How left inferior frontal cortex participates in syntactic processing: Evidence from aphasia

We report on three experiments that provide a real-time processing perspective on the poor comprehension of Broca’s aphasic patients for non-canonically structured sentences. In the first experiment we presented sentences (via a Cross Modal Lexical Priming (CMLP) paradigm) to Broca’s patients at a normal rate of speech. Unlike the pattern found with unimpaired control participants, we observed a general slowing of lexical activation and a concomitant delay in the formation of syntactic dependencies involving “moved” constituents and empty elements. Our second experiment presented these same sentences at a slower rate of speech. In this circumstance, Broca’s patients formed syntactic dependencies as soon as they were structurally licensed (again, a different pattern from that demonstrated by the unimpaired control group). The third experiment used a sentence-picture matching paradigm to chart Broca’s comprehension for non-canonically structured sentences (presented at both normal and slow rates). Here we observed significantly better scores in the slow rate condition. We discuss these findings in terms of the functional commitment of the left anterior cortical region implicated in Broca’s aphasia and conclude that this region is crucially involved in the formation of syntactically-governed dependency relations, not because it supports knowledge of syntactic dependencies, but rather because it supports the real-time implementation of these specific representations by sustaining, at the least, a lexical activation rise-time parameter.     

Are You Alive? Sensor Data as a Resource for Social Interaction

This paper presents findings from the field test of a prototype device that collects heart rate sensor data and displays it for users. The prototype was tested on a football team, including teenage players, their parents and coaches. The findings include notes on user expectations related to the technology and detailed analyses of the social interactions that took place during the test. The paper concludes with design implications relating to this application, but also poses challenges for context-aware computing and machine intelligence in general.

模拟网络信息主动增加特征的决策过程研究

与传统信息不同,网络信息具有可以主动增加的互动特征,本研究探讨这种特征对网络情境下决策加工过程的影响。通过改进的信息板技术追踪决策过程。实验一设置可否“主动增加信息”两种情境进行对照研究,发现引入主动增加功能后被试的搜索深度降低,先前知识的水平影响信息加工的模式;实验二设置可以连续要求增加信息的连续任务,比较不同的增加路径和选择阶段的影响,发现被试的搜索深度逐步降低,更多采用非补偿性的策略。两个实验均有超过半数的被试要求增加信息,连续任务有着32%的回头率,研究者推论在信息不断增加的情况下,被试的信息搜索行为更具选择性。     

Young adult couples’ behavioral and physiological responses to the infant simulator: A preliminary illustration of coparenting

This exploratory application of the infant simulator with two couples is designed to illustrate individual reactivity and coparenting behaviors in young couples in serious relationships who do not yet have children. A 35-min protocol with standardized onsets and offsets of inconsolable baby cries was used to capture partner’s individual behavioral and physiological responses as well as the couple’s joint efforts to soothe the crying baby. Task feasibility was demonstrated by couples’ persistent and wide-ranging efforts to calm the baby including rocking, feeding, changing, talking to the baby, and singing. Within-person fluctuations in ongoing heart rate (HR) and electrodermal activity (EDA) through the protocol suggested evidence of heightened physiological reactivity during baby crying compared to silence. During bouts of crying, higher HR also was evidenced when participants took the lead in caregiving as contrasted with assisting or busying themselves in another task. Behavioral observations indicated that this task elicited examples of coparenting behaviors including cooperation, support, undermining, and negotiating the division of labor. These preliminary pilot data demonstrate the potential of infant simulator paradigms with couples who are not yet pregnant but envision being future parents, and set the stage for future research to identify how individual and couple characteristics might impact reactions to shared baby caregiving.     

The effect of religiosity on quality of life in Muslim patients with heart failure: a study in Qom,the religious capital of Iran

Due to the low quality of life (QoL) in patients with heart failure, many researchers attempted to find new ways to improve the QoL in these patients. This study was conducted to determine the relationship between QoL and religious attitudes of patients with heart failure. In this cross-sectional study, 130 male and female patients with heart failure were selected based on the inclusion criteria. Data were collected using 36-item short form Quality of Life and structured Religious Attitude Questionnaires. The average age of subjects was 59.50?±?12.29; also, 52.3% of them were female. A significant relationship was observed between patients’ QoL and their religious attitudes in mental (p?=?.03) and general health (p?=?.04) dimensions, but religious attitude had no significant correlation with physical health dimension (p?=?.66) and the total score of QoL (p?=?.30). At the end, it was concluded that religious beliefs can improve patients’ quality of life.