An fMRI study of temporal sequencing of motor regulation guided by an auditory cue—a comparison with visual guidance

The neuronal system to process and transfer auditory information to the higher motor areas was investigated using fMRI. Two different types of internal modulation of auditory pacing (1 Hz) were combined to design a 2×2 condition experiment, and the activation was compared with that under a visual guidance. The bilateral anterior portion of the BA22 (ant-BA22) and the left BA41/42 were more extensively activated by the combined modulation condition under the auditory cue than that under the visual cue. Among the four auditory conditions with or without the two types of internal modulation, the activation in the ant-BA22 was augmented only on the left side by the combined modulation condition. The left ant-BA22 may be especially involved in integrating the external auditory cue with internal modulation, while the activation on the right side did not depend on the complexity. The role of the left BA41/42 in motor regulation may be more specific to the processing of an auditory cue than that on the right side. These two areas in the left temporal lobe may be organized as a subsystem to handle the timing of complex movements under auditory cues, while the higher motor areas in the frontal lobe support both sensory modalities for the cue. This architecture may be considered as ‘audio-motor control’, which is similar to the visuo-motor control of the front-parietal network.     

Relationship between working memory capacity and contingent involuntary orienting

Individual differences in working memory capacity are related to the ability to control attention; where less working memory capacity is associated with less attentional control. A well-known demonstration of attentional control is contingent involuntary orienting (Folk, Remington, & Johnston, 1992), which is the finding that visuospatial attention is captured by a salient peripheral cue, but only if the cue is featurally similar to the target of search and not if the cue is featurally dissimilar. This control of attention and ability to resist shifting attention towards an irrelevant visual cue is believed to be moderated by attentional settings for target-specific features. This study establishes that working memory capacity is related to contingent involuntary orienting of attention. Lower working memory capacity was associated with larger stimulus-driven cueing effects at short cue-to-target onset asynchronies, than at longer asynchronies, suggesting working memory capacity was associated with the ability to control covert orienting of attention at early processing stages.     

Limbic networks and associative learning: II. Entorhinal contributions to spontaneous alternation,passive avoidance,and taste aversion learning

The hippocampus plays an important role in learning and memory, but the precise nature of that involvement remains uncertain. Transection of the perforant path, a primary input pathway to the hippocampus, has been shown to produce changes in reaction to novelty and acquisition of active avoidance; the nature and magnitude of these changes vary with lateral or medial perforant path damage. In a series of experiments on adult rats, the role of these pathways in spontaneous alternation, exploration, acquisition and extinction of conditioned responses, passive avoidance, and conditioned taste aversion was investigated. Lateral transection reduced exploration while medial transection facilitated acquisition of an active avoidance response; no effects were observed on any other measure. Results are discussed in terms of what perforant path damage might reveal regarding the interactions of the hippocampus with other brain regions.     

A survey of the use of facilitated communication in community agencies serving persons with developmental disabilities

Service providers to individuals with developmental disabilities at seven North Dakota agencies were surveyed on their current and past use of facilitated communication (FC). Perceived validity and effectiveness of FC were also assessed. Seventeen percent of the 177 direct care and supervisory staff surveyed reported that they had never heard of FC, 36% were aware of but had never used FC, 28% had previously used FC, and 18% currently used the technique despite overwhelming experimental evidence that FC is not a valid means of communication for people with disabilities. The results indicated that respondents who had previously used FC, but did not do so currently, gave it the lowest ratings of validity, usefulness, and likability, while current users gave FC the highest ratings. Current users had the fewest years of experience in the field of developmental disabilities. The majority of current users said guardian approval should not be required prior to the use of FC, whereas the majority of past users and non-users said that guardian approval should be required. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Does high educational level protect against intellectual decline in older adults?: A 10‐year longitudinal study

This study examined the relation between educational level and intellectual change in Japanese older adults. Participants (age = 65–79 years, n = 593) comprised the first‐wave participants of the National Institute for Longevity Sciences‐Longitudinal Study of Aging (NILS‐LSA). They were followed for 10 years and were tested six times. Educational levels were divided into two groups (low‐educated or high‐educated), and intellectual changes for the 10 years were assessed using the Japanese Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale‐Revised Short Forms (JWAIS‐R‐SF); subtests included Information, Similarities, Picture Completion, and Digit Symbol. General linear mixed‐model analyses revealed that education had not affected 10‐year changes of the Information, Similarities, and Picture Completion subtest scores. In contrast, education was significantly associated with a change in the Digit Symbol subtest score; individuals with higher levels of education showed greater decline than those with less education, although they had higher ability at every time point. These findings suggest that higher education does not protect against intellectual decline in late life, although it is associated with long‐term individual differences in intelligence.     

Secularizing Religious Practices: A Study of Subjectivity and Existential Transformation in Naikan Therapy

Adapted from a Shin Buddhist style of meditation, Naikan  (" inner-looking ")  is a week-long contemplative practice that involves reviewing one's life from the perspectives of others and has been called an indigenous Japanese psychotherapy due to its effectiveness in treating a variety of disorders. Data collected during an extended ethnographic study of Naikan in both Japan and Austria reveal that Naikan, a "secularized" practice that removes overtly Buddhist references and practices, effects changes in clients' subjectivity that are strikingly similar to those sought after in Buddhist traditions. This suggests that Naikan operates therapeutically on an existential level and employs cognitive techniques that, while originating in Buddhism, remain efficacious outside a Buddhist context. The potential for certain contemplative practices to effect transformations of subjectivity across religious and cultural contexts may be greater than commonly assumed.     

Piagetian conservation of discrete quantities in bonobos (Pan paniscus), chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes), and orangutans (Pongo pygmaeus)

This study investigated whether physical discreteness helps apes to understand the concept of Piagetian conservation (i.e. the invariance of quantities). Subjects were four bonobos, three chimpanzees, and five orangutans. Apes were tested on their ability to conserve discrete/continuous quantities in an over-conservation procedure in which two unequal quantities of edible rewards underwent various transformations in front of subjects. Subjects were examined to determine whether they could track the larger quantity of reward after the transformation. Comparison between the two types of conservation revealed that tests with bonobos supported the discreteness hypothesis. Bonobos, but neither chimpanzees nor orangutans, performed significantly better with discrete quantities than with continuous ones. The results suggest that at least bonobos could benefit from the discreteness of stimuli in their acquisition of conservation skills.     

Limbic networks and associative learning: II. Entorhinal contributions to spontaneous alternation, passive avoidance, and taste aversion learning

The hippocampus plays an important role in learning and memory, but the precise nature of that involvement remains uncertain. Transection of the perforant path, a primary input pathway to the hippocampus, has been shown to produce changes in reaction to novelty and acquisition of active avoidance; the nature and magnitude of these changes vary with lateral or medial perforant path damage. In a series of experiments on adult rats, the role of these pathways in spontaneous alternation, exploration, acquisition and extinction of conditioned responses, passive avoidance, and conditioned taste aversion was investigated. Lateral transection reduced exploration while medial transection facilitated acquisition of an active avoidance response; no effects were observed on any other measure. Results are discussed in terms of what perforant path damage might reveal regarding the interactions of the hippocampus with other brain regions.     

Gorillas’ use of the escape response in object choice memory tests

The ability to monitor and control one’s own cognitive states, metacognition, is crucial for effective learning and problem solving. Although the literature on animal metacognition has grown considerably during last 15 years, there have been few studies examining whether great apes share such introspective abilities with humans. Here, we tested whether four gorillas could meet two criteria of animal metacognition, the increase in escape responses as a function of task difficulty and the chosen-forced performance advantage. During testing, the subjects participated in a series of object choice memory tests in which a preferable reward (two grapes) was placed under one of two or three blue cups. The apes were required to correctly select the baited blue cup in this primary test. Importantly, the subjects also had an escape response (a yellow cup), where they could obtain a secure but smaller reward (one grape) without taking the memory test. Although the gorillas received a relatively small number of trials and thus experienced little training, three gorillas significantly declined the memory tests more often in difficult trials (e.g., when the location of the preferred reward conflicted with side bias) than in easy trials (e.g., when there was no such conflict). Moreover, even when objective cues were eliminated that corresponded to task difficulty, one of the successful gorillas showed evidence suggestive of improved memory performance with the help of escape response by selectively avoiding trials in which he would be likely to err before the memory test actually proceeded. Together, these findings demonstrate that at least some gorillas may be able to make optimal choices on the basis of their own memory trace strength about the location of the preferred reward.     

Atomistic study of structural fluctuations during radiation-induced amorphization in the ordered intermetallic compound NiTi

We have carried out an atomistic study of electron-induced amorphization of an ordered intermetallic compound NiTi by means of in-situ high-resolution high-voltage electron microscopy observations and molecular dynamics simulations. Both theoretical and experimental results show that metastable nanometre-size atomic clusters form and disappear during irradiation, so that a spatiotemporal fluctuation under amorphization is induced. Mean-lifetime measurements of these clusters demonstrate that high-energy particle irradiation provides a useful tool to study dynamic fluctuations of the local atomic structure in the non-equilibrium open systems.