Environmental enrichment improves behavioral performance and auditory spatial representation of primary auditory cortical neurons in rat

Environmental enrichment (EE) has an important role in brain plasticity. Early research has shown that EE increases the response strength of neurons in the auditory cortex, but it remains unknown whether EE can influence the process of spatial localization in the auditory system. In this study, we raised rats in enriched and standard conditions from postnatal day 10 to day 56. By testing behavioral tasks via auditory cues, we have shown that EE improved the number of correct scores, but decreased the reaction time and azimuth deviation in behavioral performance of sound-azimuth discrimination. By in vivo extracellular recording, we have shown that EE enhanced the directional sensitivity of neurons in the primary auditory cortex. For example, EE rats had a smaller spatial receptive field, sharper frequency tuning curve and directional selective curve of auditory neurons compared with normal rats. Our findings indicate that early exposure to EE increases directional sensitivity. These results provide an insight into developmental plasticity in the auditory system.     

Horse (Equus caballus) whinnies: a source of social information

Many animal species that rely mainly on calls to communicate produce individual acoustic structures, but we wondered whether individuals of species better known as visual communicants, with small vocal repertoires, would also exhibit individual distinctiveness in calls. Moreover, theoretical advances concerning the evolution of social intelligence are usually based on primate species data, but relatively little is known about the social cognitive capacities of non-primate mammals. However, some non-primate species demonstrate auditory recognition of social categories and possess mental representation of their social network. Horses (Equus caballus) form stable social networks and although they display a large range of visual signals, they also use long-distance whinny calls to maintain contact. Here, we investigated the potential existence of individual acoustic signatures in whinny calls and the ability of horses to discriminate by ear individuals varying in their degree of familiarity. Our analysis of the acoustic structure of whinnies of 30 adult domestic horses (ten stallions, ten geldings, ten mares) revealed that some of the frequency and temporal parameters carried reliable information about the caller’s sex, body size and identity. However, no correlations with age were found. Playback experiments evaluated the behavioural significance of this variability. Twelve horses heard either control white noise or whinnies emitted by group members, familiar neighbours or unfamiliar horses. While control sounds did not induce any particular response, horses discriminated the social category of the callers and reacted with a sound-specific behaviour (vigilance and attraction varied with familiarity). Our results support the existence of social knowledge in horses and suggest a process of vocal coding/decoding of information.     

Effect of skill level on recall of visually presented patterns of musical notes

Expertise effects in music were studied in a new task: the construction of mental representations from separate fragments. Groups of expert musicians and non-musicians were asked to recall note patterns presented visually note by note. Skill-level, musical well-formedness of the note patterns and presentation mode were varied. The musicians recalled note patterns better than the non-musicians, even though the presentation was visual and successive. Furthermore, only musicians' performance was affected by musical well-formedness of the note patterns when visual gestalt properties, verbal rehearsability, and familiarity of the stimuli were controlled. Musicians were also able to use letter names referring to notes as efficiently as visual notes, which indicates that the better recall of musicians cannot be explained by perceptual visual chunking. These results and the effect of skill level on the distribution of recall errors indicate that the ability to chunk incoming information into meaningful units does not require that complete familiar patterns are accessible to encoding processes, yet previous knowledge stored in long-term memory affects representation construction in working memory. The present method offers a new reliable tool, and its implications to the research on construction of representations and musical imagery are discussed.     

Aggressive personality traits in the effects of violent imagery on unprovoked impulsive aggression

In a three-factor design varying the aggressive-behavior subtraits of physical aggression (low, high) and hostility (low, high) with exposure to film content (innocuous, violent imagery), respondents were exposed to film segments and thereafter engaged in a teaching task that involved the administration of noxious feedback for unproductive efforts by the learner. A display informed respondents of the intensity of delivered feedback. Instructions were to provide feedback as often as required and of intensities deemed appropriate. However, respondents were also told to refrain from using extremely high intensities, as these intensities would be hurtful to the learner. None of the three independent variables exerted appreciable influence on the frequency of use of recommended feedback. In contrast, the frequency of the use of the disallowed, hurtful feedback was markedly affected. Independent of exposure to film content, men scoring high on hostility used impulsive aggressive responses more frequently than men scoring low on that subtrait. Within the subtrait of physical aggression, however, the degree of trait manifestation proved inconsequential for impulsive aggression, but exposure to the violent film segment resulted in more frequent use of impulsive aggressive responses than exposure to the innocuous film segment.     

13-18岁青少年表象能力的发展和脑电α波的关系

本研究以188名1318岁青少年为研究对象,采用脑电波超慢涨落分析技术(简称ET),对其12导联脑电波(EEG)进行了记录和分析,并对其表象能力进行了考察。重点探讨了表象能力的发展与脑α波特点之间的关系。结果表明:(1)13～18岁青少年随年龄增长,对表象任务正确反应需要的时间逐渐下降,其反应时变化的转折时期为16岁;(2)男女生之间差异不显著;(3)在句图匹配和心理旋转作业中好组10Hzα波的比率均高于差组,其它频率差异不显著,说明表象能力好组与占主频的α波相联系。     

True and false memory for colour names versus actual colours: Support for the visual distinctiveness heuristic in memory for colour information

In a colour variation of the Deese–Roediger–McDermott (DRM) false memory paradigm, participants studied lists of words critically related to a nonstudied colour name (e.g., “blood, cherry, scarlet, rouge … ”); they later showed false memory for the critical colour name (e.g., “red”). Two additional experiments suggest that participants generate colour imagery in response to such colour-related DRM lists. First, participants claim to experience colour imagery more often following colour-related than standard non-colour-related DRM lists; they also rate their colour imagery as more vivid following colour-related lists. Second, participants exhibit facilitative priming for critical colours in a dot selection task that follows words in the colour-related DRM list, suggesting that colour-related DRM lists prime participants for the actual critical colours themselves. Despite these findings, false memory for critical colour names does not extend to the actual colours themselves (font colours). Rather than leading to source confusion about which colours were self-generated and which were studied, presenting the study lists in varied font colours actually worked to reduce false memory overall. Results are interpreted within the framework of the visual distinctiveness hypothesis.     

表象测量方法述评

表象测量在训练领域广泛应用,也是训练成败的关键环节.表象测量方法可分为口头报告纸笔法、实验操作法,以及神经科学技术共三种方法.其中纸笔报告法以量表测量为主,包括Betts量表、视觉表象清晰度量表及其修订版和运动表象清晰度量表及其修订版;实验操作法以心理旋转为基本范式;神经科学技术主要以经颅磁刺激和功能磁共振成像为主,测量多种表象过程中不同脑区兴奋性.三者各有优劣,均有待提高和改进.     

Ups and Downs in Auditory Development: Preschoolers’ Sensitivity to Pitch Contour and Timbre

Much research has explored developing sound representations in language, but less work addresses developing representations of other sound patterns. This study examined preschool children's musical representations using two different tasks: discrimination and sound–picture association. Melodic contour—a musically relevant property—and instrumental timbre, which is (arguably) less musically relevant, were tested. In Experiment 1, children failed to associate cartoon characters to melodies with maximally different pitch contours, with no advantage for melody preexposure. Experiment 2 also used different‐contour melodies and found good discrimination, whereas association was at chance. Experiment 3 replicated Experiment 2, but with a large timbre change instead of a contour change. Here, discrimination and association were both excellent. Preschool‐aged children may have stronger or more durable representations of timbre than contour, particularly in more difficult tasks. Reasons for weaker association of contour than timbre information are discussed, along with implications for auditory development.     

Memory for Movement Sequences in Gymnastics: Effects of Age and Skill Level

The authors studied the performances of 8- to 13-year-old skilled (n = 30) and less skilled (n = 30) gymnasts on a gymnastics routine recall task by examining the role of memorization strategies and imagery ability. Subjects had to reproduce 3 movement sequences presented on videotape. The number of trials needed to achieve correct recall, the strategies employed, and the subjects' imagery ability were analyzed. Recall performance improved with age and skill level. Movement labeling was the most prevalent strategy used; its frequency increased with age, although it did not lead to better recall performance. Performance was higher, however, among subjects with better imagery skills. The role of strategy development in the age-related improvement in memory performance was not clearly demonstrated. The effect of skill level is interpreted in terms of knowledge bases and kinesthetic movement encoding.     

Effects of primary task predictability and secondary task modality on lane maintenance

The objective of this work was to investigate the effects of auditory and visuo-spatial secondary tasks on variability in lane position in predictable and unpredictable driving conditions. Sixty-six participants drove a simulated vehicle. Predictability was manipulated by adding wind gusts, and the secondary task load by either an auditory task (Experiment 1) or a visuo-spatial task (Experiment 2). Results demonstrated that in the predictable driving condition, lane position variability decreased when auditory secondary task load was given, but it was not affected by visuo-spatial secondary task load. In the unpredictable driving condition; however, while the auditory secondary task load did not affect lane position variability, visuo-spatial secondary task load increased it. The data suggests that the effects of cognitive load on lane maintenance may depend on the type of the secondary task beside predictability of primary task.