An electro-physiological temporal principal component analysis of processing stages of number comparison in developmental dyscalculia

Developmental dyscalculia (DD) still lacks a generally accepted definition. A major problem is that the cognitive component processes contributing to arithmetic performance are still poorly defined. By a reanalysis of our previous event-related brain potential (ERP) data (Soltész et al., 2007) here our objective was to identify and compare cognitive processes in adolescents with DD and in matched control participants in one-digit number comparison. To this end we used temporal principal component analysis (PCA) on ERP data. First, PCA has identified four major components explaining the 85.8% of the variance in number comparison. Second, the ERP correlate of the most frequently used marker of the so-called magnitude representation, the numerical distance effect, was intact in DD during all processing stages identified by PCA. Third, hemispheric differences in the first temporal component and group differences in the second temporal component suggest executive control differences between DD and controls.     

The assessment of recognition memory using the Remember/Know procedure in amnestic mild cognitive impairment and probable Alzheimer’s disease

This study used the Remember/Know (R/K) procedure combined with signal detection analyses to assess recognition memory in 20 elders with amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI), 10 patients with probable Alzheimer’s disease (AD) as well as matched healthy older adults. Signal detection analyses first indicated that aMCI and control participants were comparable on general recognition performance. As regards AD patients, they were impaired relative to both aMCI and healthy elders. When assessing Remember and Know responses the aMCI group showed diminished sensitivity for Remember responses but intact Know responses compared to healthy elders. In contrast, AD patients showed decreased sensitivity for both Remember and Know responses compared to control and aMCI participants. The response bias index revealed that AD patients were more liberal than aMCI and control participants when providing Know responses. On the other measures, response bias was comparable between the groups. Overall, this study indicates that the R/K procedure can characterize different aspects of recognition memory performance in persons with aMCI or AD.     

Impaired embodiment and intersubjectivity

This paper considers the importance of the body for self-esteem, communication, and emotional expression and experience, through the reflections of those who live with various neurological impairments of movement and sensation; sensory deafferentation, spinal cord injury and Möbius Syndrome (the congenital absence of facial expression). People with severe sensory loss, who require conscious attention and visual feedback for movement, describe the imperative to use the same strategies to reacquire gesture, to appear normal and have embodied expression. Those paralysed after spinal cord injury struggle to have others see them as people rather than as people in wheelchairs and have been active in the disability movement, distinguishing between their medical impairment and the social induced disability others project onto them. Lastly those with Möbius reveal the importance of the face for emotional expression and communication and indeed for emotional experience itself. All these examples explore the crucial role of the body as agent for social and personal expression and self-esteem.     

Spoken and gestural production in a naming task by young children with Down syndrome

Lexical production in children with Down syndrome (DS) was investigated by examining spoken naming accuracy and the use of spontaneous gestures in a picture naming task. Fifteen children with DS (range 3.8-8.3 years) were compared to typically developing children (TD), matched for chronological age and developmental age (range 2.6-4.3 years). Relative to TD children, children with DS were less accurate in speech (producing a greater number of unintelligible answers), yet they produced more gestures overall and of these a significantly higher percentage of iconic gestures. Furthermore, the iconic gestures produced by children with DS accompanied by incorrect or no speech often expressed a concept similar to that of the target word, suggesting deeper conceptual knowledge relative to that expressed only in speech.     

Factor Structure of the Illness Intrusiveness Rating Scale in Patients Diagnosed with Anxiety Disorders

The Illness Intrusiveness Rating Scale (IIRS) is a measure designed to assess the impact of illness on various domains of functioning (G. M. Devins, 1994). In anxiety disordered patients, illness intrusiveness ratings are higher than those of chronically ill medical patients, suggesting that the IIRS may have a different underlying structure in a sample of individuals with anxiety disorders. To examine this possibility, IIRS items were submitted to an exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis in 2 samples (total N = 294). These solutions were compared to solutions in chronically ill populations from a previous study. In the exploratory analysis, both a one-factor and a three-factor solution were identified, accounting for 42 and 61% of the variance, respectively. Confirmatory analyses showed adequate similarity between the three-factor structure of the IIRS from a medically ill population and the current three-factor structure, suggesting that elevated IIRS scores in anxiety disordered samples cannot be explained simply by a different structure of the instrument.     

Bilateral tachistoscopic word perception of stutterers and normal subjects

Bilateral tachistoscopic procedures were utilized to investigate the visual half-field preferences of 15 stutterers and a group of 15 normal controls. Statistical analyses indicated a right visual half-field preference for the control group. In contrast, a significant visual half-field preference was not revealed for the stuttering group. However, further analysis revealed that a significantly larger proportion of stutterers, compared to controls, demonstrated a left visual half-field preference. Results indicated reversed cerebral processing for the stuttering group as compared with the control group.     

How school-aged students define stuttering and stammering

Fifty students from each of the grades 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, and 12 were asked to complete a questionnaire containing the following three questions: 1) What is stuttering? 2) What is stammering? 3) How did you know that? Analysis of their responses indicated students were more familiar with stuttering as opposed to the term stammering. From grade 6 onward, we can expect at least three-fourths of the students to define stuttering as a disruption of speech consisting chiefly of sound or syllable repetitions. Only about one-fourth of students in grade 6 and above defined stammering as a speech disruption. This disruption was characterized chiefly by repetitions, injections, and pauses. Most of the students were unable to specify how they learned the definitions. The few who did identified family and friends as their chief source of knowledge.     

Clinical notes: Masking devices and The Edinburgh Masker—Clinical applications within a prison setting

This paper outlines portions of the writer's therapeutics in the field of stuttering with emphasis upon use of masking the hearing of stutterers as a part of a total therapeutic approach. Commencing with devices providing continuous noise to override the voice of the stutterer so that he cannot hear himself and, thus, eliciting fluency. Described is the use of the voice actuated Edinburgh Auditory Masker within an intensive stuttering program in a prison setting since September 1978. It is concluded that the use of masking and the Edinburgh device has been helpful and productive with severe stutterers.     

Vibrotactile magnitude production scaling: A method for studying sensory-perceptual responses of stutterers and fluent speakers

The method of vibrotactile mangitude production scaling was used to determine the tactile sensory-perceptual integrity for the dorsum of the tongue and thenar eminence of the right hand for 10 fluent speakers and 10 stutterers. It was discovered that both groups performed the task in a similar manner for the thenar eminence of the hand (a nonoral structure) but in a dissimilar manner for the tongue (an oral structure). From these data, it is suggested that the stutterers may maintain a different internal sensory-perceptual process for the tactile system involved in the speech process. The possibility exists that stuttering, for some, may be an “internal disorder” of the tactile-proprioceptive feedback mechanism that is directly involved in speech production.