Interactive property attribution in concept combination

We address the question of how people understand attributive noun-noun compounds. Alignment-and-comparison models suggest that the similarity of the constituent concepts guides interpretation. We propose, as an alternative, an interactive property attribution model wherein the modifier and head concepts have different functions: The head provides relevant dimensions, whereas the modifier provides candidate features for attribution. According to our model, the interaction of dimensions and features, rather than constituent similarity, guides interpretation. In this study, we empirically contrasted the two models by holding constituent similarity of compounds constant while varying the interaction of modifier feature salience and head dimension relevance. Compounds consisting of a head concept with a relevant dimension for attribution and a modifier with a salient property on that dimension were interpreted by means of property attribution. Other compounds with equivalent constituent similarity, but lacking the high salience-relevance interaction, were not interpreted by means of attribution. The interactive property attribution model more accurately predicted interpretation of noun-noun compounds.     

Orthography plays a critical role in cognate priming: Evidence from French/English and Arabic/French cognates

A series of three experiments was carried out in order to better characterize the representations that support long-term cognate priming. In Experiment 1, robust priming was obtained between orthographically similar French/English cognates in bilingual speakers, and this priming was mediated, in part, by orthographic codes, given that priming for these items was dramatically reduced following a study-test modality shift. In Experiment 2, no priming was obtained between the same set of French/English cognates in monolingual English speakers. Finally, in Experiment 3, priming for orthographically unrelated Arabic/French cognates was no larger than cross-modal priming, suggesting that these effects were mediated by nonorthographic representations. The role of orthography in supporting cognate priming is discussed.     

Vertical and bisection bias in active touch

We investigated the conditions that underlie the vertical and bisection illusion in touch, in order to understand the basis of their similarity to visual illusions, and the means of reducing the biases in length perception by active touch. Movement, speed, and spatial reference cues were tested. Movements in scanning L-shapes in ipsilateral and contralateral (across the body midline) table-top space produced significant underestimation of the vertical line with the right hand, but not with the left hand. Right-handed scanning of L-shapes showed no significant bias when the vertical line in the figure was aligned to the body midline, suggesting that spatial cues were involved. The vertical line was overestimated in inverted T-shapes, but underestimated in rotated T-shapes, implicating line bisection. Holding scanning latencies constant reduced the vertical error for inverted T-shapes, but could not explain the bisection bias. Sectioning biases were predicted by the location of junctions on sectioned lines, showing that junction points act as misleading anchor cues for movement extents. The illusion was significantly reduced when reference information was added by instructing subjects to relate two-handed scanning of the figure to an external frame and to body-centred cues. It is argued that disparities in spatial reference (anchor) cues for movement extents are involved in vertical and bisection biases in active touch. The hypothesis that length illusions depend on disparities in spatial reference information can also account for the similarity of the tactile to the visual horizontal-vertical illusion.     

The glare effect does not give rise to a longer-lasting afterimage

The glare effect is an illusion in which a region appears self-luminous when flanked by gradients that decrease in luminance with distance from the region (Zavagno, 1999 Perception 28 835-838). This region also appears brighter than a surface of the same luminance. We investigated, using the paradigm of afterimages, whether a low-level mechanism at the level of the retina or LGN could account for this apparent brighter sensation. We first replicated the result from the literature that brighter and longer-lasting physical stimuli generate longer-lasting afterimages. We then compared the glare-effect stimuli with their counterpart controls, and found that the glare-effect stimuli did not give rise to longer-lasting afterimages. This suggests that the apparent brighter sensation of the glare effect is not due to a retinal or LGN mechanism, but must have a cortical origin.     

直视不可能性：克尔凯郭尔、德里达以及宗教的再现

克尔凯郭尔在假名作品《恐惧与战栗》当中描述过“信仰”的“双重运动”,《再现》当中描述过对“再现”的“超越”,它们与德里达所说的“对于不可能的事情的经验”之间有着惊人的对应。因此在主线上,德里达提出的对于不可能的事情的激情与上述两部假名作品当中所提出的“宗教”范畴彼此呼应。一种“不可能性的公理”构成了德里达所说的“没有宗教的宗教”,而不是简单的宗教;构成了某种“宗教的再现”。于是,德里达和克尔凯郭尔的假名作者们拉近了宗教和解构之间的距离。     

External and body-centered frames of reference in spatial memory: evidence from touch

The study reports independent effects of external and body-centered reference cues on spatial coding of an irregular sequence of haptic locations. The aim was to investigate the nature of spatial coding by using a modality that does not provide distal cues routinely. Our method isolates and combines body-centered and external spatial reference cues for irregularly placed locations, scanned along a raised-line route. Disrupting body-centered reference for the locations, by orienting the map differently to the body in the test phase than in the presentation phase, doubled errors in positioning the locations along the route in recall. Adding external reference, by giving instructions to use a surrounding frame for reference when body-centered coding was disrupted, reduced errors to near baseline (no-rotation) levels. Adding external reference cues to intact (not displaced) body-centered reference halved errors, as compared with the baseline. The results are consistent with the hypothesis that accurate spatial coding is determined by the congruence of potential reference cues from diverse sources. The new findings suggest that external and body-centered reference cues have independent additive effects on spatial coding. The sequence of locations had a significant effect in all the reference conditions, suggesting the additional use of fortuitous but distinctive local touch cues on the route. The discussion considers theoretical and practical implications of the results.     

Pilocarpine seizures cause age-dependent impairment in auditory location discrimination

Children who have status epilepticus have continuous or rapidly repeating seizures that may be life-threatening and may cause life-long changes in brain and behavior. The extent to which status epilepticus causes deficits in auditory discrimination is unknown. A naturalistic auditory location discrimination method was used to evaluate this question using an animal model of status epilepticus. Male Sprague-Dawley rats were injected with saline on postnatal day (P) 20, or a convulsant dose of pilocarpine on P20 or P45. Pilocarpine on either day induced status epilepticus; status epilepticus at P45 resulted in CA3 cell loss and spontaneous seizures, whereas P20 rats had no cell loss or spontaneous seizures. Mature rats were trained with sound-source location and sound-silence discriminations. Control (saline P20) rats acquired both discriminations immediately. In status epilepticus (P20) rats, acquisition of the sound-source location discrimination was moderately impaired. Status epilepticus (P45) rats failed to acquire either sound-source location or sound-silence discriminations. Status epilepticus in rat causes an age-dependent, long-term impairment in auditory discrimination. This impairment may explain one cause of impaired auditory location discrimination in humans.     

Implicit learning of nonlocal musical rules: implicitly learning more than chunks

Dominant theories of implicit learning assume that implicit learning merely involves the learning of chunks of adjacent elements in a sequence. In the experiments presented here, participants implicitly learned a nonlocal rule, thus suggesting that implicit learning can go beyond the learning of chunks. Participants were exposed to a set of musical tunes that were all generated using a diatonic inversion. In the subsequent test phase, participants either classified test tunes as obeying a rule (direct test) or rated their liking for the tunes (indirect test). Both the direct and indirect tests were sensitive to knowledge of chunks. However, only the indirect test was sensitive to knowledge of the inversion rule. Furthermore, the indirect test was overall significantly more sensitive than the direct test, thus suggesting that knowledge of the inversion rule was below an objective threshold of awareness.     

Stimulated release of tissue plasminogen activator from artery wall sympathetic nerves: implications for stress-associated wall damage

Recurrent stress is clinically associated with early onset hypertension and coronary artery disease. A mechanism linking emotion to pathogenic remodeling of the artery wall has not been identified. Stress stimulates acute regulated release of tissue plasminogen activator (t-PA) into the circulation, which is presently attributed to the vascular endothelium. Sympathetic neurons also synthesize t-PA and axonally transport it to the arterial smooth muscle. Unlike release by the endothelium, a stress-stimulated sympathetic discharge would potentially accelerate degradation of the wall matrix by plasmin. To assess whether sympathetic axons are the principal source of acute stress-induced arterial release of t-PA, we compared the output from small densely innervated and large sparsely innervated isolated artery segments before and after sympathetic stimulation, and after ablations. Following phenylephrine infusion densely-innervated microvessels in uveal eyecups were released over 60-fold greater amounts of active t-PA per milligram than the sparsely innervated aorta; and ten-fold more than carotid artery segments. Mesenteric artery release was 4.8-fold greater than release by the carotid artery. In vivo, uveal release of t-PA increased more than three-fold within one minute following superior cervical sympathetic ganglion electrical stimulation, and after phenylephrine, or nicotine infusions of the anterior chamber. Circulating levels of t-PA fell 70% following chemical sympathectomy. We propose that sympathetic nerves are the primary source of stress-induced release of t-PA into and from the densely innervated resistance arteries and arterioles, where dysregulated plasmin-induced proteolysis could damage the wall matrix.