言语想象的神经机制

言语想象不仅在大脑预处理机制方面起到重要的作用,还是目前脑机接口领域研究的热点。与正常言语产生过程相比,言语想象的理论模型、激活脑区、神经传导路径等均与其有较多相似之处。而言语障碍群体的言语想象、想象有意义的词语和句子时的脑神经机制与正常言语产生存在差异。鉴于人类言语系统的复杂性,言语想象的神经机制研究还面临一系列挑战,未来研究可在言语想象质量评价工具及神经解码范式、脑控制回路、激活通路、言语障碍群体的言语想象机制、词语和句子想象的脑神经信号等方面进一步探索,为有效提高脑机接口的识别率提供依据,为言语障碍群体的沟通提供便利。     

大众与个人审美品位的认知与神经机制

大众与个人的审美品位分别代表了审美活动在个体间的一致性和差异性。将大众品位和个人品位相结合的新趋势正在挑战传统的\"普遍性\"审美法则,并日益凸显审美反应的个体差异。存在诸多因素可以调节大众和个人审美品位的相对比例,包括刺激类型、专业性、文化背景、先前经验和年龄等。大众与个人审美品位的神经机制中,奖赏系统和默认模式网络扮演重要角色。目前,审美品位与审美加工模型的理论关系有待进一步厘清和验证。未来相关研究可以在拓展审美对象领域、完善大众与个人审美品位与不同审美加工阶段的对应关系等方向上继续开展。     

语言产生中词频效应老化的神经基础与时间进程

词频效应指语言产生中人们对高频词汇的加工比低频词汇更快更准确的一种现象,它可能发生在语言产生中的不同阶段。对青年人和老年人词频效应的不同特点和加工机制进行比较,可以考察语言产生的认知老化机制。通过语言产生理论可对词频效应的老化进行预测,提出词频效应在个体发展和老化阶段的相对稳定性,分析老化导致词频效应相关的神经基础和加工时间进程的改变。未来研究可进一步分离词频效应与习得年龄效应对语言产生老化的影响,并扩展至神经退行性疾病患者中。     

中国画审美一致性的专业知识效应:一项fNIRS研究

本研究结合fNIRS技术,考察了美术训练学生和普通学生在中国画审美一致性上的差异。行为上,虽然两组被试在审美评分上没有显著差异,但在评分一致性上,美术训练学生相比普通学生在“好看”评分上更一致。脑活动上,美术训练学生右侧颞顶联合区的16通道和24通道的神经活动一致性显著高于普通学生,且美术训练学生的神经活动一致性与“好看”评分呈负相关。本研究揭示了艺术专业知识对中国画审美的重要性,且神经活动一致性可作为中国画审美判断的一项潜在神经标记。     

视觉空间伪忽视与表征伪忽视神经机制的异同

伪忽视是指个体存在的轻微偏左的不对称空间注意,而视觉空间伪忽视和表征伪忽视是其两种主要表现形式。研究初期,研究者认为两种伪忽视基于相同的注意定向左偏机制,但近年来研究发现,它们存在神经机制的差异。本文主要从两种伪忽视神经机制的异同出发,梳理近期研究结果,以期增进对伪忽视的理解。未来研究可以从认知时间进程角度或设计更为完善的研究范式进一步探讨这两种伪忽视神经机制的异同。     

Simulating single word processing in the classic aphasia syndromes based on the Wernicke-Lichtheim-Geschwind theory

The Wernicke-Lichtheim-Geschwind (WLG) theory of the neurobiological basis of language is of great historical importance, and it continues to exert a substantial influence on most contemporary theories of language in spite of its widely recognized limitations. Here, we suggest that neurobiologically grounded computational models based on the WLG theory can provide a deeper understanding of which of its features are plausible and where the theory fails. As a first step in this direction, we created a model of the interconnected left and right neocortical areas that are most relevant to the WLG theory, and used it to study visual-confrontation naming, auditory repetition, and auditory comprehension performance. No specific functionality is assigned a priori to model cortical regions, other than that implicitly present due to their locations in the cortical network and a higher learning rate in left hemisphere regions. Following learning, the model successfully simulates confrontation naming and word repetition, and acquires a unique internal representation in parietal regions for each named object. Simulated lesions to the language-dominant cortical regions produce patterns of single word processing impairment reminiscent of those postulated historically in the classic aphasia syndromes. These results indicate that WLG theory, instantiated as a simple interconnected network of model neocortical regions familiar to any neuropsychologist/neurologist, captures several fundamental "low-level" aspects of neurobiological word processing and their impairment in aphasia.     

Hierarchical models for relational event sequences

Interaction within small groups can often be represented as a sequence of events, each event involving a sender and a recipient. Recent methods for modeling network data in continuous time model the rate at which individuals interact conditioned on the previous history of events as well as actor covariates. We present a hierarchical extension for modeling multiple such sequences, facilitating inferences about event-level dynamics and their variation across sequences. The hierarchical approach allows one to share information across sequences in a principled manner—we illustrate the efficacy of such sharing through a set of prediction experiments. After discussing methods for adequacy checking and model selection for this class of models, the method is illustrated with an analysis of high school classroom dynamics from 297 sessions.     

Psychophysics of Kinesthesis

A horizontal straight-arm movement was used to determine the relationship between the physical stimulus continuum and the psychological continuum of kinesthetic extent of arm movement. A power function with an exponent of 1.075 best described this relationship. In addition, to classify extent of movement as belonging to either a prothetic or metathetic continuum, the category scale was derived. According to the functional criteria described by Stevens (1957), extent of movement was subserved by a metathetic process which would indicate that, for the present task, judgments were made through the use of positional cues rather than amplitude cues.     

The structure of “communities” and communications in the new millennium

The three lineages of information,—the genetic, the cultural and artifactual—will increasingly merge their constituent information contents through advances in biotechnology and information technology. This will redefine what constitutes “social” and what constitutes “community.” A community's members communicate with their “significant others” and change their internal information states (and their internal and external behaviors). Under conditions of merging, information exchanges occur across all the three lineages. In this sense, the concept of significant other,—that is, a communicating entity—, is now spread from human communities to encompass also the biological and the artifactual. A seamless merging between the three realms now occurs affecting their respective internal information stores. The resulting image of interactions that now arises is of multiple oceans of communities, operating at different levels, the genetic, the cultural and the artifactual. There are exchanges across the different levels, up and down and sideways, as information is translated from one realm to the other. These dynamics result in changes in the evolutionary characteristics of each lineage and sub‐lineage, including the internal perceptions from within a lineage, namely in the language of evolutionary epistemology, its “meanings” and “hypotheses” on the world. A future sociology must necessarily take into account these factors and incorporate the dynamics of all three realms.     

Differences in First Graders' School Adjustment: the Role of Classroom Characteristics and Social Structure of the Group

We examined differences among classes in academic and psychosocial aspects of school adjustment. The sample consisted of 1241 6-7-year-olds in 71 classes from 49 schools. Multilevel analyses showed that 83.5% of the variance was at the child level, 10.3% at the class level, and 6.2% at the school level. Thus, for the part of the variance that was not at the child level, differences among classes were more important than differences among schools. To identify relevant class factors, we focused on classroom characteristics and aspects of the social structure in the class such as integration and openness. Classroom and teacher variables were relatively unimportant compared to social structure indices that yielded significant correlation indicators of social interaction and intellectual competence and explained part of their variance at the class level. This suggested that the structure of the social relations contributed to differences among classes in several aspects of school adjustment.