Rostro‐caudal and dorso‐ventral gradients in medial and lateral prefrontal cortex during cognitive control of affective and cognitive interference

Characterizing the anatomical substrates of major brain functions such as cognition and emotion is of utmost importance to the ongoing efforts of understanding the nature of psychiatric ailments and their potential treatment. The aim of our study was to investigate how the brain handles affective and cognitive interferences on cognitive processes. Functional magnetic resonance imaging investigation was performed on healthy individuals, comparing the brain oxygenation level dependent activation patterns during affective and cognitive counting Stroop tasks. The affective Stroop task activated rostral parts of medial prefrontal cortex (PFC) and rostral and ventral parts of lateral PFC, while cognitive Stroop activated caudal parts of medial PFC and caudal and dorsal parts of lateral PFC. Our findings suggest that the brain may handle affective and cognitive interference on cognitive processes differentially, with affective interference preferentially activating rostral and ventral PFC networks and cognitive interference activating caudal and dorsal PFC networks.     

Altered sleep in Borderline Personality Disorder in relation to the core dimensions of psychopathology

The aim of the study was to review the literature regarding sleep disturbances in Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) and to relate the reported sleep alterations to the underlying core dimensions of BPD pathology. We present a qualitative and theoretical review regarding the empirical studies that investigated objective and subjective sleep quality in BPD and in different psychiatric conditions showing high co‐morbidity with this disorder. We show that disturbed sleep including sleep fragmentation, alterations in Slow Wave Sleep and REM sleep, and dysphoric dreaming are prevalent symptoms in BPD. We provide a framework relating the specific sleep alterations to the core dimensions of BPD pathology in order to clarify the inconsistencies of the different findings. The specific sleep disturbances in BPD seem to be related to different dimensions of psychopathological functioning and may have detrimental consequences on waking affect and cognition. Investigating disturbed sleep in BPD in relation to waking symptoms and underlying neural functioning would shed more light on the nature of this complex disorder. Moreover, a stronger emphasis on sleep disturbances would enrich the treatment protocols of BPD.     

字词认知N170成分及其发展

字词认知早期的N170成分是第一个对语言材料敏感的成分.最近对字词认知N170成分的研究主要集中在探讨其敏感性、偏侧化以及此成分的发展变化.大量研究认为字词N170成分的敏感性与正字法加工有关,但也有一些研究认为其受语音、语义调制.对于此成分的偏侧化研究结果较一致认为是左侧化.最近的发展研究对N170成分进行探讨,取得了一些成果.在剖析现有研究基础上,本文认为应对字词认知N170成分的偏侧化、功能分离等问题进行深入研究.     

Predicting Dropout in Counseling Using Affect Coding of the Therapeutic Relationship: An Empirical Analysis

This study used an observational research method to examine affective counselor–client exchanges during the initial session of counseling for clients who dropped out of counseling and clients who remained in counseling. Results confirmed significant differences in the affect codes of clients and counselors between the 2 groups. Discriminant function analyses classified 77% of counselors and clients in the correct groups and correctly classified over 94% of clients who returned for 4 or more sessions.     

阅读中词汇视觉编码年老化的原因:基于消失文本实验的证据

研究采用消失文本范式、操控双词消失的延迟时间,考察中文读者编码两个相邻词汇（词n与词n+1）视觉信息的年老化问题。结果发现,从40 ms延迟时间至160 ms延迟时间的所有消失条件均不影响青年人的句子总阅读时间,这意味着青年人能够并行、快速地同时编码词n与词n+1的视觉信息;而所有消失条件都影响老年人的句子阅读时间,40 ms延迟时间消失条件对总阅读时间的影响程度甚于其他较长延迟时间的消失文本条件,80 ms、120 ms和160 ms延迟时间消失条件对总阅读时间的影响程度完全相同。由这些结果可以确定,中文阅读中词汇视觉编码的年老化同时受视觉与认知因素衰退的影响。     

On listening to “The Scarlet Tide” (by T Bone Burnett and Elvis Costello) from Cold Mountain: a movie song and its afterlife

This article examines how the emerging concept of affective space can be applied to movie soundtracks, with particular reference to “The Scarlet Tide” written by T Bone Burnett and Elvis Costello for the film Cold Mountain (dir. Anthony Minghella 2003) and the implications this has for the place of religion in film culture. The article explores how affective space works with the experience of individual listeners and the wider social context. Both affective expressions can shape how this track is received and integrated into a process of meaning making. The article concludes with an assessment of some implications that this discussion has for understanding the social nature of music, religion, and spirituality.     

二语情绪概念理解中的空间隐喻

采用空间启动范式考察二语情绪概念理解中是否激活空间信息, 即是否存在空间隐喻。实验1探讨单通道二语情绪概念理解中的空间隐喻, 实验2则探讨跨通道二语情绪概念理解中的空间隐喻。实验1中让32名母语为汉语的汉-英双语者先看一个英文情绪词, 接着进行视觉空间位置判断, 最后再让被试判断之前呈现的情绪词是积极词还是消极词。实验2中40名母语为汉语的汉-英双语者完成跟实验1类似的任务, 不同之处为英文情绪词以听觉形式呈现。两个实验的结果表明, 跨语言和跨通道的情绪词的空间隐喻受到空间位置方向的影响。垂直位置方向上, 二语情绪词在单通道和跨通道中都表现出了空间隐喻; 水平位置方向上, 二语情绪词没有表现出空间隐喻。该结果说明了情绪概念的空间隐喻会受到个体经验的影响, 进一步支持了知觉符号理论。     

Reflections on the clinical implications of symbolism

We start by stressing the idea that the process itself of constructing the symbol in its different components and its vicissitudes is centrally important to contemporary psychoanalysis as symbols are essential for thinking and for storing emotional experiences in our memory and for conveying our affects to others and to ourselves. Our implicit idea is that internal attacks are not directed only at the internal objects, but also include attacks on the structure or forms of the mental representations before and while they become constituted in symbols. It is by this means that destructive impulses invade the processes of symbolic construction. Symbols can lose their plasticity and thus silence the emotions and therefore cut off the patient from their meanings. Our clinical material allows us to increase our understanding of how the formal qualities of symbols operate in mental life, and how they can interfere in the capacity to work through emotional experiences. Finally, our reflections based on the analysis of a patient with difficulty in relating with the meanings of the symbols he produced will highlight the importance of the analyst's reverie along the process of formulating an interpretation. This paper is also part of a development in the study of the process of reverie.     

Analyzing temporal patterns of infant sleep and negative affective behavior: a comparison between different statistical models

Objective

Variability in infant sleep and negative affective behavior (NAB) is a developmental phenomenon that has long been of interest to researchers and clinicians. However, analyses and delineation of such temporal patterns were often limited to basic statistical approaches, which may prevent adequate identification of meaningful variation within these patterns. Modern statistical procedures such as additive models may detect specific patterns of temporal variation in infant behavior more effectively.

Method

Hundred and twenty-one mothers were asked to record different behaviors of their 4–44 weeks old healthy infants by diaries for three days consecutively. Circadian patterns as well as individual trajectories and day-to-day variability of infant sleep and NAB were modeled with generalized linear models (GLMs) including a linear and quadratic polynomial for time, a GLM with a polynomial of the 8th order, a GLM with a harmonic function, a generalized linear mixed model (GLMM) with a polynomial of the 8th order, a generalized additive model, and a generalized additive mixed model (GAMM).

Results

The semi-parametric model GAMM was found to fit the data of infant sleep better than any other parametric model used. GLMM with a polynomial of the 8th order and GAMM modeled temporal patterns of infant NAB equally well, although the GLMM exhibited a slightly better model fit while GAMM was easier to interpret. Besides the well-known evening clustering in infant NAB we found a significant second peak in NAB around midday that was not affected by the constant decline in the amounts of NAB across the 3-day study period.

Conclusion

Using advanced statistical procedures (GAMM and GLMM) even small variations and phenomena in infant behavior can be reliably detected. Future studies investigating variability and temporal patterns in infant variables may benefit from these statistical approaches.