A Voxel-based lesion study on facial emotion recognition after circumscribed prefrontal cortex damage

Previous studies have shown inconsistent findings regarding the contribution of the different prefrontal regions in emotion recognition. Moreover, the hemispheric lateralization hypothesis posits that the right hemisphere is dominant for processing all emotions regardless of affective valence, whereas the valence specificity hypothesis posits that the left hemisphere is specialized for processing positive emotions while the right hemisphere is specialized for negative emotions. However, recent findings suggest that the evidence for such lateralization has been less consistent. In this study, we investigated emotion recognition of fear, surprise, happiness, sadness, disgust, and anger in 30 patients with focal prefrontal cortex lesions and 30 control subjects. We also examined the impact of lesion laterality on recognition of the six basic emotions. The results showed that compared to control subjects, the frontal subgroups were impaired in recognition of three negative basic emotions of fear, sadness, and anger – regardless of the lesion laterality. Therefore, our findings did not establish that each hemisphere is specialized for processing specific emotions. Moreover, the voxel-based lesion symptom mapping analysis showed that recognition of fear, sadness, and anger draws on a partially common bilaterally distributed prefrontal network.     

Eugene Carson Blake: Renewal in Church and Society

This article reviews the ecumenical involvement of Eugene Carson Blake, the second general secretary of the World Council of Churches (WCC) from 1966 to 1972, focusing on the support for the US civil rights movement and rejection of racism that he brought with him to the WCC. It also examines his role at the WCC's 4th Assembly, in Uppsala, which is often seen as a turning point in ecumenical history.     

How does the manipulation of time pressure during soccer tasks influence physical load and mental fatigue?

This study aimed to analyze whether having more or less time to solve soccer tasks influences physical load and mental fatigue. 48 semi-professional soccer players, from teams in national leagues participated (M_age = 22.4, SD_age = 2.25). They carried out 2 sessions with 4 tasks in each session. In one session, there was more time available; in the other, there was less time available. GPS technology was used to measure physical load, and an adaptation of NASA and Visual Analog Scale to measure mental load and mental fatigue. A related-samples T-test and magnitude based on inference were used to determine the possible effect. Soccer players reported that tasks with less available time were more mentally demanding. Moreover, less available time to solve the tasks significantly increased players’ RPE and decreased their Heart Rate and external physical load. Therefore, the available time significantly affects mental and physical load and mental fatigue.     

A need-supportive teaching approach among students with intellectual disability in physical education

ObjectivesThe present study tested a need-supportive teaching approach to enhance the experience of need satisfaction, autonomous motivation, and well-being, and to decrease need frustration, controlled motivation, amotivation, and ill-being among students with intellectual disability in physical education activities. We further tested the effects of experimental condition in predicting students’ need satisfaction and need frustration, motivational regulations, and well-being and ill-being over the semester.DesignExperimental study.MethodsNinety eight students with mild and borderline intellectual disabilities (M_age = 16.53, SD = 3.22; female = 63.3%) attended in this experimental semester-long study. Teachers (N = 6) of students randomly assigned into either an experimental (need-supportive teaching style) or a control (usual teaching style) condition. Students filled out the targeted questionnaires at the beginning (T1), middle (T2), and the end of the semester (T3).FindingsThe results showed that students of the teachers in the experimental condition reported higher need satisfaction and positive affect, and lesser need frustration, amotivation, and negative affect than students of the teachers in the control condition. The results also showed that experimental condition predicted positively T3 need satisfaction, whereas and negatively predicted T3 need frustration, amotivation, and negative affect.ConclusionFindings highlight the importance of teachers’ need-supportive teaching behaviors to enhance positive outcomes, and decreasing their negative outcomes in students with intellectual disabilities in PE.     

任务结构相似性对工作记忆训练迁移效应的影响

研究发现,个体的工作记忆能力通过训练可以提高。但是,目前对于工作记忆训练的迁移效应,尚未有统一的结论。本文通过梳理相关研究,发现训练任务与评估迁移效应任务之间的结构相似性会对迁移效应产生影响。结构相似性即训练任务和未训练任务之间共享加工和加工程序,而这个共享加工和加工程序能通过发展相似的策略实现工作记忆训练的迁移。今后研究应该更加注意以往研究设计中的不足,针对不同群体的工作记忆训练效果的机制分别进行研究。     

Training career adaptability to facilitate a successful school-to-work transition

The transition from school to work is one of the most critical steps in graduates' careers, as it can determine vocational outcomes and future career success. Yet, these newcomers to the labor market often take longer than regular job seekers to find a suitable job, are more likely to experience a job mismatch and to suffer from underemployment. In this study, we proposed that career adaptability might help remedy this problem. We therefore developed a training aimed at providing graduates with career adaptability resources, with the assumption that this may foster training-participants' later career adaptability and employment quality. A longitudinal field quasi-experiment compared the development of each career adaptability dimension between a training group (n = 32) and a control group (n = 24) over three points in time (pre-training measurement, post-training measurement and follow-up measurement six months later). Repeated measures analyses showed an overall increase in concern, control and curiosity within the training group, whereas there was no increase (concern) or even an overall decrease (control and curiosity) within the control group. Consequently, the training succeeded in enhancing participants' control and curiosity in the long run. Furthermore, among participants who had found employment half a year later, training participants reported higher employment quality than did members of the control group. In sum, results show that providing graduates with career adaptability resources can raise their chances on finding a qualitatively good job.     

Scaffolding a community of competent practitioners: positioning and agency in a training program for narrative counseling

This article explores the scaffolding of learning experiences in a postgraduate program in New Zealand that offers training in narrative counseling. The authors draw on positioning theory to identify student shifts in learning, and in agency, that help build an increasingly skilled and peer-generated context for learning. We describe a selection of exercises and one key assignment, introduced in the course in a particular order, that we believe enable students to step into positions of agency which ultimately allow a competent community of learner-practitioners to emerge. We also describe a dance of positioning for ourselves as teachers in this program. We suggest that, at any given time, our own positioning is tied up with possibilities for student positioning. Acknowledging relationships of power in classrooms, we explore ways to align poststructuralist counseling practices and the teaching of these practices.     

An Intervention to Help Community-Based Organizations Implement an Evidence-Based HIV Prevention Intervention: The Mpowerment Project Technology Exchange System

Considerable resources have been spent developing and rigorously testing HIV prevention intervention models, but such models do not impact the AIDS pandemic unless they are implemented effectively by community-based organizations (CBOs) and health departments. The Mpowerment Project (MP) is being implemented by CBOs around the US. It is a multilevel, evidence-based HIV prevention program for young gay/bisexual men that targets individual, interpersonal, social, and structural issues by using empowerment and community mobilization methods. This paper discusses the development of an intervention to help CBOs implement the MP called the Mpowerment Project Technology Exchange System (MPTES); CBOs’ uptake, utilization and perceptions of the MPTES components; and issues that arose during technical assistance. The seven-component MPTES was provided to 49 CBOs implementing the MP that were followed longitudinally for up to two years. Except for the widely used program manual, other program materials were used early in implementing the MP and then their use declined. In contrast, once technical assistance was proactively provided, its usage remained constant over time, as did requests for technical assistance. CBOs expressed substantial positive feedback about the MPTES, but felt that it needs more focus on diversity issues, describing real world implementation approaches, and providing guidance on how to adapt the MP to diverse populations.     

Working memory training: improving intelligence--changing brain activity

The main objectives of the study were: to investigate whether training on working memory (WM) could improve fluid intelligence, and to investigate the effects WM training had on neuroelectric (electroencephalography - EEG) and hemodynamic (near-infrared spectroscopy - NIRS) patterns of brain activity. In a parallel group experimental design, respondents of the working memory group after 30 h of training significantly increased performance on all tests of fluid intelligence. By contrast, respondents of the active control group (participating in a 30-h communication training course) showed no improvements in performance. The influence of WM training on patterns of neuroelectric brain activity was most pronounced in the theta and alpha bands. Theta and lower-1 alpha band synchronization was accompanied by increased lower-2 and upper alpha desynchronization. The hemodynamic patterns of brain activity after the training changed from higher right hemispheric activation to a balanced activity of both frontal areas. The neuroelectric as well as hemodynamic patterns of brain activity suggest that the training influenced WM maintenance functions as well as processes directed by the central executive. The changes in upper alpha band desynchronization could further indicate that processes related to long term memory were also influenced.