Rapid cerebral hemodynamic modulation during set shifting: Evidence of time-locked associations with cognitive control in females

Set shifting provokes specific alterations of cerebral hemodynamics in basal cerebral arteries. However, no gender differences have been reported. In the following functional transcranial Doppler study, we introduced cerebral hemodynamic modulation to the aspects of set shifting during Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST). Twenty-one subjects underwent the WCST during insonation of the middle cerebral arteries. We examined gender effects on task performance and cerebral hemodynamic modulation. Further, we investigated the linkage between performance and cerebral hemodynamic modulation. In females, maximum positive modulation was restricted to the behaviorally relevant time point of set shifting, and there were time-locked associations between mental slowing during set shifting and rapid cerebral hemodynamic modulation exclusively in females. This study provides evidence of gender-related cerebral hemodynamic modulation during set shifting, and we detected time-locked brain–behavior relationship during cognitive control in females.     

The developmental cognitive neuroscience of functional connectivity

Developmental cognitive neuroscience is a rapidly growing field that examines the relationships between biological development and cognitive ability. In the past decade, there has been ongoing refinement of concepts and methodology related to the study of ‘functional connectivity’ among distributed brain regions believed to underlie cognition and behavioral control. Due to the recent availability of relatively easy-to-use tools for functional connectivity analysis, there has been a sharp upsurge of studies that seek to characterize normal and psychopathologically abnormal brain functional integration. However, relatively few studies have applied functional and effective connectivity analysis techniques to developmental cognitive neuroscience. Functional and effective connectivity analysis methods are ideally suited to advance our understanding of the neural substrates of cognitive development, particularly in understanding how and why changes in the functional ‘wiring’ of neural networks promotes optimal cognitive control throughout development. The purpose of this review is to summarize the central concepts, methods, and findings of functional integration neuroimaging research to discuss key questions in the field of developmental cognitive neuroscience. These ideas will be presented within a context that merges relevant concepts and proposals from different developmental theorists. The review will outline a few general predictions about likely relationships between typical ‘executive’ cognitive maturation and changes in brain network functional integration during adolescence. Although not exhaustive, this conceptual review also will showcase some of recent findings that have emerged to support these predictions.     

Psychopathology of Adolescent Social Phobia

Sixty-three adolescents with social phobia and 43 with no psychiatric disorders were compared across a number of clinical variables. In addition to clinically impairing social fear, adolescents with social phobia had significantly higher levels of loneliness, dysphoria, general emotional over-responsiveness and more internalizing behaviors than normal controls and 57.1% of socially phobic adolescents had a second, concurrent diagnosis, 75% of which were other anxiety disorders. In addition, adolescents with social phobia were significantly less socially skilled. Though similar in some respects to childhood social phobia, adolescent social phobia has a unique clinical presentation. The importance of developmental differences on the development of age-appropriate interventions is discussed.     

What's the point? Towards a methodology for assessing the function of psychiatric inpatient aggression

There are few examples in the literature of the application of functional analysis to psychiatric inpatient aggression. Structural assessment approaches have dominated. This paper introduces a system for classifying the functions of aggression in psychiatric inpatients that was applied to 502 aggressive behaviours exhibited by patients in a secure forensic psychiatric hospital. At least one function was identified for the majority of aggressive incidents; the most common functions pertaining to patients' responses to the restrictions and demands of the inpatient setting, to express anger or to punish others perceived as provocative, and to maintain status. There was little evidence suggesting that aggression was used to obtain tangible rewards, to reduce social isolation, or to simply observe the suffering of others. Differences in the function of aggressive behaviour were found across victim types. Results of this study have implications for the prediction and prevention of inpatient aggression and for the treatment of aggressive inpatients.     

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.     

A critical boundary to the left-hemisphere advantage in visual-word processing

Two experiments explored boundary conditions for the ubiquitous left-hemisphere advantage in visual-word recognition. Subjects perceptually identified words presented directly to the left or right hemisphere. Strong left-hemisphere advantages were observed for UPPERCASE and lowercase words. However, only a weak effect was observed for AlTeRnAtInG-cAsE words, and a numerical reversal of the typical left-hemisphere advantage was observed for words in a visual prototype font (a very unfamiliar word format). Results support the theory that dissociable abstract and specific neural subsystems underlie visual-form recognition and fail to support the theory that a visual lexicon operates in the left hemisphere.     

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.