Do Questions Get Infants Talking? Infant Vocal Responses to Questions and Declaratives in Maternal Speech

Maternal questions play a crucial role in early language acquisition by virtue of their special grammatical, prosodic and lexical forms, and their abundance in the input. Infants are able to discriminate questions from other sentence types and produce rising intonations in their own requests. This study examined whether caregiver questions were related to the quantity of infant vocalizations. Thirty‐six infants aged 10 and 14 months participated in a laboratory play session with their mothers. In separate blocks, mothers were instructed to ask questions and to refrain from asking questions. Both block‐level and utterance‐level analyses found no evidence that maternal questions affected the amount of infant‐response vocalizations. Mothers of 14‐month‐olds (but not 10‐month‐olds) tended to repeat questions. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Study of behavioural and neural bases of visuo‐spatial working memory with an fMRI paradigm based on an n‐back task

The goal of this study was to propose a new functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) paradigm using a language‐free adaptation of a 2‐back working memory task to avoid cultural and educational bias. We additionally provide an index of the validity of the proposed paradigm and test whether the experimental task discriminates the behavioural performances of healthy participants from those of individuals with working memory deficits. Ten healthy participants and nine patients presenting working memory (WM) deficits due to acquired brain injury (ABI) performed the developed task. To inspect whether the paradigm activates brain areas typically involved in visual working memory (VWM), brain activation of the healthy participants was assessed with fMRIs. To examine the task's capacity to discriminate behavioural data, performances of the healthy participants in the task were compared with those of ABI patients. Data were analysed with GLM‐based random effects procedures and t‐tests. We found an increase of the BOLD signal in the specialized areas of VWM. Concerning behavioural performances, healthy participants showed the predicted pattern of more hits, less omissions and a tendency for fewer false alarms, more self‐corrected responses, and faster reaction times, when compared with subjects presenting WM impairments. The results suggest that this task activates brain areas involved in VWM and discriminates behavioural performances of clinical and non‐clinical groups. It can thus be used as a research methodology for behavioural and neuroimaging studies of VWM in block‐design paradigms.     

Extraversion modulates functional connectivity hubs of resting‐state brain networks

Personality dimension extraversion describes individual differences in social behaviour and socio‐emotional functioning. The intrinsic functional connectivity patterns of the brain are reportedly associated with extraversion. However, whether or not extraversion is associated with functional hubs warrants clarification. Functional hubs are involved in the rapid integration of neural processing, and their dysfunction contributes to the development of neuropsychiatric disorders. In this study, we employed the functional connectivity density (FCD) method for the first time to distinguish the energy‐efficient hubs associated with extraversion. The resting‐state functional magnetic resonance imaging data of 71 healthy subjects were used in the analysis. Short‐range FCD was positively correlated with extraversion in the left cuneus, revealing a link between the local functional activity of this region and extraversion in risk‐taking. Long‐range FCD was negatively correlated with extraversion in the right superior frontal gyrus and the inferior frontal gyrus. Seed‐based resting‐state functional connectivity (RSFC) analyses revealed that a decreased long‐range FCD in individuals with high extraversion scores showed a low long‐range functional connectivity pattern between the medial and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, middle temporal gyrus, and anterior cingulate cortex. This result suggests that decreased RSFC patterns are responsible for self‐esteem, self‐evaluation, and inhibitory behaviour system that account for the modulation and shaping of extraversion. Overall, our results emphasize specific brain hubs, and reveal long‐range functional connections in relation to extraversion, thereby providing a neurobiological basis of extraversion.     

Neural substrates of the ‘low‐level’ system for speech articulation: Evidence from primary opercular syndrome

We describe a patient with progressive disorder of speech, without language impairment (opercular syndrome). Morphometric analysis confirmed asymmetric volume reduction of the precentral areas (>left). Diffusion imaging showed significant white matter changes in the left frontal lobe, with specific involvement of the left corticobulbar tract and connections between supplementary/pre‐supplementary motor areas and the frontal operculum (frontal aslant tract). We suggest that the organization of expressive language includes a ‘low level’ motor system principally distributed in the left hemisphere that shows specific susceptibility to neurodegeneration, distinct from neural systems subtending praxic, and cognitive aspects of language.     

Modernity and Postmodernity: The Characteristics of Postmodern Cultural Media

From the academic frontier of modernity and postmodernity,the author aims at exploring the fission between modernity and postmodernity and also the characteristics of postmodern cultural media from a philosophical vantage point.This paper illustrates three aspects of Western modernity:individual modernity,social modernity,and instrumental modernity,and it also clarifies the issues in modernity,starting by explaining three forms of the cultural fission:avant-garde,modernism,and postmodernism.The paper then demonstrates that the rise of postmodernity represents a new transformation and new characteristics of contemporary Westem spirit,namely,the collision and compatibility of various concepts,in which popular culture and high culture,mass culture and elite culture,fashion and games as well as noise and silence have constituted an uncanny landscape of cultural media.This eerie landscape displays the indeterminacy of language,culture,art,consciousness,and aesthetics.From the perspective of theoretical innovation,the author proposes that the postmodem cultural media always displays its commodity and instrumentality,plays and entertainment,anti-culture and anti-art,replication and fabrication logically and practically as an outcome of post-industrial society.In conclusion,three critical issues are addressed:personal spiritual belief,the development of mass culture,and aesthetic principles.The postmodem cultural media has deeply influenced traditional culture,aesthetics,and how they are evaluated,resulting in cultural conflicts and a humanistic dilemma in the world of contemporary capitalism.     

Distance stability analysis in multidimensional scaling using the jackknife method

Stability or sensitivity analysis is an important topic in data analysis that has received little attention in the application of multidimensional scaling (MDS), for which the only available approaches are given in terms of a coordinate‐based analytical jackknife methodology. Although in MDS the prime interest is in assessing the stability of the points in the configuration, this methodology may be influenced by imprecisions resulting from the inherently necessary Procrustes method. This paper proposes an analytical distance‐based jackknife procedure to study stability and cross‐validation in MDS in terms of the jackknife distances, which is not influenced by the Procrustes method. For each object, the corresponding jackknife estimated points are considered as naturally clustered points, and stability and cross‐validation are analysed in terms of the MDS distances arising from the jackknife procedure, on the basis of a weighted cluster‐MDS algorithm. A jackknife‐relevant configuration is also proposed for cross‐validation in terms of coordinates, in a cluster‐MDS framework.