CRF受体对五羟色胺系统的调节作用及早期环境因素的影响

早期环境因素持续影响脑与行为的发展,增加个体成年后应激相关精神疾病患病的易感性.应激反应的中枢启动因子促肾上腺皮质激素释放因子(corticotropin-releasing factor,CRF)通过两种受体CRF1和CRF2调节中缝背核(dorsal raphe nucleus,DRN)-五-羟色胺(serotonin,5-HT)系统,后者已被证实在应激相关情绪疾患发病和治疗过程中发挥重要作用.已知CRF受体以相互影响相互拮抗的方式动态调节DRN-5-HT系统,提示这两种受体相对作用的调节对于协调复杂环境中DRN-5-HT系统的应激反应过程起着关键性作用.早期环境因素和遗传因素交互作用导致CRF受体的分布和反应性持续改变并造成DRN-5-HT系统反应异常,可能是导致应激反应和精神疾病易感性个体差异的重要神经基础.     

工作记忆中央执行成分对估算表现的影响

工作记忆中央执行成分在计算加工的诸多过程中发挥重要影响。以82名大学生为被试,采用双任务实验范式考察工作记忆中央执行成分对估算表现的影响。结果发现：1）估算过程需要中央执行成分的参与,增加中央执行成分负荷会导致估算准确率下降;2）无论是否增加中央执行负荷,问题大小效应在估算中均不明显;3）乘法个位数大小顺序会影响估算值的准确性,在有中央执行负荷时数字顺序效应明显。     

Parallel associative processing in the dorsal striatum: segregation of stimulus-response and cognitive control subregions

Although evidence suggests that the dorsal striatum contributes to multiple learning and memory functions, there nevertheless remains considerable disagreement on the specific associative roles of different neuroanatomical subregions. We review evidence indicating that the dorsolateral striatum (DLS) is a substrate for stimulus–response habit formation – incremental strengthening of simple S–R bonds – via input from sensorimotor neocortex while the dorsomedial striatum (DMS) contributes to behavioral flexibility – the cognitive control of behavior – via prefrontal and limbic circuits engaged in relational and spatial information processing. The parallel circuits through dorsal striatum interact with incentive/affective motivational processing in the ventral striatum and portions of the prefrontal cortex leading to overt responding under specific testing conditions. Converging evidence obtained through a detailed task analysis and neurobehavioral assessment is beginning to illuminate striatal subregional interactions and relations to the rest of the mammalian brain.     

Language deficits in pre-symptomatic Huntington's disease: evidence from Hungarian

A limited number of studies have investigated language in Huntington’s disease (HD). These have generally reported abnormalities in rule-governed (grammatical) aspects of language, in both syntax and morphology. Several studies of verbal inflectional morphology in English and French have reported evidence of over-active rule processing, such as over-suffixation errors (e.g., walkeded) and over-regularizations (e.g., digged). Here we extend the investigation to noun inflection in Hungarian, a Finno-Ugric agglutinative language with complex morphology, and to genetically proven pre-symptomatic Huntington’s disease (pre-HD). Although individuals with pre-HD have no clinical, motor or cognitive symptoms, the underlying pathology may already have begun, and thus sensitive behavioral measures might reveal already-present impairments. Indeed, in a Hungarian morphology production task, pre-HD patients made both over-suffixation and over-regularization errors. The findings suggest the generality of over-active rule processing in both HD and pre-HD, across languages from different families with different morphological systems, and for both verbal and noun inflection. Because the neuropathology in pre-HD appears to be largely restricted to the caudate nucleus and related structures, the findings further implicate these structures in language, and in rule-processing in particular. Finally, the need for effective treatments in HD, which will likely depend in part on the ability to sensitively measure early changes in the disease, suggests the possibility that inflectional morphology, and perhaps other language measures, may provide useful diagnostic, tracking, and therapeutic tools for assessing and treating early degeneration in pre-HD and HD.     

Attentional Limitations in Doing Two Tasks at Once

ABSTRACT— People generally have difficulty doing two tasks at once. To explain this fact, theorists have proposed that central processing—the thought-like stages following perceptual encoding and preceding response processing—takes place for only one task at a time. Because this bottleneck imposes severe limits on human cognitive processes, research has attempted to find exceptions. There is now solid evidence that, at least in the laboratory, the entire bottleneck can be completely bypassed under favorable combinations of circumstances. While these findings provide a ray of hope for enabling parallel multitasking in real-world scenarios, it will not be easy to take advantage of the combination of conditions that appear to be necessary.     

自闭症儿童的中心信息整合及其与心理理论的关系

研究用积木测验和镶嵌图形测验测量中心信息整合,用5个信念任务测量心理理论能力,比较了12名自闭症儿童和同等言语能力的28名正常儿童的表现,并分析了心理理论和中心信息整合的相关。结果表明:(1)中心信息整合的测量指标积木测验和镶嵌图形测验成绩保持中高度相关;(2)自闭症儿童中心信息整合显著弱于正常儿童;(3)心理理论和中心信息整合成绩相互独立。     

视空间和听觉数字记忆的混合广度

Ｆｒｉｃｋ成功地增加了混合通道的广度,其必要条件是同时呈现视觉刺激和反序报告。该文采用干扰更少的Ｃｏｒｓｉ视空间测验,即序列呈现视觉刺激,并用正序报告,进行混合广度的新实验。发现在分离通道报告的条件下其混合广度都明显地高于单一通道的广度,因此Ｆｒｉｃｋ的两个必要条件不总是必需的。这种新的混合广度实验可能对研究工作记忆的中央执行系统有益。比较了刺激呈现模式和被试反应方式对混合广度的影响     

阅读障碍儿童语音提取

儿童在提取短时记忆系统的语音信息时,往往会造成部分信息的丢失和回忆量的下降,这种信息丢失量的多少与中央执行系统功能有着密切的联系。为了考察阅读障碍儿童的语音提取特点,挖掘他们记忆失败的本质,使用自由回忆和再认两种任务,考察阅读障碍儿童在无意义音节和汉语词汇上的提取特点,结果发现：（1）阅读障碍儿童在语音提取时,丢失的信息率要显著多于正常儿童,这种丢失可能是由于他们落后的中央执行功能所致;（2）阅读障碍儿童单纯的语音保持能力正常,但不擅长利用语义编码来促进短时记忆效果,而正常儿童却能够较好地利用语义线索。     

Effet d'attitude dans le processus de structuration d'une représentation sociale

This research aims at clarifying the role of attitude in the structuring process of a social representation. It comes within the scope of Serge Moscovici's genetic approach and Jean-Claude Abric's central core theory. We have studied an object, the Internet, whose social representation is structuring itself in the social group of tradesmen and our hypothesis is that attitude has an influence on the organization of the representational field before the emergence of a stabilized structure. The results suggest the existence of a structuring and accelerating effect due to positive attitude.     

双语经验对认知能力的影响

综合近年关于双语经验对认知影响的研究, 探讨双语经验对认知的积极和消极两方面的影响, 且着重介绍了双语经验对认知的积极影响。双语经验对认知的积极影响主要体现在语言认知能力、非语言认知能力和中央执行功能几个方面。此外, 进一步对双语促进认知发展的原因进行了两方面的分析：一个是双语思维经验促进抑制控制的发展, 另一个双语学习经验强化双语者的左右脑交流, 从而导致脑功能活动方式的变化。最后, 对今后双语与认知关系的研究中需要注意的问题提出了一些思考。