前额叶在老年阶段的可塑性及相关机制

大量研究表明, 前额叶的结构和功能更容易受年老化影响; 然而, 近年来的研究发现, 前额叶的结构和功能在老年阶段具有一定的可塑性。对老年人进行认知训练, 能够延缓前额叶皮层厚度的萎缩, 提高白质完整性, 改善神经网络的功能连接和分化, 并可能通过调节多巴胺系统的活动改变前额叶皮质和皮质下结构的功能激活模式。有氧锻炼能够改善心脑血管功能, 保护和促进神经元的存活和生长, 引起前额叶灰质、白质体积的增加及功能激活的变化。认知训练与有氧锻炼等相结合的整合性训练不仅引起前额叶及相关认知功能的改变, 而且具有更好的生态学效度, 使老年人日常认知能力和生活质量得到提高。未来研究应采用多种技术手段, 从多个层面理解老年阶段前额叶的可塑性及相关机制; 加强对与前额叶关系密切的多种认知功能可塑性神经机制的研究; 并重视与整合性训练有关的前额叶可塑性。     

双价效应及其认知机制

任务转换时, 如果一个刺激不仅包含当前任务的特征还包含另一任务的关联特征, 这样的刺激被称为双价刺激。双价刺激能影响个体对单价刺激的加工, 使个体对后续所有单价刺激的反应减慢, 这种现象被称为双价效应(bivalency effect)。研究者发现双价效应具有一定的普遍性和稳定性。对双价效应的理论解释主要有情境捆绑说和基于经验的预测模型。双价效应的产生与额外视觉特征的提取及自上而下的认知控制调整有关, 前者主要与颞-顶联合区的激活有关, 后者主要与背侧前扣带回以及前辅助运动区的激活相关。     

Perceptual biases in processing facial identity and emotion

Normal observers demonstrate a bias to process the left sides of faces during perceptual judgments about identity or emotion. This effect suggests a right cerebral hemisphere processing bias. To test the role of the right hemisphere and the involvement of configural processing underlying this effect, young and older control observers and patients with right hemisphere damage completed two chimeric faces tasks (emotion judgment and face identity matching) with both upright and inverted faces. For control observers, the emotion judgment task elicited a strong left-sided perceptual bias that was reduced in young controls and eliminated in older controls by face inversion. Right hemisphere damage reversed the bias, suggesting the right hemisphere was dominant for this task, but that the left hemisphere could be flexibly recruited when right hemisphere mechanisms are not available or dominant. In contrast, face identity judgments were associated most clearly with a vertical bias favouring the uppermost stimuli that was eliminated by face inversion and right hemisphere lesions. The results suggest these tasks involve different neurocognitive mechanisms. The role of the right hemisphere and ventral cortical stream involvement with configural processes in face processing is discussed.     

The adolescent brain

Adolescence is a developmental period characterized by suboptimal decisions and actions that give rise to an increased incidence of unintentional injuries and violence, alcohol and drug abuse, unintended pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases. Traditional neurobiological and cognitive explanations for adolescent behavior have failed to account for the nonlinear changes in behavior observed during adolescence, relative to childhood and adulthood. This review provides a biologically plausible conceptualization of the neural mechanisms underlying these nonlinear changes in behavior, as a heightened responsiveness to incentives while impulse control is still relatively immature during this period. Recent human imaging and animal studies provide a biological basis for this view, suggesting differential development of limbic reward systems relative to top-down control systems during adolescence relative to childhood and adulthood. This developmental pattern may be exacerbated in those adolescents with a predisposition toward risk-taking, increasing the risk for poor outcomes.     

Neural substrates of cognitive skill learning in Parkinson's disease

While cognitive skill learning is normally acquired implicitly through frontostriatal circuitry in healthy individuals, neuroimaging studies suggest that patients with Parkinson's disease (PD) do so by activating alternate, intact brain areas associated with explicit memory processing. To further test this hypothesis, 10 patients with PD and 12 healthy controls were tested on a modified, learning version of the Tower of London task while undergoing positron emission tomography at four different time points over the course of learning. Despite having less accurate problem solving abilities than controls, PD patients were able to acquire the skill learning task. However, as compared to controls, they maintained higher levels of cerebral blood flow activity in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and hippocampus and showed an increase in activity in the frontopolar cortex and posterior cingulate over the course of learning. These findings reflect a shift to the explicit memory system in PD patients, enabling them to learn this cognitive skill, which is normally acquired by control subjects using implicit learning strategies and frontostriatal circuitry.     

Elucidating the neural correlates of egoistic and moralistic self-enhancement

Self-enhancement is the biasing of one’s view of oneself in a positive direction. The brain correlates of self-enhancement remain unclear though it has been reported that the medial prefrontal cortex (MPFC) may be important for producing self-enhancing responses. Previous studies have not examined whether the neural correlates of self-enhancement depend on the particular domain in which individuals are enhancing themselves. Both moralistic and egoistic words were presented to participants while transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) was applied to the MPFC, precuneus or in a sham orientation. Participants were asked to make decisions as to the words describing themselves, some of which were positive and some of which were negative. It was found the MPFC TMS significantly disrupted egoistic self-enhancement when TMS was delivered to the MPFC. Judgments involving moralistic words were not influenced by TMS. These data provide further evidence that MPFC is involved in self-enhancement, and that the role of MPFC may be selective in this regard.     

False recognition of emotional stimuli is lateralised in the brain: An fMRI study

We have investigated whether the left (LH) and right (RH) hemisphere play a different role in eliciting false recognition (FR) and whether their involvement in this memory illusion depends on the emotional content of stimuli. Negative and neutral pictures (taken from IAPS) were presented in the divided-visual field paradigm. Subjects task was to indicate whether the pictures had already been presented or not during the preceding study phase. FR rate was much higher for the RH than the LH presentations. In line, FR resulted in activations mainly in the right prefrontal cortex (PFC) for either RH or LH presentations. Emotional content of stimuli facilitated the formation of false memories and strengthened the involvement of the right PFC in FR induction.     

医疗损害赔偿费用的探讨

《医疗事故处理条例》与《民法通则》确定的赔偿范围和标准不一致。通过《医疗事故处理条例》与《民法通则》的对比,提出医疗损害赔偿的三个原则,即全面赔偿原则、限额赔偿原则、衡平赔偿原则,以及建立医疗损害赔偿费用的统一标准,希望对司法实践有所借鉴意义。     

非语言情境中时间加工与空间距离加工的关系

时间加工与空间距离加工的关系主要有两种, 一种是在空距离–空时距以及动物的研究中, 时间加工影响空间距离加工, 空间距离加工影响时间加工, 两者相互影响, 存在对称的干扰, 这种关系与注意和记忆有关。另一种是在实距离–实时距中, 空间距离加工影响时间加工, 而时间加工不受空间距离加工的影响, 时间加工和空间距离加工之间具有不对称的干扰。时空关系的不对称与隐喻理论、人们的感知运动经验和时空信息的显著性有关。神经机制上, 右顶叶皮质、侧顶内区、左顶叶皮质、小脑、前额等参与时间加工和空间距离加工, 但两种加工涉及到的神经机制也有部分差异。未来可以从时间加工的分段性、不同条件下时间加工和空间距离加工的心理机制以及脑机制进行研究。     

视觉搜索左右视野靶时脑两半球加工特点

研究视觉分别搜索在左右视野靶时,脑两侧前额叶视觉加工的机制。14名有偿被试参加实验。实验任务是从正圆中所存在的垂直方向的箭头,搜索出水平方向箭头,并判断箭头方向。靶所在左右视野经过镜面处理完全对应。结果发现当靶出现约220ms后左右两侧脑区ERP出现分叉点,靶对侧与靶同侧的前脑区相比有非常显著的负向电位活动,对侧和同侧的N2延续40-80ms。分析认为靶对侧前额脑区N2负向活动增强是注意的等级提高,聚焦点收窄,使所要加工的靶在主效应脑区(靶视野对侧脑区)“跃显”出来,在得到正反馈诱导的同时,也得到更多的资源,靶同侧脑区N2可能与中断或阻止其他无关信息的涌入有关。