Divided Visual Attention and Left Hemisphere Activation Among Psychopathic and Nonpsychopathic Offenders

Recent divided attention studies suggest the impulsive antisocial behavior of psychopaths may be related to deficient processing of information under conditions that place substantial demands on left-hemisphere-specific processing resources (left hemisphere activation (LHA) hypothesis; D. S. Kosson [1996, 1998]). To examine performance under conditions constraining eye movements and covert shifts of attention, 26 psychopathic and 46 nonpsychopathic inmates completed a divided attention task in which lateralized stimuli appeared briefly and simultaneously in the left visual field (LVF) and right visual field (RVF) of a monitor. Targets were either presented primarily in the RVF to induce LHA or were equiprobable in LVF and RVF to promote equal activation (EA) of left and right hemisphere resources. Psychopaths were less accurate than nonpsychopaths only under LHA conditions; within-group comparisons also revealed a substantial decrement from EA to LHA only in psychopaths. Thus, psychopaths’ performance deficits were specific to conditions priming left hemisphere resources asymmetrically.     

The Cognitive Neuroscience of Aging and Culture

ABSTRACT— Research into the cognitive neuroscience of aging has revealed exciting and unexpected changes to the brain over the lifespan. However, studies have mostly been conducted on Western populations, raising doubts about the universality of age-related changes. Cross-cultural investigation of aging provides a window into the stability of changes with age due to neurobiology, as well as into the flexibility of aging due to life experiences that impact cognition. Behavioral findings suggest that different cultures process distinct aspects of information and employ diverse information-processing strategies. The study of aging allows us to identify those age-related neural changes that persist across cultures as well as the changes that are driven by culture-specific life experiences.     

The Social Nature of Perception and Action

ABSTRACT— Humans engage in a wide range of social activities. Previous research has focused on the role of higher cognitive functions, such as mentalizing (the ability to infer others' mental states) and language processing, in social exchange. This article reviews recent studies on action perception and joint action suggesting that basic perception–action links are crucial for many social interactions. Mapping perceived actions to one's own action repertoire enables direct understanding of others' actions and supports action identification. Joint action relies on shared action representations and involves modeling of others' performance in relation to one's own. Taking the social nature of perception and action seriously not only contributes to the understanding of dedicated social processes but has the potential to create a new perspective on the individual mind and brain.     

A Social-Neuroscience Perspective on Empathy

ABSTRACT— In recent years, abundant evidence from behavioral and cognitive studies and functional-imaging experiments has indicated that individuals come to understand the emotional and affective states expressed by others with the help of the neural architecture that produces such states in themselves. Such a mechanism gives rise to shared representations, which constitutes one important aspect of empathy, although not the sole one. We suggest that other components, including people's ability to monitor and regulate cognitive and emotional processes to prevent confusion between self and other, are equally necessary parts of a functional model of empathy. We discuss data from recent functional-imaging studies in support of such a model and highlight the role of specific brain regions, notably the insula, the anterior cingulate cortex, and the right temporo-parietal region. Because this model assumes that empathy relies on dissociable information-processing mechanisms, it predicts a variety of structural or functional dysfunctions, depending on which mechanism is disrupted.     

友谊的结构研究——一项对大学生友谊内隐观的调查研究

本文对大学生友谊概念的表征进行了初步的探究。研究者依据激活扩散模型,采用字词联想法来搜集数据。采用“友谊”一词为刺激,让269名大学生被试进行自由联想,选出前80个联想频率在4.0%以上的高频词语(概念)作为分析单位,做成卡片另请100名大学生进行分类,然后根据它们之间的关系亲疏程度实施系统聚类分析。结果发现,友谊概念在大学生群体的心目中是从以下4个方面来表征的:①关心与支持;②分享与交流;③共同活动与联系;④矛盾及冲突。     

Cognitive functions, bodily sensibility and the brain

Body representations traverse the whole of the brain. They provide vital sources of information for every facet of an animal’s behavior, and such direct neural connectivity of visceral input throughout the nervous system demonstrates just how strongly cognitive systems are linked to bodily representations. At each level of the neural axis there are visceral appraisal systems that are integral in the organization of action. Cognition is not one side of a divide and viscera the other, with action merely a reflexive outcome. There is no divide between cognition and bodily functions once the brain is involved. Cognitive mechanisms that permeate neural function are a cardinal piece of biological function and adaptation.     

内隐刻板印象研究方法进展

刻板印象的研究一直都是社会认知的重要组成部分,本文简要概述了刻板印象研究方法的进展,着重介绍了加工分离程序,基于反应时的范式,以及刻板印象解释偏差(SEB),并对今后认知神经科学研究进行了简述。     

4～7岁儿童对人的目的指向行为的归因研究

该研究根据人的三种基本生物需要(吃、喝、睡)设计动画故事脚本,通过计算机呈现的方式,探查4~7岁儿童对人的生物需要目的指向行为的归因。结果表明:(1)学前儿童能够对人的生物需要目的指向行为进行非意图的生物学解释,4岁至5岁是一个快速发展期;(2)学前儿童对人的生物需要行为的理解表现出不一致性,其“睡”和“吃”受社会因素影响较大,“喝水”表现为一种纯粹的生物需要(3)学前儿童对人的生物需要行为的满足与否能够采取灵活的多因果解释模式。     

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.     

What is ‘mental action’?

There has been a resurgence of interest lately within the philosophy of mind and action in the category of mental action. Against this background, the present paper aims to question the very possibility, or at least the theoretical significance, of teasing apart mental and bodily acts. After raising some doubts over the viability of various possible ways of drawing the mental-act–bodily-act distinction, the paper draws some lessons from debates over embodied cognition which, arguably, further undermine the credibility of the distinction. The insignificance of the distinction is demonstrated in part by showing how the focus on “inner” acts hampers fruitful discussion of Galen Strawson’s skepticism of mental agency. Finally, the possibility is discussed that a distinction between covert and overt action should supplant the one between mental and bodily action.