Sex differences in the adolescent brain

Adolescence is a time of increased divergence between males and females in physical characteristics, behavior, and risk for psychopathology. Here we will review data regarding sex differences in brain structure and function during this period of the lifespan. The most consistent sex difference in brain morphometry is the 9–12% larger brain size that has been reported in males. Individual brain regions that have most consistently been reported as different in males and females include the basal ganglia, hippocampus, and amygdala. Diffusion tensor imaging and magnetization transfer imaging studies have also shown sex differences in white matter development during adolescence. Functional imaging studies have shown different patterns of activation without differences in performance, suggesting male and female brains may use slightly different strategies for achieving similar cognitive abilities. Longitudinal studies have shown sex differences in the trajectory of brain development, with females reaching peak values of brain volumes earlier than males. Although compelling, these sex differences are present as group averages and should not be taken as indicative of relative capacities of males or females.     

CT故障停机时放射科危机管理的应用研究

放射科应用危机管理理论,在CT故障停机时,启动危机处理方案:用MRI替代检查,配以危机处理工作流程,MRI加班不停机和一小时内出报告等措施,保障了患者影像诊疗的持续性,使"以患者为中心"得以拓展和落实,为医院带来了良好的品牌效益、服务效益和技术效益。     

Interactions of space and language: Insights from the neglect syndrome

The current article speculates about the interrelations between space and language from the perspective of the neglect syndrome. Various conflicting findings are reviewed and the effect of cultural factors is strongly emphasised. Current scientific literature describes relationships between space and language; however, the available data render it difficult to conclude whether it is the primacy of spatial representations or the complex two‐way interaction between linguistic and spatial representations that determines the nature of cognitive processing. It is hoped that studying the neglect syndrome will provide a solution to this problem. Finally, directions for future research are provided that requires bridging the gap between cognitive theorising and neuroscientific approaches.     

Brain MR kurtosis imaging study: Contrasting gray and white matter

This paper mainly focuses on characterization of different brain tissues such as White and Gray matter (WM and GM) using the relation between Diffusion Tensor Imaging and Diffusion Kurtosis Imaging parameters. Both Diffusion Tensor Imaging and Diffusion Kurtosis Imaging are the extension of Diffusion Weighted Imaging, which are widely applied for analysing micro fibre structure of human organs non-invasively. Diffusion Tensor Imaging assumes that the water diffusion is in Gaussian nature and Diffusion Kurtosis Imaging accounts the deviation of the Gaussian nature. This study, conducted a correlation and regression analysis between different parametric maps generated from Diffusion Kurtosis Images. For this we have chosen 200 regions of interest pixels drawn from brain MRIs. From the results, it is observed that there is a significant variation in the correlation results between Axial Diffusion and Kurtosis Fractional Anisotropy maps of Gray matter and White matter tissues. This can be employed for enhancing accuracy in MRI segmentation techniques and also as a potential tool for Neuro degenerative disease detection.     

语言与数量认知关系的新认识

数量认知研究近年有长足发展。文章从新近提出的独立于语言的两个数量表征核心系统,语言与精确数量运算,语言与算术事实的储存,语言对儿童早期数概念发展的影响,语言与数量认知关系的最新脑科学证据,以及语言在数量认知模型中的角色等方面,介绍和评述了人类存在依赖和不依赖语言的两级数量能力的新认识。对于是否还存在其它不依赖语言的理解数量的系统,以及这些非语言数量表征系统的认知机制,文章认为有待进一步研究     

The effects of musical practice on structural plasticity: The dynamics of grey matter changes

Intensive training and the acquisition of expertise are known to bring about structural changes in the brain. Musical training is a particularly interesting model. Previous studies have reported structural brain modifications in the auditory, motor and visuospatial areas of musicians compared with nonmusicians. The main goal of the present study was to go one step further, by exploring the dynamic of those structural brain changes related to musical experience. To this end, we conducted a regression study on 44 nonmusicians and amateur musicians with 0–26 years of musical practice of a variety instruments. We sought first to highlight brain areas that increased with the duration of practice and secondly distinguish (thanks to an ANOVA analysis) brain areas that undergo grey matter changes after only limited years of musical practice from those that require longer practice before they exhibit changes. Results revealed that musical training results a greater grey matter volumes in different brain areas for musicians. Changes appear gradually in the left hippocampus and right middle and superior frontal regions, but later also include the right insula and supplementary motor area and left superior temporal, and posterior cingulate areas. Given that all participants had the same age and that we controlled for age and education level, these results cannot be ascribed to normal brain maturation. Instead, they support the notion that musical training could induce dynamic structural changes.     

Working memory in very-low-birthweight children at the age of 11 years

The aim of this study is to investigate the working memory (WM) of very-low-birthweight (VLBW, ≤ 1500 g) children at the age of 11 years using Baddeley’s WM model. A regional cohort of 95 VLBW children was assessed for the domains of the WM model (central executive [CE], visuospatial sketchpad [VS], and phonological loop [PL]) using subtests from the Working Memory Test Battery for Children (WMTB-C) and the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children – Fourth Edition (WISC-IV). VLBW children were categorized into three groups according to their degree of brain pathology (normal, minor, or major) in neonatal brain magnetic resonance imaging at the term age, and the WM performance was compared between groups to test norms. The structure of the WM model was studied by analyzing correlations among domains. Even VLBW children with normal cognitive development (general ability index ≥ 85) performed worse compared to the test norms (M = 100, SD = 15) on CE (M = 87.64, SD = 20.54, p < .001) and VS (M = 91.65, SD = 11.03, p < .001), but their performance on PL was above the norm (M = 110.79, SD = 13.79, p < .001). VLBW children with major brain pathology performed significantly worse on VS and PL compared to the other groups. The correlations among the WM domains of the VLBW children differ from earlier findings in normative populations. To conclude, the WM of the VLBW children in the study differ—especially in the CE and VS subtest scores—from the normative population irrespective of the degree of brain pathology and level of cognitive development.     

Bilinguals who stutter: A cognitive perspective

PurposeBrain differences, both in structure and executive functioning, have been found in both developmental stuttering and bilingualism. However, the etiology of stuttering remains unknown. The early suggestion that stuttering is a result of brain dysfunction has since received support from various behavioral and neuroimaging studies that have revealed functional and structural brain changes in monolinguals who stutter (MWS). In addition, MWS appear to show deficits in executive control. However, there is a lack of data on bilinguals who stutter (BWS). This literature review is intended to provide an overview of both stuttering and bilingualism as well as synthesize areas of overlap among both lines of research and highlight knowledge gaps in the current literature.MethodsA systematic literature review on both stuttering and bilingualism studies was conducted, searching for articles containing “stuttering” and/or “bilingualism” and either “brain”, “executive functions”, “executive control”, “motor control”, “cognitive reserve”, or “brain reserve” in the PubMed database. Additional studies were found by examining the reference list of studies that met the inclusion criteria.ResultsA total of 148 references that met the criteria for inclusion in this paper were used in the review. A comparison of the impact of stuttering or bilingualism on the brain are discussed.ConclusionPrevious research examining a potential bilingual advantage for BWS is mixed. However, if such an advantage does exist, it appears to offset potential deficits in executive functioning that may be associated with stuttering.     

A bio-inspired model of behavior considering decision-making and planning,spatial attention and basic motor commands processes

Cognitive architectures (CA) are an IA approach to implement computer systems with human-like behavior. Fundamental exhibited human capabilities include planning and decision-making. In that regard, numerous AI systems successfully exhibit human-like behavior but are limited to either achieving specific objectives or are restrained to too heavily constrained environments, which makes them unsuitable in the presence of unforeseen situations where autonomy is required. To try to alleviate the problem, we present a bio-inspired computational model to solve the autonomous navigation problem of a computational entity in a controlled context. This proposal is the result of the interaction between planning and decision-making, spatial attention and the motor cognitive functions. The proposed model is based on neuroscientific evidence concerning the involved cognitive functions and is part of a more general cognitive architecture. In the case study developed to validate our idea, we can see that the processes previously identified play an important role to accomplish spatial navigation. In the case study presented, an agent achieves the navigation over an unexplored maze from an initial to a final position successfully. The reunited results motivate us to continue improving our model considering attentional information to influence the agent’s motor behavior.