Correction to: The development of dynamic perceptual simulations during sentence comprehension

Cognitive Processing - A correction to this paper has been published: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10339-021-01027-4     

A video game-based investigation of power stress moderators in children

Motivation and Emotion - In this paper, we examine the relationship between the implicit power motive (nPow) and power stress in primary school children under the additional consideration of...     

Somebody hit the button! The implicit power motive and the frequency of verbal persuasion behavior in children

Motivation and Emotion - We examined the relationship between the implicit power motive (nPow) and the frequency of verbal persuasion behavior (VPB) in dyads of children, while they negotiated a...     

Synaptic Reliability Correlates with Reduced Susceptibility to Synaptic Potentiation by Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor

Recent studies have implicated brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) in use-dependent modification of hippocampal synapses. BDNF can rapidly potentiate synaptic transmission at glutamatergic synapses by enhancing transmitter release. Using simultaneous perforated patch recording from pairs and triplets of glutamatergic hippocampal neurons, we have examined how the initial state of the glutamatergic synapse determines its susceptibility to synaptic modification by BDNF. We found that the degree of synaptic potentiation by BDNF depends on the initial reliability and strength of the synapse: Relatively weak connections were strongly potentiated, whereas the effect was markedly reduced at stronger synapses. The degree of BDNF-induced potentiation strongly correlated with the initial coefficient of variation (CV) of the amplitude of excitatory postsynaptic currents (EPSCs) and inversely correlated with the initial paired–pulse facilitation, suggesting that synapses with lower release probability (P_r) are more susceptible to the action of BDNF. To determine whether saturation of P_r could have masked the potentiation effect of BDNF in the stronger synapses, we lowered the initial P_r either by reducing the extracellular Ca²⁺ concentration ([Ca²⁺]_o) or by bath application of adenosine. Synapses that were initially strong remained unaffected by BDNF under these conditions of reduced P_r. Thus, the lack of BDNF effect on synaptic efficacy cannot simply be accounted for by saturation of P_r, but rather may be due to intrinsic changes associated with synaptic maturation that might covary with P_r. Finally, the dependence on initial synaptic strength was also found for divergent outputs of the same presynaptic neuron, suggesting that synaptic terminals with different degrees of responsiveness to BDNF can coexist within in the same neuron.     

Data and phenomena in conceptual modelling

The distinction between data and phenomena introduced by Bogen and Woodward (Philosophical Review 97(3):303–352, 1988) was meant to help accounting for scientific practice, especially in relation with scientific theory testing. Their article and the subsequent discussion is primarily viewed as internal to philosophy of science. We shall argue that the data/phenomena distinction can be used much more broadly in modelling processes in philosophy.     

Differential roles of the frontal and parietal cortices in the control of saccades

Although externally as well as internally-guided eye movements allow us to flexibly explore the visual environment, their differential neural mechanisms remain elusive. A better understanding of these neural mechanisms will help us to understand the control of action and to elucidate the nature of cognitive deficits in certain psychiatric populations (e.g. schizophrenia) that show increased latencies in volitional but not visually-guided saccades. Both the superior precentral sulcus (sPCS) and the intraparietal sulcus (IPS) are implicated in the control of eye movements. However, it remains unknown what differential contributions the two areas make to the programming of visually-guided and internally-guided saccades. In this study we tested the hypotheses that sPCS and IPS distinctly encode internally-guided saccades and visually-guided saccades. We scanned subjects with fMRI while they generated visually-guided and internally-guided delayed saccades. We used multi-voxel pattern analysis to test whether patterns of cue related, preparatory and saccade related activation could be used to predict the direction of the planned eye movement. Results indicate that patterns in the human sPCS predicted internally-guided saccades but not visually-guided saccades in all trial periods and patterns in the IPS predicted internally-guided saccades and visually-guided saccades equally well. The results support the hypothesis that the human sPCS and IPS make distinct contributions to the control of volitional eye movements.     

Towards a New Epistemology of Mathematics

In this introduction we discuss the motivation behind the workshop “Towards a New Epistemology of Mathematics” of which this special issue constitutes the proceedings. We elaborate on historical and empirical aspects of the desired new epistemology, connect it to the public image of mathematics, and give a summary and an introduction to the contributions to this issue.

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The Psychosocial Vulnerability Model of Hostility as a Predictor of Coronary Heart Disease in Low-income African Americans

The current study examined social support and stress as mediators of the hostility—coronary heart disease (CHD) relationship as suggested by the psychosocial vulnerability model in a sample of low-income African Americans. Among 95 CHD patients and 30 healthy controls, hostility was negatively correlated with social support, but was not related to minor stress. CHD patients endorsed higher levels of hostility; however, the relationship between hostility and CHD status was diminished once stress and social support were included in the model. This study lends partial support for the psychosocial vulnerability model of hostility in African Americans, but suggests that the relationship between hostility and stress may be impacted by socioeconomic status.     

Set-Theoretic Absoluteness and the Revision Theory of Truth

We describe the solution of the Limit Rule Problem of Revision Theory and discuss the philosophical consequences of the fact that the truth set of Revision Theory is a complete 1/2 set.