Mechanisms linking height to early child development among infants and preschoolers in rural India

Stunting has been negatively associated with children's development. We examined the range of height by testing hypotheses: (a) height is positively associated with children's development, with associations moderated by inflammation and (b) home environments characterized by nurturance and early learning opportunities is positively associated with children's development over time and attenuate associations with height. Data included 513 infants (mean age 8.6 months) and 316 preschoolers (mean age 36.6 months) in rural India from a randomized controlled trial of multiple micronutrient powders (MNPs). Measures included height (height‐for‐age z‐scores based on WHO standards), inflammation (C‐reactive protein concentration >5 mg/L), nurturance (HOME Inventory), child development (Mullens Scales of Early Learning), and inhibitory control (preschoolers). Linear mixed effects models accounting for repeated measures, clustering, and confounders were used to assess associations between height and child development over time (infants: enrollment, 6 and 12 months; preschoolers: enrollment and 8 months). Moderating effects of inflammation and nurturance were tested with interaction terms. Among infants and preschoolers, height and nurturance were positively associated with all domains of child development over time, with the exception of inhibitory control. Among preschoolers, in the presence of inflammation, height was not associated with child development. Among infants, but not preschoolers, a nurturant home environment attenuated significant associations between height with fine motor and receptive language development. The mechanisms associated with children's development over time are multifactorial and include direct and indirect associations among nutrition, health, and the home environment, as supported by the Nurturing Care Framework.     

The brain generates its own sentence melody: a Gestalt phenomenon in speech perception

Brain processes underlying spoken language comprehension comprise auditory encoding, prosodic analysis and linguistic evaluation. Auditory encoding usually activates both hemispheres while language-specific stages are lateralized: analysis of prosodic cues are right-lateralized while linguistic evaluation is left-lateralized. Here, we investigated to what extent the absence of prosodic information influences lateralization. MEG brain-responses indicated that syntactic violations lead to early bi-lateral brain responses for syntax violations. When the pitch of sentences was flattened to diminish prosodic cues, the brain's syntax response was lateralized to the right hemisphere, indicating that the missing pitch was generated automatically by the brain when it was absent. This represents a Gestalt phenomenon, since we perceive more than is actually presented.     

Non-Verbal Paradigm for Assessing Individuals for Absolute Pitch

Autistic individuals have been observed to demonstrate high intelligence through musical communication, leading to many empirical studies on this topic. Absolute Pitch (AP) has been a captivating phenomenon for researchers, although there has been disagreement regarding AP percentages among the population and appropriate testing methods for AP. This study analyzed data collected from 118 people, using a pitch matching paradigm designed specifically to be inclusive of those who are likely to have note-naming difficulty due to communication challenges. Thirty-eight participants were autistic individuals, 32% of which were considered to have severe language impairment. Twelve other participants had other developmental disorders. All but 1 of the 38 autistics (97%) demonstrated exceptional and instantaneous pitch matching abilities on piano. Ten of the 12 (83%) with other developmental disorders demonstrated this ability, and approximately half (53%) of neurotypicals were able to exhibit this ability. Our numbers indicate that with a more inclusive paradigm for assessing AP, it may be demonstratable in close to 50% of the population, and near 100% in the autistic population. This testing method represents a neurodiversity-friendly and fully inclusive, non-verbal paradigm for demonstrating AP.     

Is auditory awareness negativity confounded by performance?

Research suggests that the electrophysiological correlates of consciousness are similar in hearing as in vision: the auditory awareness negativity (AAN) and the late positivity (LP). However, from a recently proposed signal-detection perspective, these correlates may be confounded by performance, as the strength of the internal responses differs between aware and unaware trials. Here, we tried to apply this signal-detection approach to correct for performance in an auditory discrimination and detection task (N = 28). A large proportion of subjects had to be excluded because even a small response bias distorted the correction. For the remaining subjects, the correction mainly increased noise in the measurement. Furthermore, the signal-detection approach is theoretically problematic because it may isolate post-perceptual processes and eliminate awareness-related activity. Therefore, we conclude that AAN and LP are not confounded by performance and that the contrastive analysis identifies both as correlates of awareness.     

The role of timing deviations and target position uncertainty on temporal attending in a serial auditory pitch discrimination task

Listeners were presented with sequences of tones that ascended in semitone intervals. On each trial a single target tone in the sequence was displaced in pitch, and listeners were required to indicate whether the target tone was higher or lower than its normal pitch. Task constraints, specifically target serial position uncertainty and the probabilistic relationship between time deviations and target tones, were varied in order to determine the impact of task constraints on temporal attending strategy. When listeners had no advance knowledge of the serial position of the target, and early and late targets provided information regarding target serial position, performance was better for early and late target trials than for on-time target trials (Experiment 1). When listeners had no advance knowledge of the serial position of the target, and early and late temporal deviations provided no information regarding target serial position, performance for late target trials was superior to that for early and on-time target trials (Experiment 2). Finally, when target serial position uncertainty was eliminated, performance was equivalent across all three levels of target timing (early, on time, late). The results indicate that performance profiles based on stimulus timing properties are affected by various task constraints as well as by stimulus properties.     

The integration of stimulus dimensions in the perception of music

A central aim of cognitive psychology is to explain how we integrate stimulus dimensions into a unified percept, but how the dimensions of pitch and time combine in the perception of music remains a largely unresolved issue. The goal of this study was to test the effect of varying the degree of conformity to dimensional structure in pitch and time (specifically, tonality and metre) on goodness ratings and classifications of melodies. The pitches and durations of melodies were either presented in their original order, as a reordered sequence, or replaced with random elements. Musically trained and untrained participants (24 each) rated melodic goodness, attending selectively to the dimensions of pitch, time, or both. Also, 24 trained participants classified whether or not the melodies were tonal, metric, or both. Pitch and temporal manipulations always influenced responses, but participants successfully emphasized either dimension in accordance with instructions. Effects of pitch and time were mostly independent for selective attention conditions, but more interactive when evaluating both dimensions. When interactions occurred, the effect of either dimension increased as the other dimension conformed more to its original structure. Relative main effect sizes (| pitch η² – time η² |) predicted the strength of pitch–time interactions (pitch?×?time η²); interactions were stronger when main effect sizes were more evenly matched. These results have implications for dimensional integration in several domains. Relative main effect size could serve as an indicator of dimensional salience, such that interactions are more likely when dimensions are equally salient.     

Brief pitch-priming facilitates infants’ discrimination of pitch-evoking noise: Evidence from event-related potentials

Pitch is derived by the auditory system through complex spectrotemporal processing. Pitch extraction is thought to depend on both spectral cues arising from lower harmonics that are resolved by cochlear filters in the inner ear, and on temporal cues arising from the pattern of action potentials contained in the cochlear output. Adults are capable of extracting pitch in the absence of robust spectral cues, taking advantage of the temporal cues that remain. However, recent behavioral evidence suggests that infants have difficulty discriminating between stimuli with different pitches when resolvable spectral cues are absent. In the current experiments, we used the mismatch negativity (MMN) component of the event related potential derived from electroencephalographic (EEG) recordings to examine a cortical representation of pitch discrimination for iterated rippled noise (IRN) stimuli in 4- and 8-month-old infants. IRN stimuli are pitch-evoking sounds generated by repeatedly adding a segment of white noise to itself at a constant delay. We created IRN stimuli (delays of 5 and 6 ms creating pitch percepts of 200 and 167 Hz) and high-pass filtered them to remove all resolvable spectral pitch cues. In experiment 1, we did not find EEG evidence that infants could detect the change in the pitch of these IRN stimuli. However, in Experiment 2, after a brief period of pitch-priming during which we added a sine wave component to the IRN stimulus at its perceived pitch, infants did show significant MMN in response to pitch changes in the IRN stimuli with sine waves removed. This suggests that (1) infants can use temporal cues to process pitch, although such processing is not mature and (2) that a short amount of pitch-priming experience can alter pitch representations in auditory cortex during infancy.     

The crystal structure of Al20.6Ta22.4 and its relation to Frank–Kasper phases

The monoclinic phase in the Al–Ta system has been identified by means of X-ray single-crystal structure analysis as Al_{19+ x} Ta_{24? x} (x?=?1.6), Pearson symbol mP86. Al_20.58Ta_22.42 crystallizes in the space group P2₁/n, with a?=?987.86?pm, b?=?990.12?pm, c?=?1489.45?pm and β?=?99.958°. Twinned crystals of the title compound can be obtained by iodine-promoted reactions of the elements. In the experiments described here, the reactions took place in sealed tantalum ampoules at 1400°C. Single-phase samples were obtained by a metallurgical powder method, which minimizes aluminium loss by incongruent vapourization. The composition was found to span the range 0.51?≤?x _Ta?≤?0.53. Al_{19+ x} Ta_{24? x} decomposes in the solid state at 1450°C into Al₆₉Ta₃₉ and σ-AlTa₂. The crystal structure is analyzed in relation to tetrahedral close-packed structures. The kinship with Cr₃Si-type and H-type structures is accentuated.     

Depotentiation of vdccLTP Requires NMDAR Activation

Long-term potentiation is an enduring increase in synaptic efficacy following repeated stimulation of afferent fibers that is thought to underlie memory. In area CA1 of the hippocampus at least two forms of synaptic potentiation coexist at the same synapses; nmdaLTP and vdccLTP. NmdaLTP is induced by Ca2+ entry through NMDARs and is dependent on serine/threonine kinase activation, while vdccLTP is induced through Ca2+ entry through VDCCs and is dependent on tyrosine kinase activation. Depotentiation is a mechanism known to reverse nmdaLTP through phosphatase activation. The depotentiation of vdccLTP has not been previously investigated. We used hippocampal slices (area CA1) from male Long-Evans rats to induce vdccLTP with a 200-Hz tetanus in the presence of 50 microM APV. The 200-Hz tetanus resulted in a slowly developing vdccLTP that remained stable for at least 30 min. Thirty minutes after vdccLTP was induced, a low-frequency tetanus (3, 10, 20, 30, or 40 Hz) was applied in the presence of APV in an attempt to depotentiate vdccLTP. The 3- and 10-Hz low-frequency tetani resulted in no depotentiation. The 20- and 30-Hz tetani partially depotentiated vdccLTP (by approximately 13%), whereas the 40-Hz tetanus resulted in further potentiation. When APV was washed out prior to the 3-Hz low-frequency tetanus, the vdccLTP was completely depotentiated--presumably by NMDAR mechanisms. Our results indicate that vdccLTP is resistant to depotentiation under low-frequency stimulation conditions that readily depotentiate nmdaLTP. As tetanus frequencies are increased a small depotentiation is observed, suggesting that vdccLTP can be depotentiated to a small extent. When NMDARs are unblocked, vdccLTP can be completely depotentiated by a 3-Hz low-frequency tetanus, suggesting that vdccLTP can be depotentiated via activation of NMDAR mechanisms.     

拿破仑情结的进化：相对身高劣势和求偶动机对男性冒险行为的影响

研究以性选择理论为基础, 探讨了与同性竞争者的相对身高劣势和求偶动机对男性冒险行为的影响。4个研究一致显示, 与同性竞争者存在的身高劣势会导致男性提高自身冒险性; 且高求偶动机水平的男性, 会更多地表现出这种补偿性行为。这些结果提示, 拿破仑情结具有进化的基础, 男性在自身身高与竞争者相比处于劣势时, 采用冒险行为进行补偿是男性用以解决性内竞争和性间竞争问题的一种适应器。