错误相关负波的神经起源及其影响因素

与个体做出错误反应相伴的错误相关ERP成分叫错误相关负波 (error-related negativity, ERN),当前冲突监控理论、表征失匹配理论和强化学习理论从不同的角度对ERN的神经机制进行解释,各理论间并非完全相互排斥。目前大部分研究认为ERN定位于扣带回,部分研究则出现其它脑区的激活,然而,扣带回与其它脑区存在复杂的神经功能联系,ERN 电位很可能是多个脑区电活动在头颅的综合表现,而非某一脑区的单独表现。ERN的神经机制受到实验任务、被试年龄及其意识水平等因素的影响。未来要推动实验室研究走向临床应用,发现与诊断脑电波异常的病人和毒品易复吸人群。     

Brain lateralization of complex movement: Neuropsychological evidence from unilateral stroke

Complex movement (CM) refers to the representation of a goal-oriented action and is classified as either transitive (use of tools) or intransitive (communication gestures). Both types of CM have three specific components: temporal, spatial, and content, which are subdivided into specific error types (SET). Since there is debate regarding the contribution of each brain hemisphere for the types of CM, our objective was to describe the brain lateralization of components and SET of transitive and intransitive CM. We studied 14 patients with a left hemisphere stroke (LH), 12 patients with a right hemisphere stroke (RH), and 16 control subjects. The Florida Apraxia Screening Test-Revised (FAST-R, Rothi et al., 1988) was used for the assessment of CM. Both clinical groups showed a worse performance than the control group on the total FAST-R and transitive movement scores (p < 0.001). Failures in Spatial and Temporal components were found in both clinical groups, but only LH patients showed significantly more Content errors (p < 0.01) than the control group. Also, only the LH group showed a higher number of errors for intransitive movements score (p = 0.017), due to lower scores in the content component, compared to the control group (p = 0.04). Transitive and intransitive CMs differ in their neurocognitive representation; transitive CM shows a bilateral distribution of its components when compared to intransitive CM, which shows a preferential left hemisphere representation. This could result from higher neurocognitive demands for movements that require use of tools, compared with more automatic communication gestures.     

急性前壁心肌梗死患者直接PCI后阿托伐他汀不同用药剂量疗效比较

为探讨直接经皮冠状动脉介入治疗（PCI）首次急性前壁心肌梗死患者,在不同剂量他汀药物治疗后住院期间疗效比较,纳入首次诊断为急性前壁心肌梗死并接受直接PCI治疗的患者140例,随机分为强化治疗组和对照组。强化治疗组入院时顿服阿托伐他汀80mg,术后40mg／晚,直至出院;对照组口服阿托伐他汀20mg／晚。术前及术后、出院前测定心肌标记物,术前及出院前测定血浆氨基末端B型利钠肽前体（NT—proBNP）,采用彩色多普勒超声检测左室射血分数（LVEF）的变化,同时记录住院期间主要心脏不良事件（MACEs）的发生。结果出院时LVEF值差异无统计学意义（P=0．249）,NT—proBNP出院前较术前升高,对照组升高显著（P=0．000）。组间比较NT—proBNP,对照组显著高于强化组（P=0．020）。住院期间两组患者无MACEs发生。首次急性前壁心肌梗死患者直接PCI后,强化阿托伐他汀治疗短期内可改善左心功能。     

左主干或多支冠脉病变的选择:PCI或CABG?

近年来,PCI技术越来越多地实践于左主干和多支冠脉病变,但与CABG相比,其疗效一直受到质疑。本文对近年来PCI和CABG的疗效比较做一总结,发现对于左主干和冠脉多支病变,CABG仍优于PCI。但随着生产力水平的发展和社会需求越来越高的双重作用下,两项技术都必然会有新的发展,两者疗效的比较还会继续,我们将拭目以待。     

定量组织速度成像评价酒精性心肌损害左室功能的价值

为了评估定量组织速度成像(QTVI)在评价大量饮酒后心肌损害左室功能改变方面的价值,我们对饮酒量符合酒精性心肌病诊断标准患者21例(B组,每日饮白酒≥150g或啤酒4瓶,每周6天~7天,10年以上),30例健康志愿者(A组,正常对照组)进行常规超声参数及QTVI参数测定,包括:二尖瓣环收缩期峰值速度(Vs)、舒张早期运动速度(Ve)、舒张晚期运动速度(Va)等。结果显示,B组常规各超声参数与A组比较差异有显著性统计学意义(P0.01)。QTVI参数与A组比较Va减低(P0.05),Vs、Ve、Ve/Va显著减低(P0.01)。提示QTVI技术能够有效地评估酒精性心肌损害病左室功能的改变。     

Religious Right,Religious Left,Both, or Neither? Understanding Religio‐Political Identification

In this article we analyze the effects of religious, political, socioeconomic, and demographic variables on religious Americans’ propensity to identify with religio‐political movements. Using data from the 2013 Economic Values Survey collected by the Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI), we sort nonsecular Americans into four categories: religious right, religious left, both religious right and religious left, or neither religious right nor the religious left. We estimate a multinomial logit model in which we depict religio‐political identification as a function of religious affiliation, worship attendance, religious embeddedness, religious convictions, political attitudes, and socioeconomic and demographic controls. We find that a wide range of religious, political, and socioeconomic/demographic variables affect individuals’ identification with the religious right and/or religious left. Our empirical results also permit us to analyze the seeming paradox of identifying with both the religious right and the religious left. We find that individuals who identify with both movements come from the ranks of the highly religious, those who believe that being moral requires one to believe in God, Tea Party supporters, strong partisans, those with lower education and income, older individuals, and blacks and Hispanics.     

Inter-brain co-activations during mindfulness meditation. Implications for devotional and clinical settings

Mindfulness meditation usually takes place as personal, introspective activity. It is not known if this practice activates the brain differently when done alone or with someone else.Sixteen couples of expert meditators performed mindfulness-oriented meditation (MOM) and instructed mind-wandering (IMW) tasks in two conditions: once sitting in the same room (SR) and once in two different rooms (DR). Spontaneous electroencephalographic (EEG) data was collected during 7-minute recording sessions in the four experimental settings (MOM/SR, MOM/DR, IMW/SR, IMW/DR). Power in band was computed in separate clusters of independent components of the EEG signals.In addition to significant task effects, found in frontolimbic (MOM > IMW in gamma) and frontoparietal locations (MOM < IMW in theta), significant condition effects were found in frontal (SR > DR in delta) and in temporo-occipital regions (SR > DR in theta and alpha). Moreover, a significant interaction between task and condition revealed higher gamma activity in limbic areas during MOM/SR vs. MOM/DR settings. This effect was not attributable to gender, age nor the meditation expertise of participants.We thus show that the brains of two people work differently when they are doing something together or alone; some of these differences are specific to mindfulness meditation. Implications for devotional and clinical settings are discussed.     

The minimal self hypothesis

For millennia self has been conjectured to be necessary for consciousness. But scant empirical evidence has been adduced to support this hypothesis. Inconsistent explications of “self” and failure to design apt experiments have impeded progress. Advocates of phenomenological psychiatry, however, have helped explicate “self,” and employed it to explain some psychopathological symptoms. In those studies, “self” is understood in a minimalist sense, sheer “for-me-ness.” Unfortunately, explication of the “minimal self” (MS) has relied on conceptual analysis, and applications to psychopathology have been hermeneutic, allowing for many degrees of interpretive latitude. The result is that MS’s current scientific status is analogous to that of the “atom,” at the time when “atom” was just beginning to undergo transformation from a philosophical to a scientific concept. Fortunately, there is now an opportunity to promote a similar transformation for “MS.” Discovery of the brain’s Default Mode Network (DMN) opened the door to neuroimaging investigations of self. Taking the DMN and other forms of intrinsic activity as a starting point, an empirical foothold can be established, one that spurs experimental research and that enables extension of research into multiple phenomena. New experimental protocols that posit “MS” can help explain phenomena hitherto not thought to be related to self, thereby hastening development of a mature science of self. In particular, targeting phenomena wherein consciousness is lost and recovered, as in some cases of Unresponsive Wakefulness Syndrome (UWS), allow for design of neuroimaging probes that enable detection of MS during non-conscious states. These probes, as well as other experimental protocols applied to NREM Sleep, General Anesthesia (GA), and the waking state, provide some evidence to suggest that not only can self and consciousness dissociate, MS might be a necessary precondition for conscious experience. Finally, these findings have implications for the science of consciousness: it has been suggested that “levels of consciousness” (LoC) is not a legitimate concept for the science of consciousness. But because we have the conceptual and methodological tools with which to refine investigations of MS, we have the means to identify a possible foundation—a bifurcation point—for consciousness, as well as the means by which to measure degrees of distance from that foundation. These neuroimaging investigations of MS position us to better assess whether LoC has a role to play in a mature science of consciousness.