Speech Motor Skill and Stuttering

The authors review converging lines of evidence from behavioral, kinematic, and neuroimaging data that point to limitations in speech motor skills in people who stutter (PWS). From their review, they conclude that PWS differ from those who do not in terms of their ability to improve with practice and retain practiced changes in the long term, and that they are less efficient and less flexible in their adaptation to lower (motor) and higher (cognitive–linguistic) order requirements that impact on speech motor functions. These findings in general provide empirical support for the position that PWS may occupy the low end of the speech motor skill continuum as argued in the Speech Motor Skills approach (Van Lieshout, Hulstijn, & Peters, 2004).     

情绪对注意功能网络的调制

情绪性注意是一种对具有情绪意义的刺激进行选择和加工的注意.由于刺激的情绪效价能调制人脑的感知和注意系统,因而,与对中性刺激的注意相比,情绪性注意的神经机制更加复杂.较早的研究显示,杏仁核对感知皮层的调制对情绪性注意起关键作用.近期的证据表明,杏仁核对注意功能网络的调制可能是其重要的神经机制.本文梳理了相关领域的研究证据,主要强调情绪性刺激对注意的警觉、定向和执行控制网络的调制,发现情绪性注意加工的认知神经机制可能涉及一个以杏仁核为核心的多重功能网络.     

Contribution of Religiousness in the Prediction and Interpretation of Mystical Experiences in a Sensory Deprivation Context: Activation of Religious Schemas

M. A. Persinger (2002) claimed that transcranial magnetic stimulation with weak, complex magnetic fields evokes mystical experiences. However, in a double-blind experiment, P. Granqvist, M. Fredrikson, P. Unge, A. Hagenfeldt, S. Valind., et al. (2005) found no effects of field exposure on mystical experiences (N = 89), though a minority of participants reported spontaneous mystical experiences. Following the conclusion of null effects from magnetic field exposure, the setup of this experiment, including pre-experimental assessments of religiousness and sensory deprivation, can be viewed as a prime/setting for such experiences. The authors analyzed subsets of experimental data from P. Granqvist and colleagues with emphasis on the contribution of religiousness in the prediction and interpretation of mystical experiences. They found that a higher degree of religiousness predicted a higher occurrence of mystical experiences with a religious quality, but not of mystical experiences without such a quality. The authors discuss findings in terms of the experimental setup serving as a prime/setting activating the religious schemas of religious participants.     

Speed Modulation in Swimming Frogs

Swimming movements of 7 European green frogs (Rana esculenta) were studied, starting from the detailed analysis of the speed and timing of the propulsive, glide, and recovery phases of their intermittent swimming behavior. First, the authors identified the spatiotemporal factors used by the frogs to modulate their swimming behavior. None of the gait variables correlated strongly with average swimming speed, and no significant correlations were found between variables belonging to different phases. There did not seem to be an obvious control strategy. Instantaneous speeds at the transition of the different phases all increased significantly with average speed, however. The strong correlation between maximal speed at the end of propulsion and the speed averaged over a cycle might reflect the dominance of the propulsive phase in the determination of the overall swimming speed. The modulation of swimming speed thus seemed largely comparable with the regulation of jumping distance. That finding was confirmed in a mathematical model, in which the positive correlations between both glide and recovery speeds, on the one hand, and average speed, on the other, were shown to be only mathematical consequences of the strong impact of the propulsive phase on overall swimming performance. That finding suggests that the correlations did not result from an active control strategy.     

Emotional responding in depression: Distinctions in the time course of emotion

The current studies were designed to investigate if the emotion context insensitivity hypothesis (ECI; Rottenberg & Gotlib, 2004) is applicable across the time course of emotion. Recent affective science research has pointed to the importance of considering anticipation and maintenance of emotion. In the current studies, we assessed emotion responses among college students with depression symptoms in anticipation of, during, and after an emotional picture using the emotion modulated startle paradigm. People with and without depression symptoms did not differ in blink magnitude in anticipation of emotional pictures suggesting that some anticipatory processes may not be impaired by depression symptoms. In contrast, individuals with depression symptoms did not exhibit blink magnitudes that varied by valence, either during viewing or after the pictures were removed from view. These findings suggest that ECI is relevant not only for those diagnosed with major depressive disorder, but also for people with depression symptoms that may not cross the diagnostic threshold. These data also point to the importance of considering the time course of emotion to better understand emotional deficits in individuals with differing levels of depression symptoms. Identifying where emotion goes awry across the time course of emotion can help inform treatment development.     

The role of spatial attention and other processes on the magnitude and time course of cueing effects

We are quite often exposed to multiple objects present in the visual scene, thus attentional selection is necessary in order to selectively respond to the relevant information. Objects can be selected on the basis of the location they occupy by orienting attention in space. In this paper, we review the evidence showing that attention can be oriented in space either endogenously, on the basis of central cues, predictive of the relevant location, or exogenously, automatically triggered by the salient properties of visual stimuli (peripheral cues). Several dissociations observed between orienting on the basis of the two types of cues have led to the conclusion that they do not represent just two modes of triggering the orienting of the very same attentional mechanism, but rather they modulate processing differently. We present a theoretical framework according to which endogenous predictive cues facilitate target processing by orienting attention, thus amplifying processing at the attended location. In contrast, apart from attentional orienting, peripherally presented discrepant cues might trigger additional cue-target event-integration and event-segregation processes, which modulate processing in a different way, thus leading to cueing effects that are exclusively triggered by peripheral cues.     

Sensory sensitivity after acquired brain injury: A systematic review

Patients with acquired brain injury frequently report experiencing sensory stimuli as abnormally under- (sensory hyposensitivity) or overwhelming (sensory hypersensitivity). Although they can negatively impact daily functioning, these symptoms are poorly understood. To provide an overview of the current evidence on atypical sensory sensitivity after acquired brain injury, we conducted a systematic literature review. The primary aim of the review was to investigate the behavioural and neural mechanisms that are associated with self-reported sensory sensitivity. Studies were included when they studied sensory sensitivity in acquired brain injury populations, and excluded when they were not written in English, consisted of non-empirical research, did not study human subjects, studied pain, related sensory sensitivity to peripheral injury or studied patients with a neurodegenerative disorder, meningitis, encephalitis or a brain tumour. The Web of Science, PubMed and Scopus databases were searched for appropriate studies. A qualitative synthesis of the results of the 81 studies that were included suggests that abnormal sensory thresholds and a reduced information processing speed are candidate behavioural mechanisms of atypical subjective sensory sensitivity after acquired brain injury. Furthermore, there was evidence for an association between subjective sensory sensitivity and structural grey or white matter abnormalities, and to functional abnormalities in sensory cortices. However, further research is needed to explore the causation of atypical sensory sensitivity. In addition, there is a need for the development of adequate diagnostic tools. This can significantly advance the quantity and quality of research on the prevalence, aetiology, prognosis and treatment of these symptoms.     

PROTECTIVE EQUIPMENT AS TREATMENT FOR STEREOTYPIC HAND MOUTHING: SENSORY EXTINCTION OR PUNISHMENT EFFECTS?

We examined the effects of noncontingent and contingent protective equipment as treatment for self-injurious hand mouthing exhibited by 2 individuals with profound mental retardation. Results of a functional analysis assessment revealed that neither subject's self-injury was maintained by social reinforcement: One subject's self-injury was cyclical in nature; the other's occurred during all assessment conditions but most frequently when left alone. In the noncontingent-equipment condition, oven mitts were placed on the individual's hands at the beginning of a session and remained on throughout. In the contingent-equipment condition, the mitts were briefly placed on the individual's hands following occurrences of hand mouthing. For 1 subject, noncontingent mitts produced a large decrease in the rate of hand mouthing and contingent mitts produced similar results following a return to baseline. Hand mouthing was also reduced in the 2nd subject, but this individual was exposed only to the contingent-equipment condition (i.e., there was no prior history with the noncontingent-equipment condition). These results suggest either a punishment or a time-out interpretation rather than an extinction interpretation to account for the behavior-reducing effects of contingent protective equipment on self-injury.     

Toward a Transactional Conceptualization of Oppositional Defiant Disorder: Implications for Assessment and Treatment

The conceptualization and treatment of oppositional defiant disorder (ODD) has been characterized by surprising homogeneity. In this paper evidence is presented to underscore the heterogeneity within ODD, including research demonstrating (a) the distinction between reactive and proactive forms of aggression; (b) the importance of affective modulation and self-regulation, and associated cognitive skills, in the development of the skill of compliance; and (c) high levels of comorbidity between ODD and other disorders. The disparate pathways that give rise to oppositional behavior suggest that different children with ODD may require different forms of intervention. The necessity of a transactional conceptualization, of achieving a comprehensive understanding of the factors underlying the difficulties of individual children with ODD, and of matching intervention ingredients to the specific needs of different children and families is discussed.Ross W. Greene     

VISUAL SCREENING: AN ALTERNATIVE METHOD FOR REDUCING STEREOTYPIC BEHAVIORS

Visual screening, a mildly aversive response suppression procedure, was evaluated across two studies for its effectiveness in reducing topographically similar and dissimilar stereotypic behaviors of four developmentally disabled children. In the first study, a multiple baseline design across subjects and behaviors was used to assess the effectiveness of the procedure as a treatment for reducing the visual and auditory self-stimulatory responses of two 9-yr-old mentally retarded and behaviorally disturbed children. A multiple baseline design across subjects was used in the second study to evaluate the effectiveness of visual screening as a treatment for reducing stereotypic fabric pulling and self-mutilative ear bending, respectively, of two 13-yr-old mentally retarded, autisticlike adolescents. Long-term follow-up data for both studies were reported. The results suggested that visual screening was an easily administered, effective, and exceptionally durable treatment procedure for controlling a variety of stereotypic behaviors commonly associated with the developmentally disabled.