Heimat und das Fremde

Ohne ZusammenfassungKyushu Dental CollegeIch danke der Heinrich-Herz-Stiftung des Landes Nordrhein-Westfalen für die Finanzierung eines Forschungsaufenthalts in Wuppertal sowie den Professoren Dr. Klaus Held und Antonio Aguirre, dann Dr. Heinrich Hüni, für ihre Anregungen. Dr. Hans Rainer Sepp gab viele aufschlußreiche Hinweise und hat sich des sprachlichen Gewands dieses Aufsatzes angenommen.     

Multiple EMG activity and intracortical inhibition and facilitation during a fine finger movement under pressure

The 1st purpose of this study was to examine multiple electromyography (EMG) during voluntary hand movements. A secondary purpose was to investigate possible effects of pressure on intracortical inhibition (ICI) and intracortical facilitation (ICF) functions of the motor cortex, using paired-pulse transcranial magnetic stimulation. Twelve participants traced a 15-cm diameter target circle using a small laser pointer attached to the right index finger. After 5 acquisition trials, they performed 3 nonpressure trials followed by 3 pressure trials. The results showed that pressure had effects not only on agonist EMG activity but also on multiple muscles, such as synergist. In addition, a decrease in ICI and an increase in ICF were both observed under pressure for muscles other than the agonist.     

Relationship between sports experience and executive function in 6–12‐year‐old children: independence from physical fitness and moderation by gender

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the relationship between sports experience (i.e., tennis experience) and executive function in children while controlling for physical activity and physical fitness. Sixty‐eight participants (6–12 years old, 34 males and 34 females) were enrolled in regular tennis lessons (mean = 2.4 years, range = 0.1–7.3 years) prior to the study. Executive functions, including inhibitory control (the Stroop Color‐Word Test), working memory (the 2‐back Task), and cognitive flexibility (the Local–global Task) were evaluated. Participants’ levels of daily physical activity, ranging from moderate to vigorous, were evaluated using triaxial accelerometers. The total score for physical fitness was assessed using the Tennis Field Test. Hierarchical multiple regression analyses revealed interaction effects between gender and tennis experience on participants’ reaction time (RT) on the switch cost of the Local–global Task after controlling for age, BMI, gender, physical activity, physical fitness, and tennis experience. Longer tennis experience was associated with shorter switch cost in males but not in females. Higher scores on physical fitness were positively associated with lower interference scores on the Stroop Color‐Word Test, RT on the 2‐back Task, and RT in the switching condition of the Local–global Task, after controlling for age, BMI, gender, and physical activity. In conclusion, all three foundational components of executive function (i.e., inhibitory control, working memory, and cognitive flexibility) were more strongly related to physical fitness than to physical activity in males and females, whereas greater cognitive flexibility was related to tennis experience only in the males.     

Spatial knowledge acquisition from direct experience in the environment: individual differences in the development of metric knowledge and the integration of separately learned places

Existing frameworks for explaining spatial knowledge acquisition in a new environment propose either stage-like or continuous development. To examine the spatial microgenesis of individuals, a longitudinal study was conducted. Twenty-four college students were individually driven along two routes in a previously unfamiliar neighborhood over 10 weekly sessions. Starting Session 4, they were also driven along a short connecting route. After each session, participants estimated spatial properties of the routes. Some participants' knowledge improved fairly continuously over the sessions, but most participants either manifested accurate metric knowledge from the first session or never manifested accurate metric knowledge. Results are discussed in light of these large individual differences, particularly with respect to the accuracy and development of integrated configurational knowledge.     

Individual Differences in the Encoding Processes of Egocentric and Allocentric Survey Knowledge

This study examined how different components of working memory are involved in the acquisition of egocentric and allocentric survey knowledge by people with a good and poor sense of direction (SOD). We employed a dual‐task method and asked participants to learn routes from videos with verbal, visual, and spatial interference tasks and without any interference. Results showed that people with a good SOD encoded and integrated knowledge about landmarks and routes into egocentric survey knowledge in verbal and spatial working memory, which is then transformed into allocentric survey knowledge with the support of all three components, distances being processed in verbal and spatial working memory and directions in visual and spatial working memory. In contrast, people with a poor SOD relied on verbal working memory and lacked spatial processing, thus failing to acquire accurate survey knowledge. Based on the results, a possible model for explaining individual differences in spatial knowledge acquisition is proposed.     

Do bantams (Gallus gallus domesticus) amodally complete partly occluded lines? An analysis of line classification performance

Humans perceive a line touching an edge of a large rectangle longer than the reality. Kanizsa (1979) has suggested that this illusion occurs because we perceive that the line is partly "hidden" behind the rectangle and automatically completes it. We tested whether bantams (Gallus gallus domesticus) would experience this perceptual phenomenon using a line classification task on the touch monitor, which was used in our previous study with rhesus monkeys and pigeons (Fujita, 2001). We trained three bantams to classify six lengths of black target lines into two categories, "short" or "long," ignoring a gray rectangle (Experiment 1) or a gray area (i.e., a left or a right half of the monitor was filled with gray; Experiment 2) located at the same distance (8 pixels) from the target line. In the test, the gap between the line and the gray rectangle (or area) sometimes changed (0, 4, or 8 pixels; we labeled these stimuli as G0, G4, and G8 respectively). Both of the two successfully trained bantams showed an illusion for G0, but the direction of illusion was reversed; that is, they judged the line in G0 to be "shorter" than that in G4 and G8. Further analyses proved that neither the gaps between the target line and the gray rectangle nor the total widths of the stimuli could account for the bantams' responses. These results suggest that bantams do not complete the "occluded" portion even when identification of its shape is not required.     

Is lesion of Exner's area linked to progressive agraphia in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis with dementia? An autopsy case report

Agraphia, as a neuropsychological symptom of ALS, especially ALS with dementia (ALS-D), has recently attracted more attention. However, the brain lesion responsible has not been identified. Here we present an autopsy case of ALS-D of a patient with obvious agraphia, without aphasia, that also presented cerebrospinal degeneration with TDP-43-pathology compatible with ALS-D. Of the pre-motor frontal lobe cortices, degeneration and immuno-histochemical pathology were most obvious in the caudal area of the left middle frontal gyrus, or Exner's area. Assuring this area plays a pivotal role in the kanji and kana formation used in writing the Japanese language, this case of ALS-D showed both agraphia and Exner's area stressed pathological lesions. It may thus be the first case to indicate an intimate relationship between the neuropsychological symptoms and an associated lesion for ALS-D.     

Motor preparation of manual aiming at a visual target manipulated in size, luminance contrast, and location

We conducted two experiments to investigate whether the motor preparation of manual aiming to a visual target is affected by either the physical characteristics (size or luminance contrast) or spatial characteristics (location) of the target. Reaction time (RT) of both finger lifting (ie stimulus-detection time) and manual aiming (ie movement-triggering time) to the onset of the target was measured. The difference of RT (DRT) between two tasks (ie the difference of task complexity) was examined to clarify the temporal characteristics of manual aiming per se during visuomotor integration. Results show classical characteristics: RT decreased as either the target size or luminance contrast increased. Furthermore, the task-complexity and target-location factors significantly interacted with each other, where the aiming RT was longer than the finger-lifting RT and the effects of target location on RT differed for each task. However, the task factor did not interact with either the size or luminance-contrast factor, implying that the motor preparation of manual aiming is associated with the spatial characteristics rather than the physical characteristics of the target. Inspection of DRT revealed that the time needed for motor preparation for an ipsilateral target was significantly shorter than that for a contralateral target. This was the case both for the left and for the right hand. Foveal targets required longer processing time, implying a disadvantageous function of motor preparation for the gazed target. The left-hand superiority for the target appearing in the left visual field was also observed. Such lateralised effect and left-hand advantage to the left visual field in manual aiming suggest that visuospatial information processing is activated during the preparation of aiming action, with faster processing in the right hemisphere.     

Spatiotemporal balance in competing apparent motion is not predicted from the strength of the single-motion percept

Apparent motion is useful for investigating how spatiotemporal cues are integrated to determine the identity of a moving object. To examine its spatiotemporal properties, a competing-motion paradigm has advantages in strict psychophysical evaluation, despite difficulty in object-identity determination, over a non-competing subjective-grading paradigm. The latter has been often used, whereas the former has not been fully investigated. Here, we compared these two paradigms. In the competing-motion experiment, a sample spot was followed by a far and a near test spot with onset asynchrony. We found that the onset asynchrony between the near and far test spots was directly related to the distance ratio between them. This spatial size-invariant relation was not predicted from the strength of the single-apparent-motion percept, estimated from the non-competing subjective-grading experiment in which a sample spot was followed by only one test spot. Moreover, the spatiotemporal balance in competing apparent motion was found not to be valid under negative interstimulus-interval conditions, although a single apparent motion is perceived in those conditions. These clear discrepancies suggest that competing and single apparent motions are processed in a different way according to the difficulty in object identification.     

Sociotropy-autonomy and situation-specific anxiety

Sociotropy and autonomy are conceptualized as two personality dimensions that relate to individuals' vulnerability to anxiety and depression. Sociotropy is characterized as an excessive investment in interpersonal relationships, and autonomy is characterized as an excessive concern with independence as well as a lack of concern for others. The present study investigated the relationships between sociotropy-autonomy and trait anxiety associated with four types of situations, i.e., Social Evaluation, Physical Danger, Ambiguous Situation, and Daily Routine. 255 undergraduate students completed the Sociotropy-Autonomy Scale, the Endler Multidimensional Anxiety Scale, and the Beck Depression Inventory. Analyses indicated that scores on Sociotropy were positively correlated with rated trait anxiety in situations of Social Evaluation, Physical Danger, and Ambiguous Situations, whereas scores on Autonomy were positively correlated with rated trait anxiety in Daily Routines. These findings are discussed in the context of the diathesis-stress model of anxiety and depression.