Consequences of brain tumour resection on emotion recognition

Emotion processing impairments are common in patients undergoing brain surgery for fronto-temporal tumour resection, with potential consequences on social interactions. However, evidence is controversial concerning side and site of lesions causing such deficits. This study investigates visual and auditory emotion recognition in brain tumour patients with the aim of clarifying which lesion sites are related to impairments in emotion processing from different modalities. Thirty-four patients were evaluated, before and after surgery, on facial expression and emotional prosody recognition; voxel-based lesion–symptom mapping (VLSM) analyses were performed on patients’ post-surgery MRI images. Results showed that patients’ performance decreased after surgery in both visual and auditory modalities, but, in general, recovered 3 months after surgery. In facial expression recognition, left brain-damaged patients showed greater post-surgery deterioration than right brain-damaged ones, whose performance specifically decreased for sadness and fear. VLSM analysis revealed two segregated areas in the left hemisphere accounting for post-surgery scores for happy (fronto-temporo-insular region) and surprised (middle frontal gyrus and inferior fronto-occipital fasciculus) facial expressions. Our findings demonstrate that surgical removal of tumours in the fronto-temporal region produces impairment in facial emotion recognition with an overall recovery at 3 months, suggesting a partially different representation of positive and negative emotions in the left and right hemispheres for visually – but not auditory – presented emotions; moreover, we show that deficits in specific expression recognition are associated with discrete lesion locations.     

简单非一致:以再认启发式使用为例

再认启发式理论认为人们仅依赖再认做出决策。以两项高低不同再认预测力(效度)的任务为材料,选取初中生(N=138,M=14.1岁)和成年大学生(N=136,M=19.3岁)被试,探讨再认启发式使用特征。使用层级多项式加工树模型对数据进行分析,结果显示:(1)初中生较大学生认识的材料数更少或运用知识比较的正确率更低;(2)再认启发式使用存在被试异质性;(3)初中生再认启发式的使用低于大学生。结论:知识表现出随年龄增长的趋势,再认启发式的使用存在较大的个体差异和群体差异,决策时初中生相比大学生会更少依赖再认线索。     

Social information processing skills link executive functions to aggression in adolescents with mild to borderline intellectual disability

Executive Functions (EFs) have been associated with aggression in children and adolescents. EFs as higher-order cognitive abilities are assumed to affect cognitive functions such as Social Information Processing (SIP). We explored SIP skills as a mediating mechanism linking EFs to aggression in adolescents with mild to borderline intellectual disability (MBID with IQ from 50–84), a high risk group for aggressive behaviors and EF impairments. A total of 153 adolescents (M_age = 15.24, SD = 1.35; 54% male) with MBID participated. Focused attention, behavioral inhibition, and working memory were tested with multiple neurocognitive tasks to define latent EF constructs. Participants responded to a video-based SIP task. A latent construct for aggression was defined by caretaker, teacher, and adolescent self-reports of aggression (Child Behavior Check List, Teacher Report Form, and Youth Self Report). Structural equation modeling was performed to test mediation. Results were consistent with mediation of the relation between focused attention and aggression by SIP, namely via hostile interpretations and self-efficacy for aggression. Behavioral inhibition was linked to aggression, but this relation was not mediated by SIP. The relation between working memory and aggression was mediated by SIP, namely via hostile interpretations, aggressive response generation and via self-efficacy for aggressive responses. Bearing the cross-sectional design in mind, support was found for SIP skills as a mechanism linking EFs, in particular focused attention and working memory, to aggression, providing a viable explanation for the high vulnerability of adolescents with MBID for aggression.     

2~5年级小学生汉字识别中预视效应的发展研究

在阅读时,读者可以获取副中央凹处的词汇信息,副中央凹加工是构成流畅阅读的重要因素。本研究从儿童语言发展的角度,通过3个实验（共534名被试）,考察了汉语视觉字词加工中2~5年级学生的字形、语音、语义预视效应。结果发现：（1）2~5年级小学生均有字形预视效应;（2）2、3年级学生没有语音预视效应,4、5年级学生有此效应;（3）2年级学生没有语义预视效应,3、4、5年级学生有此效应。这表明,低水平的视觉信息—字形信息在儿童副中央凹加工中一直稳定地发挥作用;高水平的语言信息—语音和语义信息,随着儿童年级的升高和阅读技能的提升,逐渐地在儿童的副中央凹加工中发挥作用。儿童对汉字各类型信息的获取与使用的发展模式不同于拼音文字阅读发展理论的预测。     

Unconscious arithmetic: Assessing the robustness of the results reported by Karpinski,Briggs, and Yale (2018)

In 2012, a study by Sklar et al. reported that participants could solve invisible subtractions. This notion of unconscious arithmetic has been influential because it challenges current theories of consciousness. In 2016, Karpinski et al. published a direct replication reporting evidence for unconscious addition rather than subtraction. About a year later, the study was retracted due to a computation error in the analysis pipeline. After this error was corrected, no evidence for unconscious addition nor subtraction was obtained. Recently, Karpinski et al. republished the study by applying the exclusion criteria used in Sklar et al. The reanalysis found weak evidence for unconscious subtraction. To assess the robustness of these results, we examine how sensitive the results are to data analytic decisions. We outline a set of 250 analyses that we consider justified to perform. We show that none of the analyses indicates evidence for unconscious subtraction.     

Transitional object use,attachment, and help‐seeking behaviour in Taiwanese adolescents

Transitional object use is psychologically beneficial for young children, but research has suggested that maintaining transitional object use into middle childhood may be associated with negative behaviour. Little is known about the continuation of transitional object use into adolescence, and few studies have been conducted with non‐Western populations. To examine differences in attachment and attitudes to help seeking in adolescents who did and did not use a transitional object, 723 adolescents from Taiwan (M age = 14 years) were asked about their current and past use of transitional objects. Measures of attachment were obtained using the Revised Adult Attachment Scale, and attitude toward help was measured using the Attitudes Toward Seeking Professional Psychological Help Scale. In total, 37% of the sample continued transitional object use in adolescence. Current use of a transitional object differentiated the sample on the measures of attachment and help seeking. Transitional object users were less likely to have secure attachments and less likely to express positive attitudes toward seeking help. Transitional object use is prevalent in Taiwanese adolescents, and we suggest that continued use of a transitional object acts as an indicator of potential withdrawal from support offered in schools.     

Sensitivity to amplitude envelope rise time in infancy and vocabulary development at 3 years: A significant relationship

Here we report, for the first time, a relationship between sensitivity to amplitude envelope rise time in infants and their later vocabulary development. Recent research in auditory neuroscience has revealed that amplitude envelope rise time plays a mechanistic role in speech encoding. Accordingly, individual differences in infant discrimination of amplitude envelope rise times could be expected to relate to individual differences in language acquisition. A group of 50 infants taking part in a longitudinal study contributed rise time discrimination thresholds when aged 7 and 10 months, and their vocabulary development was measured at 3 years. Experimental measures of phonological sensitivity were also administered at 3 years. Linear mixed effect models taking rise time sensitivity as the dependent variable, and controlling for non‐verbal IQ, showed significant predictive effects for vocabulary at 3 years, but not for the phonological sensitivity measures. The significant longitudinal relationship between amplitude envelope rise time discrimination and vocabulary development suggests that early rise time discrimination abilities have an impact on speech processing by infants.     

It's not all in the face: reduced face visibility does not modulate social segmentation

Humans rely on social information to parse environmental content into social and nonsocial events. Here, we assessed if information conveyed by faces was necessary for this process. We asked participants to view a video clip depicting a social interaction and mark social and nonsocial events while actors’ faces were either visible or blurred. Keypress and eye-movement data were collected. Participants consistently identified social and nonsocial event boundaries independently of face availability, with greater agreement and less variability in keypresses for social relative to nonsocial events. Eye-tracking revealed that participants attended more to actors’ faces when they were visible and more to bodies when faces were blurred. Thus, face information is not necessary for social segmentation, which appears to be a flexible process that depends on a range of information conveyed by both faces and bodies.     

Parental coping socialization is associated with healthy and anxious early‐adolescents’ neural and real‐world response to threat

The ways parents socialize their adolescents to cope with anxiety (i.e., coping socialization) may be instrumental in the development of threat processing and coping responses. Coping socialization may be important for anxious adolescents, as they show altered neural threat processing and over reliance on disengaged coping (e.g., avoidance and distraction), which can maintain anxiety. We investigated whether coping socialization was associated with anxious and healthy adolescents’ neural response to threat, and whether neural activation was associated with disengaged coping. Healthy and clinically anxious early adolescents (N = 120; M = 11.46 years; 71 girls) and a parent engaged in interactions designed to elicit adolescents’ anxiety and parents’ response to adolescents’ anxiety. Parents’ use of reframing and problem solving statements was coded to measure coping socialization. In a subsequent visit, we assessed adolescents’ neural response to threat words during a neuroimaging task. Adolescents’ disengaged coping was measured using ecological momentary assessment. Greater coping socialization was associated with lower anterior insula and perigenual cingulate activation in healthy adolescents and higher activation in anxious adolescents. Coping socialization was indirectly associated with less disengaged coping for anxious adolescents through neural activation. Findings suggest that associations between coping socialization and early adolescents’ neural response to threat differ depending on clinical status and have implications for anxious adolescents’ coping.