Search asymmetry, sustained attention, and response inhibition

In the present experiment, we used search asymmetry to test whether the sustained attention to response task is a better measure of response inhibition or sustained attention. Participants performed feature present and feature absent target detection tasks using either a sustained attention to response task (SART; high Go low No-Go) or a traditionally formatted task (TFT; high No-Go low Go) response format. In addition to performance, we employed functional near infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) to measure lateral cerebral oxygenation levels and self-reports of Tense Arousal, Energetic Arousal, task related and unrelated thoughts occurring during the tasks. Detections were lower and reaction times longer in the feature absent search than the feature present search regardless of response format. Detections were lower, but reaction times shorter in the SART than the TFT regardless of feature search. Greater right than left frontal hemisphere activation occurred in the SART than the TFT. In addition, the SART was more fatiguing based on self-reports than the TFT, but there were no differences in Task-Unrelated Thoughts across task conditions. Overall, the results suggest the SART places high response inhibition, not necessarily sustained attention, demands on participants.     

Poor Imitative Performance of Unlearned Gestures in Children with Probable Developmental Coordination Disorder

It has been hypothesized that deficits in imitation, linked to abnormal functioning of the mirror neuron system (MNS), may contribute to the motor impairments associated with developmental coordination disorder (DCD). The authors aimed to examine imitation of complex novel postures and sequences of gestures in children with and without probable DCD (pDCD), using the postural praxis and sequencing praxis subtests of the Sensory Integration and Praxis Tests (Ayres, 1989 Ayres, A. J. (1989). Sensory Integration and Praxis Tests: SIPT manual. Los Angeles, CA: Western Psychological Services. [Google Scholar]). Participants were 29 boys with pDCD between 6.08 and 13.33 years old, and 29 group age-matched typically developing boys between 6.08 and 13.83 years old. Responses of children with pDCD on both imitation tasks were less accurate than controls, with group differences more apparent with increasing task complexity. Furthermore, as a group, children with pDCD were slower and had a higher number of non–mirror-imitated responses. There was considerable variability within the pDCD group, with some children displaying imitation scores within the normative range. Given the importance of imitation and visual learning for motor development, the difficulties in imitation displayed by some children with pDCD have the potential to impact on movement acquisition. Interventions to target imitation may be beneficial for these children. The results show that children with pDCD had difficulty imitating complex novel postures, children with pDCD had difficulty imitating gesture sequences, children with pDCD had slower responses than controls, group differences in imitation performance increased with task complexity, and not all children with pDCD displayed imitation deficits.     

Effects of visual and auditory guidance on bimanual coordination complexity

Perceptual guidance of movement with simple visual or temporal information can facilitate performance of difficult coordination patterns. Guidance may override coordination constraints that usually limit stability of bimanual coordination to only in-phase and anti-phase. Movement dynamics, however, might not have the same characteristics with and without perceptual guidance. Do visual and auditory guidance produce qualitatively different dynamical organization of movement? An anti-phase wrist flexion and extension coordination task was performed under no specific perceptual guidance, under temporal guidance with a metronome, and under visual guidance with a Lissajous plot. For the time series of amplitudes, periods and relative phases, temporal correlations were measured with Detrended Fluctuation Analysis and complexity levels were measured with multiscale entropy. Temporal correlations of amplitudes and relative phases deviated from the typical 1/f variation towards more random variation under visual guidance. The same was observed for the series of periods under temporal guidance. Complexity levels for all time series were lower in visual guidance, but higher for periods under temporal guidance. Perceptual simplification of the task’s goal may produce enhancement of performance, but it is accompanied by changes in the details of movement organization that may be relevant to explain dependence and poor retention after practice under guidance.     

发展性协调障碍的神经机制

发展性协调障碍是一种特殊的发育障碍, 它的一个显著特征是动作协调困难, 这种障碍影响着5%~8%学龄儿童的学业成绩和日常生活。发展性协调障碍常常与其他类型的学习困难并存。发展性协调障碍的病因非常复杂, 这种障碍与一定程度的视觉空间认知能力受损有关, 早期精细运动技能发育与脑神经发育进程可能存在时间的重合。近年来, 研究者们试图探索影响发展性协调障碍的神经基础, 并先后提出不同的神经关联假说。这些理论假说主要涉及到小脑、顶叶、胼胝体、基底神经节和大脑白质等脑区。本文全面回顾了该领域研究的最新进展, 并提出未来研究应该关注的方向与问题。     

Spontaneous emotional coordination of first-born dizygotic twins and singletons with their mothers in early infancy

We compare matching of facial expressions of emotion, completion of the positive valence of emotional expression, attunement of emotional intensity, and non-matching of emotion, in engagements with their mothers of firstborn dizygotic twins and of singletons. Nine twins and nine singletons were video-recorded at home in spontaneous face-to-face interactions from the second to the sixth month after birth. Microanalysis of infant and maternal facial expressions of emotion revealed qualitative and quantitative differences that indicate that engagements with twins had more frequent and more accurate emotional matching and attunements compared to those with singletons. Singletons displayed more emotional completion and non-matching reactions. Expressions of matching for pleasure and interest followed different developmental patterns in the two kinds of dyads. These results are discussed in relation to the theory of innate affective intersubjectivity. Differences may shed light on the relationship between sharing early life with a twin, and development of self-other awareness.     

Sensorimotor coordination generates extended agency

When we synchronize finger tapping with a visual metronome, we experience a strikingly robust phenomenon of extended agency known as Spizzo’s effect. This effect is the compelling sense that we are controlling the metronome. The effect arises even though the agent knows that the metronome operates autonomously. We propose that the extended agency here established over metronome pulses results from sensorimotor coordination. To test this hypothesis, we operationalize sensorimotor coordination in terms of the correlation structures in series of asynchronies or reaction times from two finger-tapping tasks. Analyses reveal that, whereas correlation structures vary across individuals and show a systematic drift towards nonstationarity with increasing metronome frequency conditions, the presence of correlation structure is co-extensive with Spizzo’s effect. We interpret this result as supporting the view that extended agency relies on sensorimotor coordination. Sensorimotor coordination, we suggest, may induce the effect by integrating the perception of visual pulses and the agency over tapping into a synesthetic experience.     

博弈论视角下的超扫描多人互动任务新模型

超扫描指同时记录多个被试脑活动, 以探索其社会互动脑机制的研究手段。从博弈论视角, 可区分超扫描任务中的冲突、合作与协作三类任务, 分离已有研究中未严格界定的“协作”与“合作”概念, 为超扫描研究的多人互动范式建立新模型。任务所包含协作因素的多少, 与任务是否涉及心理理论功能是影响个体脑间活动同步现象的重要条件。未来研究可结合进化博弈论等理论模型, 进一步探索合作与协作行为的差异及规范形成的心理与神经机制。     

Non-Compliance Shouldn't Be Better

Agent-relative consequentialism is thought attractive because it can secure agent-centred constraints while retaining consequentialism's compelling idea—the idea that it is always permissible to bring about the best available outcome. We argue, however, that the commitments of agent-relative consequentialism lead it to run afoul of a plausibility requirement on moral theories. A moral theory must not be such that, in any possible circumstance, were every agent to act impermissibly, each would have more reason (by the lights of the very same theory) to prefer the world thereby actualized over the world that would have been actualized if every agent had instead acted permissibly.     

Visual exploration of reaching space during left and right arm movements in 6-month-old infants

Infant's manual laterality and eye-hand coordination emerge during the second part of the first year of life with the development of reaching. Nevertheless, little is known about the potential asymmetric characteristics of this coordination. The aim of this study was to describe visuo-spatial exploration in 6-month-old infants during reaching, according to the hand used. More specifically, we examined if the use of the left or the right hand was linked to a specific type of visual exploration. Gaze direction during goal-directed reaching towards an object placed on the table was measured with a remote ASL 504 eye tracker (Bedford MA). Twelve babies aged 6 months were observed during six reaching sessions, alterning three sessions with an object on the left side of the subject and three with an object on the right side. Gaze direction and some hand variables (hand activity, hand opening and hand position from the body) were coded with The Observer software. Results showed that babies visually explore their reaching space differently according to the hand used: they look more at the object when they use their right hand and more around the object when they use their left hand; they also look more often at their left hand than at their right one. These results suggest that an asymmetric visuo-manual coordination exists as early as 6 months: vision seems to support (1) left hand during reaching for evaluate distances from object to baby by means of visual feedbacks and (2) right hand for identify what sort of object is. Results are discussed in light of manual specialization and specific hemispheric skills at this age.     

Gender differences in synchrony: Females in sync during unstructured dyadic conversation

Although previous studies have reported that individual prosocial traits generally enhance synchrony, gender as a social factor was not the subject of focus. The present study examined gender differences in synchrony by conducting three experiments on dyadic unstructured conversations with same-gender strangers. Synchrony was assessed by calculating the cross-wavelet coherence and determining the relative phase. As expected, through the three experiments, the female dyads showed a higher degree of synchrony, compared to the male dyads. Moreover, the conversation type (i.e., structured monologue vs. unstructured dialogue) did not moderate the gender effect (Experiment 2), while synchrony in the female dyads was influenced by the preceding conversation (Experiment 3). In contrast, through the three experiments, the role of the relative phase was unclear. The findings indicate that the social factor, gender, has an impact on synchrony, and that interpersonal sensitivity contributes to synchrony.