Establishing motion control in children with autism and intellectual disability: Applications for anatomical and functional MRI

Excessive motion makes magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) extremely challenging among children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). The medical risks of sedation establish the need for behavioral interventions to promote motion control among children with ASD undergoing MRI scans. We present a series of experiments aimed at establishing both tolerance of the MRI environment and a level of motion control that would be compatible with a successful MRI. During Study 1, we evaluated the effects of prompting and contingent reinforcement on compliance with a sequence of successive approximations to an MRI using a mock MRI. During Study 2, we used prompting and progressive differential reinforcement of other behaviors (DRO) to promote motion control in a mock MRI for increasing periods of time. Finally, during Study 3, some of the participants underwent a real MRI scan while a detailed in‐session motion analysis informed the quality of the images captured.     

Understanding user’s travel behavior and city region functions from station-free shared bike usage data

Station-free shared bike (SFSB) is a new travel mode that shared bikes are allowed to park in any proper places. It implies that the users are more likely to park the SFSB as close as their destinations. This advantage makes the SFSB data to be an ideal source to understand the land-use distribution. Inspired by the idea in text mining, this paper proposes a topic-based two-stage SFSB data mining algorithm to understand the SFSB user’s travel behavior and to discover city functional regions. A region, a function and human mobility patterns are treated as a document, a topic and words, respectively. Then, a region is represented by a distribution of functions, and a function is featured by a distribution of mobility patterns. The point-of-interest data is combined to annotate the clustered regions to discover the real functions. At last, the proposed method is tested using 14-day SFSB data in Beijing and the results are estimated by the Satellite Map data. The proposed methods and the results can be applied to infer the individual’s travel purpose through functional regions and to improve land-use planning, etc.     

中国儿童青少年跨期决策的发展与脑发育机制

跨期决策是指人们对时间成本与收益进行权衡, 进而做出评价与选择, 其研究主要围绕时间折扣, 是指与当前或近期的损益相比, 人们赋予未来损益更小的权重。虽然有争议, 但Mischel等人很早就通过著名的“棉花糖实验”证明了延迟满足能力越强的儿童有着更高的学业成就。延迟满足与跨期决策都是在时间维度上进行的决策。研究者通过脑成像技术发现了成人大脑内支持跨期决策的三个神经网络系统, 但关于儿童的研究鲜有报道。这三大脑网络系统都位于额叶皮层, 该皮层在儿童青少年时期快速发育。通过采用横断研究和纵向研究相结合的实验设计, 对处于跨期决策发展关键期的中国儿童青少年人群进行测查和追踪; 借助神经影像技术, 考察跨期决策发展与脑发育的关系; 整合多模态神经影像技术, 构建可以预测跨期决策能力的脑影像指标。     

Neurophysiology and neuroanatomy of reflexive and volitional saccades: evidence from studies of humans

This review provides a summary of the contributions made by human functional neuroimaging studies to the understanding of neural correlates of saccadic control. The generation of simple visually guided saccades (redirections of gaze to a visual stimulus or pro-saccades) and more complex volitional saccades require similar basic neural circuitry with additional neural regions supporting requisite higher level processes. The saccadic system has been studied extensively in non-human (e.g., single-unit recordings) and human (e.g., lesions and neuroimaging) primates. Considerable knowledge of this system’s functional neuroanatomy makes it useful for investigating models of cognitive control. The network involved in pro-saccade generation (by definition largely exogenously-driven) includes subcortical (striatum, thalamus, superior colliculus, and cerebellar vermis) and cortical (primary visual, extrastriate, and parietal cortices, and frontal and supplementary eye fields) structures. Activation in these regions is also observed during endogenously-driven voluntary saccades (e.g., anti-saccades, ocular motor delayed response or memory saccades, predictive tracking tasks and anticipatory saccades, and saccade sequencing), all of which require complex cognitive processes like inhibition and working memory. These additional requirements are supported by changes in neural activity in basic saccade circuitry and by recruitment of additional neural regions (such as prefrontal and anterior cingulate cortices). Activity in visual cortex is modulated as a function of task demands and may predict the type of saccade to be generated, perhaps via top-down control mechanisms. Neuroimaging studies suggest two foci of activation within FEF - medial and lateral - which may correspond to volitional and reflexive demands, respectively. Future research on saccade control could usefully (i) delineate important anatomical subdivisions that underlie functional differences, (ii) evaluate functional connectivity of anatomical regions supporting saccade generation using methods such as ICA and structural equation modeling, (iii) investigate how context affects behavior and brain activity, and (iv) use multi-modal neuroimaging to maximize spatial and temporal resolution.     

Backwards explanation

We discuss explanation of an earlier event by a later event, and argue that prima facie cases of backwards event explanation are ubiquitous. Some examples: (1) I am tidying my flat because my brother is coming to visit tomorrow. (2) The scarlet pimpernels are closing because it is about to rain. (3) The volcano is smoking because it is going to erupt soon. We then look at various ways people might attempt to explain away these prima facie cases by arguing that in each case the ‘real’ explanation is something else. We argue that none of the explaining-away strategies are successful, and so any plausible account of explanation should either make room for backwards explanation, or have a good story to tell about why it doesn’t have to.

Neuroimaging as a New Tool in the Toolbox of Psychological Science

ABSTRACT— During the past quarter century, advances in imaging technology have helped transform scientific fields. As important as the data made available by these new technologies have been, equally important have been the guides provided by existing theories and the converging evidence provided by other methodologies. The field of psychological science is no exception. Neuroimaging is an important new tool in the toolbox of psychological science, but it is most productive when its use is guided by psychological theories and complemented by converging methodologies including (but not limited to) lesion, electrophysiological, computational, and behavioral studies. Based on this approach, the articles in this special issue specify neural mechanisms involved in perception, attention, categorization, memory, recognition, attitudes, social cognition, language, motor coordination, emotional regulation, executive function, decision making, and depression. Understanding the contributions of individual and functionally connected brain regions to these processes benefits psychological theory by suggesting functional representations and processes, constraining these processes, producing means of falsifying hypotheses, and generating new hypotheses. From this work, a view is emerging in which psychological processes represent emergent properties of a widely distributed set of component processes.     

Hybrids of the -translation for

In [W. Burr, Functional interpretation of Aczel's constructive set theory, Annals of Pure and Applied Logic 104 (2000) 31–73] Wolfgang Burr presents a functional interpretation of constructive set theory in all finite types, , in a theory of constructive set functionals. is a subtheory of , containing bounded quantifiers only. His interpretation theorem reduces the consistency problem of (and certain extensions thereof) to the consistency problem of .We want to study admissible rules in , i.e. rules under which is closed. To do so, we study a Troelstra-style q-hybrid of, in fact, a modification ^× of Burr's translation. We introduce this modification in order to close a minor gap in Burr's proof of the functional interpretation of the schema of (Strong Collection).First of all, but surely after a short introduction, we analyse the less complex translation of modified realisation ^mr and its hybrids ^mq and ^mrt.     

从使动句加工的功能性磁共振成像看中文句法加工的独立性

大脑中的句法加工模式是神经认知科学研究的重要课题, 而句法加工是否存在独立性一直是研究者争论较多的问题。有形态标记的英语等印欧语语言的句法可以通过形态变化表现, 而汉语不具备与印欧语有明确对应关系的形态变化, 因此汉语的句法变化几乎不能通过外在形态标记。通过3T场强功能性磁共振成像, 以汉语语义等值使动句为研究材料, 对不依赖形态变化来标记句法变化的汉语句法加工的独立性进行了初步研究。结果显示, 大脑左侧额叶对于汉语句法加工具有重要的作用, 尤其是大脑左侧额叶中回的BA44区和额叶下回的BA47区都对汉语句法加工较为敏感, 这表明即使不通过形态改变来标记句法变化, 汉语句子加工中的句法加工仍然可以被分离, 句法独立性的加工主要由大脑左侧额叶中回及大脑左侧额叶下回等脑区承担, 大脑左侧颞叶并未参与汉语句法的独立性加工。