Semantic diversity in paired-associate learning: Further evidence for the information accumulation perspective of cognitive aging

Psychonomic Bulletin & Review - Normal aging is often associated with a performance decline on various cognitive tests, including paired associate learning (PAL), where participants are asked...     

论马克思主义的整体性(上)

近年来,随着 "马克思主义理论"被正式确立为国家一级学科,"马克思主义学院"在全国高等院校纷纷成立,国内马克思主义研究在表面上也呈现出一派热闹非凡的景象。于是马克思主义的整体性问题被提了出来。然而,与这种表面上热闹的景象形成鲜明对照的是,真正从心灵深处认同、信仰马克思主义的人并不很多。这种悖论式的现象不能不引起我们足够的重视。对于研究马克思主义的理论工作者而言,必须对眼前令人眼花缭乱的马克思主义 "热"进行 "冷"思考,就是说,必须认真地、郑重地提出并弄清这样一个问题: 马克思主义就其本义而言,是站在大众立场、为大众立言、为     

基于概念辨析的类比推理研究的新视角

该研究从概念的辨析上着手,不仅可以在相似的多个概念上理清各自的异同,更重要的是分析得出,作为科学发现和创造性思维的核心———类比推理(狭义类比推理),它有着不同于一般思维活动中的类比推理(广义类比推理)的特点。在此基础之上,才能更好地揭示其发生的规律,以利于更进一步的实证研究。     

Healthcare sector reform and its influence on public hospitals in mainland China

The government has launched the healthcare sector reform since the 1980s. From the beginning, the reform has been controversial. What is then the real purpose of the reform? Is it only to reduce the government's burden of health care or establish a just and effective healthcare system? Can healthcare be geared by the market or should the government play a guiding role in it?     

Cognitive disruption and altered hippocampus synaptic function in Reelin haploinsufficient mice

The heterozygote reeler mouse (HRM) shows many neuroanatomical and biochemical features that are also present in some human cognitive disorders, such as schizophrenia. In the present study, hippocampal dependent plasticity and cognitive function of the HRM were characterized in detail in an attempt to reveal phenotypic functional differences that result from Reelin haploinsufficiency. The HRM and wild type mice show similar levels of overall activity, coordination, thermal nociception, startle responses, and anxiety-like behavior. In addition, both genotypes show similar shock threshold, identical cued freezing behavior and comparable spatial learning in Morris water maze tasks. However, a significant reduction in contextual fear conditioned learning was observed in the HRM. Electrophysiological studies in hippocampal CA1 synapses revealed a plethora of differences between genotypes. The HRM exhibits reduced field excitatory postsynaptic potentials in responses to similar synaptic inputs, lowered paired pulse facilitation ratio and impaired long-term depression and tetanus-induced long-term potentiation (LTP). Also, deficits were detected in LTP elicited by theta burst stimulation or by a whole cell pairing protocol. These physiologic differences could not be accounted for by changes in the overall amount of glutamate receptor subunits. In addition, it was determined that network-driven excitatory and inhibitory activities recorded in CA1 pyramidal neurons showed that the HRM had comparable amplitude and frequency of spontaneous excitatory postsynaptic currents, but a marked reduction in spontaneous inhibitory postsynaptic currents. Thus, the HRM exhibits a specific hippocampal-dependent learning deficit accompanied with a pronounced impairment of hippocampal plasticity and functional inhibitory innervation.     

Comparison of brain mechanisms underlying the processing of Chinese characters and pseudo-characters: an event-related potential study

Most Chinese characters are composed of a semantic radical on the left and a phonetic radical on the right. The semantic radical provides the semantic information; the phonetic radical provides information concerning the pronunciation of the whole character. The pseudo‐characters in the study consisted of different sub‐lexical parts of real Chinese characters and consequently they also had the semantic radical and the phonetic radical. But they were not readable and had no actual meaning. In order to investigate the spatiotemporal cortical activation patterns underlying the orthographic, phonological and semantic processing of Chinese characters, we used event‐related brain potentials (ERPs) to explore the processing of Chinese characters and pseudo‐characters when 14 healthy Chinese college students viewed the characters passively. Results showed that both Chinese characters and pseudo‐characters elicited an evident negative potential peaking around 120 ms (N120), which appeared to reflect initial orthographic distinction and evaluation. Then, Chinese pseudo‐characters elicited a more positive ERP deflection (P220) than did Chinese characters 200–250 ms after onset of the stimuli. It was similar to the recognition potential (RP) and might reflect the integration processes of phonological and semantic processing on the basis of early orthographic information. Dipole source analysis of the difference wave (pseudo‐characters minus characters) indicated that a generator localized in the left temporal‐occipital junction contributed to this effect, which was possibly related to phonological and perceptual–semantic information integration. Between 350–450 ms, a greater negativity (N360) in pseudo‐characters as compared to characters was found over midline fronto‐central scalp regions. Dipole analysis localized the generator of N360 in the right parahippocampal cortex. Therefore, the N360 might be an N400 component and reflect the higher‐level semantic activation on the basis of orthographic, phonological and perceptual–semantic processing.     

Differentiation of stages in joke comprehension: Evidence from an ERP study

This study aimed to investigate the mechanisms underlying joke comprehension using event‐related potentials (ERPs). Fourteen healthy college students were presented with the context of a story without its joke or nonjoke ending, and then, when the story ending was presented, they were asked to make a funny/unfunny judgment about these endings. The behavioral results showed that there was no significant difference between funny and unfunny items, which meant that subjects could understand funny items as easily as unfunny ones. However, the ERP results showed that funny items initially elicited a more negative ERP deflection (N350–450) over frontocentral scalp regions. Dipole analysis localized the generators in the left temporal gyrus and the left medial frontal gyrus; it is suggested that these areas might be involved in detecting the incongruent element in joke comprehension. Between 600 and 800 ms, funny items subsequently elicited a more negative ERP deflection (N600–800) over frontocentral scalp regions and a more positive ERP deflection (P600–800) over posterior scalp regions. Dipole analysis localized the generator in the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), an area involved in the breaking of mental set/expectation and the forming of novel associations. Finally, funny items elicited a more positive ERP deflection (P1250–1400) over anterior and posterior scalp regions. Dipole analysis localized the generators in the middle frontal gyrus and the fusiform gyrus, areas that might be related to the affective appreciation stage in joke process. Unlike that of Coulson and Kutas (2001), the present study might support the hypothesis of a three stage model of humor processing (humor detection, resolution of incongruity and humor appreciation).     

Hydrogen-induced cold cracking in heat-affected zone of low-carbon high-strength steel

The Y-groove cracking test by submerged arc welding was employed to study the susceptibility of a low-carbon high-strength steel to hydrogen-induced cold cracking (HICC). The morphology of hydrogen cracks was observed using an electron probe microscope. The results showed that the heat-affected zone (HAZ) has a higher susceptibility to HICC than the weld metal and that increasing heat input can improve the HICC resistance of the weldment. The intergranular microcracking is the main HICC mode at the lowest heat input condition, accompanied with some transgranular microcracks attached to complex inclusions. In combination with phase transformation behaviour in sub-zones, the effect of the phase transformation sequence is proposed to try to illustrate the fact that the fine-grained HAZ has higher probability of hydrogen cracking than the coarse-grained HAZ owing to the occurrence of hydrogen enrichment in the fine-grained HAZ after the transformation.     

当代心智哲学研究的12个问题及其他

自古希腊文明时期起,人类就开始了对心智(m ind)奥秘孜孜不倦的探索。然而,在20世纪后半叶之前,心智在哲学中的研究一直处于非主流状态。在过去的30年里,这种情况发生了很大的改变,心智哲学成为哲学研究的中心论题之一,它带动和涵盖了其他许多哲学分支的研究。心智哲学的当代领军人物之一、美国著名哲学家塞尔(John R.Searle)甚至指出:“50年前语言哲学被认为是‘第一哲学’,现在这一位置由心智哲学所取代。”[1]正是基于这一认识,塞尔在他的新作《心智》一书中总结了当代心智哲学应该加以深入研究的12个基本问题,这些问题是在笛卡尔传统…     

Perfectionism mediated the relationship between brain structure variation and negative emotion in a nonclinical sample

In maladaptive respects, perfectionism reflects an individual’s concern over making mistakes and doubting the quality of his or her own actions excessively, which would affect one’s emotion. However, little is known about the neural mechanisms associated with the perfectionism and negative affect. In this study, voxel-based morphometry was performed to identify the brain regions underlying individual differences in perfectionism, which was measured by the Chinese Frost Multidimensional Perfectionism Scale (CFMPS), in a large sample of nonclinical young adults. Our results showed that the two subdimensions of the perfectionism, concern over mistakes (CM) and doubts about actions (DA), were both positively correlated with the self-reported anxiety and depression as well as the gray matter volume (GMV) in the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), a pivotal brain region in cognitive control, affective state, and regulation. Moreover, CM, DA, and organization scores were respectively correlated with distributed brain regions involved in multiple cognitive and emotion processes. Our results furthermore revealed that the score of DA acted a mediational mechanism underlying the relationship between the GMV of ACC and self-rating negative affect (anxiety and depression). Taken together, these results might suggest the neuroanatomical basis of perfectionism and the association among the perfectionism, negative emotion, and brain architecture. This study emphasized that perfectionism could play a crucial role in the arousal of negative affect.