contained in this corpus may be used to supplement current, sources of word-meaning information (e.g., total number of dictionary entries). Experimental evidence is presented that supports the reliability of the normative data.     

Influence of emotional state on irrelevant thoughts

The fan effect paradigm was used to investigate the influence of emotional mood state on longterm memory retrieval (Anderson, 1983). Subjects learned target facts embedded in unrelated sentences to a specified criterion and were then given a happy, sad, or neutral mood induction. Mean response times (RTs) and error rates were analyzed in a speeded recognition test in which subjects distinguished between the learned facts and foil facts (foil facts were constructed by recombining the same concepts). A follow-up lexical decision task indicated that mean RT was positively correlated with an increase in the weighted proportion of irrelevant thoughts produced by subjects in an induced sad mood. Results suggest that irrelevant thoughts associated with the sad mood state interfered with more relevant, task-oriented, thoughts and support the notion that sad mood is related to a failure to inhibit irrelevant information.     

Implicit Memory and the Formation of New Associations in Nondemented Parkinson′s Disease Individuals and Individuals with Senile Dementia of the Alzheimer Type: A Serial Reaction Time (SRT) Investigation

Using the serial reaction time (SRT) task developed by Nissen and Bullemer (1987, Cognitive Psychology, 19, 1–32), implicit memory performance was examined in four groups of subjects: nondemented healthy aged individuals; nondemented Parkinson"s disease individuals; very mildly demented senile dementia of the Alzheimer type (SDAT) individuals; and mildly demented SDAT individuals. The SRT task involved four blocks of a repeated 10-item keypress sequence that tapped general skill development along with a fifth block of a nonrepeated sequence that presumably reflected the impact of switching from a learned set of associations (developed during the first four blocks) to a novel sequence. The increase in response latency from the fourth repeated block to the fifth nonrepeated block was used as the reflection of implicit learning. The results revealed preserved implicit memory performance in the very mildly demented individuals compared to that of the age-matched control individuals. However, the mildly demented SDAT individuals and the nondemented Parkinson"s disease individuals showed reliably less implicit learning, compared to the age-matched control individuals. Differences between the past studies using the SRT task to tap implicit memory performance in SDAT individuals and the present study are discussed in some detail. We conclude that nondemented Parkinson"s disease individuals and mildly demented SDAT individuals produce some deficit in the formation of new associations in implicit memory, as measured by the SRT task.     

Behavioral Foundations of Effective Autism Treatment

The Psychological Record -     

Dis-Identity: New Forms of Identity and Psychopathology—Socioanthropological Changes and Self-Development

The passage from modernity to postmodernity deeply upset the group dimension, and, consequently, personal identity itself. Transformations involving the entire planet, socioanthropological changes our society had to cope with, are producing a change in the dynamics of identity formation and the appearance of new psychopathological figures. The loss of cohesion of the sense of belonging and the weak internalization process of the elements that form the individual identity (cultural, linguistic, religious traditions, etc.) draw an essentially uncertain and temporary existence. Drawing on some themes of subjectual group analysis theory of personality, the article proposes the concept of dis-identity as key to read ongoing psychic changes.     

Lexical Decision Paradigms do not Differentiate between Fearful and Non-fearful Individuals

Thirty-two spider-fearful, 33 blood/injury/injection fearful, and 28 non-fearful individuals (N = 93) participated in dual-task study. Participants were presented with blood, spider, neutral, positive and pseudo-word stimuli while having to also verbally identify numbers as either even or odd. Blood-fearful individuals responded slower than spider and non-fearful individuals. However, there was no interaction of group membership with stimuli type. This study replicates the results of two previous studies that have used a lexical decision task in an effort to differentiate between fearful and non-fearful individuals and found no significant differences between these two groups on this task. These results suggest that the lexical decision task in general may not be sensitive enough to elicit processing differences in non-clinical samples.     

Individual differences in the influence of time of day on executive functions

Previous research has documented the impact of time of day on vigilance and memory and the moderating influence of circadian typology (morningness-eveningness) on the relationship between time of testing and cognitive processes. This study examined the impact of circadian typology and time of testing on executive functions. Morning-type and evening-type people were randomly assigned to a morning or afternoon testing time, and their performance on neuropsychological tests, including the Conners Continuous Performance Test (CPT), the Digit Span test, the Controlled Oral Word Association Test (COWAT), and the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST) was compared. No interactions between circadian typology and time of day were observed on the CPT or Digit Span test. A time of day effect was found on the letter generation portion of the COWAT. More words were generated in the afternoon than in the morning. In contrast, performance on the WCST was best when morning-type participants were tested at their optimal time of day. These findings suggest that circadian typology should be considered when scheduling neuropsychological assessments, rehabilitation training, and critical job tasks.