Seeing is believing: the effect of brain images on judgments of scientific reasoning

Brain images are believed to have a particularly persuasive influence on the public perception of research on cognition. Three experiments are reported showing that presenting brain images with articles summarizing cognitive neuroscience research resulted in higher ratings of scientific reasoning for arguments made in those articles, as compared to articles accompanied by bar graphs, a topographical map of brain activation, or no image. These data lend support to the notion that part of the fascination, and the credibility, of brain imaging research lies in the persuasive power of the actual brain images themselves. We argue that brain images are influential because they provide a physical basis for abstract cognitive processes, appealing to people's affinity for reductionistic explanations of cognitive phenomena.     

Fetal alcohol syndrome and the developing socio-emotional brain

Fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS) is currently recognized as the most common known cause of mental retardation, affecting from 1 to 7 per 1000 live-born infants. Individuals with FAS suffer from changes in brain structure, cognitive impairments, and behavior problems. Researchers investigating neuropsychological functioning have identified deficits in learning, memory, executive functioning, hyperactivity, impulsivity, and poor communication and social skills in individuals with FAS and fetal alcohol effects (FAE). Investigators using autopsy and brain imaging methods have identified microcephaly and structural abnormalities in various regions of the brain (including the basal ganglia, corpus callosum, cerebellum, and hippocampus) that may account for the neuropsychological deficits. Results of studies using newer brain imaging and analytic techniques have indicated specific alterations (i.e., displacements in the corpus callosum, increased gray matter density in the perisylvian regions, altered gray matter asymmetry, and disproportionate reductions in the frontal lobes) in the brains of individuals prenatally exposed to alcohol, and their relations with brain function. Future research, including using animal models, could help inform our knowledge of brain-behavior relations in the context of prenatal alcohol exposure, and assist with early identification and intervention.     

Cortical Language Mapping in Epilepsy: A Critical Review

One challenge in dominant hemisphere epilepsy surgery is to remove sufficient epileptogenic tissue to achieve seizure freedom without compromising postoperative language function. Electrical stimulation mapping (ESM) of language was developed specifically to identify essential language cortex in pharmacologically intractable epilepsy patients undergoing left hemisphere resection of epileptogenic cortex. Surprisingly, the procedure remains unstandardized, and limited data support its clinical validity. Nevertheless, ESM for language mapping has likely minimized postoperative language decline in numerous patients, and has generated a wealth of data elucidating brain–language relations. This article reviews the literature on topographical patterns of language organization inferred from ESM, and the influence of patient characteristics on these patterns, including baseline ability level, age, gender, pathology, degree of language lateralization and bilingualism. Questions regarding clinical validity and limitations of ESM are discussed. Finally, recommendations for clinical practice are presented, and theoretical questions regarding ESM and the findings it has generated are considered.     

PREVENTING BACK INJURIES IN HOSPITAL SETTINGS: THE EFFECTS OF VIDEO MODELING ON SAFE PATIENT LIFTING BY NURSES

This study evaluated video scoring and feedback about scoring as a safety intervention among 6 nursing staff. The dependent variable was safety behavior on one‐person transfers. Following baseline, 5 nursing staff participated in an information phase. A video scoring phase was then introduced for all 6. A feedback phase was added for 2 participants. All participants experienced treatment withdrawal. Information resulted in improvements for all 5 participants who received it. Further improvements were observed during video scoring for the 5 participants who improved following information. No improvements were observed for the participant who received only video scoring. Safety feedback further improved safety for the 2 participants who received it. However, participants' behavior returned to video scoring levels during withdrawal.     

Changes in brain activation induced by the training of hypothesis generation skills: an fMRI study

The aim of the present study is to investigate the learning-related changes in brain activation induced by the training of hypothesis generation skills regarding biological phenomena. Eighteen undergraduate participants were scanned twice with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) before and after training over a period of 2 months. The experimental group underwent eight biological hypothesis generation training programs, but the control group was not given any during the 2-month period. The results showed that the left frontal gyri, the cingulate gyrus, and the cuneus were activated during hypothesis generation. In addition, the brain activation of the trained group increased in the left inferior and the superior frontal gyri, which are related to working memory load and higher-order inferential processes. However, the activation after training decreased in the occipito-parietal route, which is associated with the perception and the analysis processes of visual information. Furthermore, the results have suggested that the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) region is the critical area in the training of hypothesis generation skills.     

Deficits in executed and imagined aiming performance in brain-injured children

Motor disorders are a frequent consequence of acquired brain injury (ABI) in children and much effort is currently invested in alleviating these deficits. The aim of the present study was to test motor imagery (MI) capabilities in children with ABI (n=25) and an age- and gender-matched control group (n=25). A computerized Virtual Radial Fitts Task (VRFT) was used to investigate the speed-accuracy trade-offs (or Fitts' law) that occur as target size is varied for both executed and imagined performance. In the control group, the speed for accuracy trade-off for both executed and imagined performance conformed to Fitts' law. In the ABI group, only executed movements conformed to Fitts' law. These findings suggest that children with ABI show an inferior ability to imagine the time needed to complete goal-directed movements with differential difficulty levels.     

The effect of context during word perception in schizophrenic patients

Hospitalized chronic and acute schizophrenics were compared with age- and social-status-matched controls on word perception tests to measure the effect of context on recognition thresholds. In Experiment 1 the method of J. Morton (1964, British Journal of Psychology, 55, 165-180) was adopted to see how related and unrelated contexts influenced word recognition thresholds when both context and stimulus word were presented visually. Experiment 2 was an auditory analog of Experiment 1 and in addition the chronic schizophrenics were selected on the basis of a presence or absence of auditory hallucinations. The influence of context on perceptual thresholds was quite normal in all schizophrenics. However, analysis of the incorrect responses elicited showed that some schizophrenic subjects do produce bizarre or irrelevant responses or perseveration to a greater extent than their controls. These results are explained in terms of automatic and strategic modes of information processing. The automatic processes responsible for the adjustment of perceptual thresholds operate normally in schizophrenics but response production which demands strategic selection and editing of responses is prone to malfunction which results in the observed deviations in the normal use of language.     

Affordances after spinal cord injury

Spinal cord injury can cause cognitive impairments even when no cerebral lesion is appreciable. As patients are forced to explore the environment in a non-canonical position (i.e., seated on a wheelchair), a modified relation with space can explain motor-related cognitive differences compared to non-injured individuals. Peripersonal space is encoded in motor terms, that is, in relation to the representation of action abilities and is strictly related to the affordance of reachability. In turn, affordances, the action possibilities suggested by relevant properties of the environment, are related to the perceiver's peripersonal space and motor abilities. One might suppose that these motor-related cognitive abilities are compromised when an individual loses the ability to move. We shed light on this issue in 10 patients with paraplegia and 20 matched controls. All have been administered an affordances-related reachability judgement task adapted from Costantini, Ambrosini, Tieri, Sinigaglia, and Committeri (2010, Experimental Brain Research, 207, 95) and neuropsychological tests. Our findings demonstrate that patients and controls show the same level of accuracy in estimating the location of their peripersonal space boundaries, but only controls show the typical overestimation of reaching range. Secondly, patients show a higher variability in their judgements than controls. Importantly, this finding is related to the patients’ ability to perform everyday tasks. Finally, patients are not faster in making their judgements on reachability in peripersonal space, while controls are. Our results suggest that not moving freely or as usual in the environment impact decoding of action-related properties even when the upper limbs are not compromised.     

Do complex models increase prediction of complex behaviours? Predicting driving ability in people with brain disorders

Prediction of complex behavioural tasks via relatively simple modelling techniques, such as logistic regression and discriminant analysis, often has limited success. We hypothesized that to more accurately model complex behaviour, more complex models, such as kernel-based methods, would be needed. To test this hypothesis, we assessed the value of six modelling approaches for predicting driving ability based on performance on computerized sensory–motor and cognitive tests (SMCTests?) in 501 people with brain disorders. The models included three models previously used to predict driving ability (discriminant analysis, DA; binary logistic regression, BLR; and nonlinear causal resource analysis, NCRA) and three kernel methods (support vector machine, SVM; product kernel density, PK; and kernel product density, KP). At the classification level, two kernel methods were substantially more accurate at classifying on-road pass or fail (SVM 99.6%, PK 99.8%) than the other models (DA 76%, BLR 78%, NCRA 74%, KP 81%). However, accuracy decreased substantially for all of the kernel models when cross-validation techniques were used to estimate prediction of on-road pass or fail in an independent referral group (SVM 73–76%, PK 72–73%, KP 71–72%) but decreased only slightly for DA (74–75%) and BLR (75–76%). Cross-validation of NCRA was not possible. In conclusion, while kernel-based models are successful at modelling complex data at a classification level, this is likely to be due to overfitting of the data, which does not lead to an improvement in accuracy in independent data over and above the accuracy of other less complex modelling techniques.     

Thought sequences

Abstract

Thought sequences are ordered series of verbal-like expressions that pass spontaneously through one's mind and which are characterised by well-demarcated beginnings and ends. The present paper notes the significance of and interest in thought sequences and presents a framework for their analysis. Given the scope of the enterprise, different levels of analysis are noted which set the boundaries for the present investigation, and define guidelines for further research. Here, the focus of interest is the structural (as distinct from either functional or computational) relationships between pairs of consecutive expressions. The informational bases for these relationships are reviewed and a typology of them is drawn. The typology reveals marked internal structure and it suggests that the variety of couplings of thought sequences constitutes a space spanned by a small number of variables. Methodological issues regarding the use of introspection in cognitive research are also discussed.