Spontaneous speech in aphasia: a correlational study

Seventeen spontaneous speech measures and scores on a naming test, employed to characterize the expressive performance of 121 aphasics, were subjected to a factor analysis. Five factors were obtained: (1) Syntactic ability, (2) Phonological paraphasia, (3) Neologistic paraphasia, (4) Articulatory impairment, and (5) Vocabulary. Relationships of the factors to naming error types were examined in order to elucidate the nature of some of the factors. Also, the relationships of the expressive factors to auditory comprehension tests were explored, such an exploration being relevant to the issue of the overlap between expressive and receptive functions.     

A generalized distance function for preferential choices

Many cognitive theories of judgement and decision making assume that choice options are evaluated relative to other available options. The extent to which the preference for one option is influenced by other available options will often depend on how similar the options are to each other, where similarity is assumed to be a decreasing function of the distance between options. We examine how the distance between preferential options that are described on multiple attributes can be determined. Previous distance functions do not take into account that attributes differ in their subjective importance, are limited to two attributes, or neglect the preferential relationship between the options. To measure the distance between preferential options it is necessary to take the subjective preferences of the decision maker into account. Accordingly, the multi‐attribute space that defines the relationship between options can be stretched or shrunk relative to the attention or importance that a person gives to different attributes describing the options. Here, we propose a generalized distance function for preferential choices that takes subjective attribute importance into account and allows for individual differences according to such subjective preferences. Using a hands‐on example, we illustrate the application of the function and compare it to previous distance measures. We conclude with a discussion of the suitability and limitations of the proposed distance function.     

Early and late cortical responses to directly gazing faces are task dependent

Gender categorisation of human faces is facilitated when gaze is directed toward the observer (i.e., a direct gaze), compared with situations where gaze is averted or the eyes are closed (Macrae, Hood, Milne, Rowe, & Mason, Psychological Science, 13(5), 460–464, 2002). However, the temporal dynamics underlying this phenomenon remain to some extent unknown. Here, we used electroencephalography (EEG) to assess the neural correlates of this effect, focusing on the event-related potential (ERP) components known to be sensitive to gaze perception (i.e., P1, N170, and P3b). We first replicated the seminal findings of Macrae et al. (2002, Experiment 1) regarding facilitated gender discrimination, and subsequently measured the underlying neural responses. Our data revealed an early preferential processing of direct gaze as compared with averted gaze and closed eyes at the P1, which reverberated at the P3b (Experiment 2). Critically, using the same material, we failed to reproduce these effects when gender categorisation was not required (Experiment 3). Taken together, our data confirm that direct gaze enhances the early P1, as well as later cortical responses to face processing, although the effect appears to be task dependent.     

Biotechnologies that empower transgender persons to self-actualize as individuals,partners, spouses,and parents are defining new ways to conceive a child: psychological considerations and ethical issues

Today, thanks to biomedical technologies advances, some persons with fertility issues can conceive. Transgender persons benefit also from these advances and can not only actualize their self-identified sexual identities but also experience parenthood. Based on clinical multidisciplinary seminars that gathered child psychiatrists and psychoanalysts interested in the fields of assisted reproduction technology (ART) and gender dysphoria, philosophers interested in bioethics, biologists interested in ART, and endocrinologists interested in pubertal suppression, we explore how new biotechnical advances, whether in gender transition or procreation, could create new ways to conceive a child possible. After reviewing the various medical/surgical techniques for physical gender transition and the current ART options, we discuss how these new ways for persons to self-actualize and to experience parenthood can not only improve the condition of transgender persons (and the human condition as a whole through greater equity) but also introduce some elements of change in the habitual patterns of thinking especially in France. Finally, we discuss the ethical issues that accompany the arrival of these children and provide creative solutions to help society handle, accept, and support the advances made in this area.     

Minimal functional brain differences between older adults with and without mild cognitive impairment during the stroop

This investigation compared the neural correlates of inhibition in normal older adults (OAs) and OAs with mild cognitive impairment (MCI). It was hypothesized the MCI group would require a greater amount of resources for inhibition, and therefore display greater functional activation in specific regions of interest (ROIs). Twenty-six OAs without and 17 with MCI completed the Stroop task during functional neuroimaging, and completed additional out-of-scanner neuropsychological measures. During inhibition, there were minimal functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) differences found between groups in a priori specified ROIs and with post-hoc multiple regression analyses. However, these minimal differences did not survive corrected thresholds. Robust differences were found with several tasks of a neuropsychological screening battery. The results of this study suggest only very minimal group differences in fMRI activation during inhibition which may not reliably identify MCI, and this condition may be best detected by traditional neuropsychological techniques.