Structural connectivity between the hippocampus and cortical/subcortical area relates to cognitive impairment in schizophrenia but not in mood disorders

Cognitive impairment in schizophrenia and other psychiatric disorders is a challenge to be overcome in order to maintain patients' quality of life and social function. The neurological pathogenesis of cognitive impairment requires further elucidation. In general, the hippocampus interacts between the cortical and subcortical areas for information processing and consolidation and has an important role in memory. We examined the relationship between structural connectivity of the hippocampus and cortical/subcortical areas and cognitive impairment in schizophrenia, major depressive disorder and bipolar disorder. Subjects comprised 21 healthy controls, 19 patients with schizophrenia, 20 patients with bipolar disorder and 18 patients with major depressive disorder. Diffusion-weighted tensor images data were processed using ProbtrackX2 to calculate the structural connectivity between the hippocampus and cortical/subcortical areas. Cognitive function was assessed using the Brief Assessment of Cognition in schizophrenia composite score. Hippocampal structural connectivity index was significantly correlated with composite score in the schizophrenia group but not in the healthy control, major depressive disorder or bipolar disorder groups. There were no statistically significant differences in hippocampal structural connectivity index between the four groups. Structural connectivity between the hippocampus and cortical/subcortical areas is suggested to be a pathophysiological mechanism of comprehensive cognitive impairment in schizophrenia.     

How is motion disparity integrated with binocular disparity in depth perception?

Two experiments presented motion disparity conflicting with binocular disparity to examine how these cues determined apparent depth order (convex, concave) and depth magnitude. In each experiment, 8 subjects estimated the depth order and depth magnitude. The first experiment showed the following. (1) The visual system used one of these cues exclusively in selecting a depth order for each display. (2) The visual system integrated the depth magnitude information from these cues by a weighted additive fashion if it selected the binocular disparity in depth order perception and if the depth magnitude specified by motion disparity was small relative to that specified by binocular disparity. (3) The visual system ignored the depth magnitude information of binocular disparity if it selected the motion disparity in depth order perception. The second experiment showed that these three points were consistent whether the subject’s head movement or object movement generated motion disparity.     

Integration of motion parallax with binocular disparity specifying different surface shapes

We investigated the interaction between motion parallax and binocular disparity cues in the perception of surface shape and depth magnitude by the use of the random dot stimuli in which these cues specified sinusoidal depth surfaces undulating with different spatial frequencies. When ambiguous motion parallax is inconsistent with unambiguous disparity cue, the reasonable solution for the visual system is to convert the motion signal to the flow on the surface specified by disparity. Two experiments, however, found that the visual system did not always use this reasonable solution; observers often perceived the surface specified by a composite of the two cues, or the surface specified by parallax alone. In the perception of this composite of the two cues, the apparent depth magnitude increased with the increase of the depth magnitude specified by both cues. This indicates that the visual system can combine the depth magnitude information from parallax and disparity in an additive fashion. The interference with parallax by disparity implies that the parallax processing is not independent of the disparity processing.     

Useful visual field size for pattern perception

The useful visual field size at each fixation in a pattern was investigated by artificially supplying various visual field sizes on a TV display. The degree of pattern perception was measured in terms of recognition memory for pictures, and the speed of processing pictures was determined as a function of field size. A serious deterioration in the perception of pictures occurred as the visual field was limited to a small area around the fovea (about 3.3° × 3.3°), processing speed becoming extremely slow. Speed increased gradually as visual field size became larger, to reach a certain level beyond which no further increase was observed. The visual field size at this asymptotic speed was called the useful visual field and was found to be about 50% of the entire pattern size. Analysis of eye-movement records demonstrated that in terms of the useful visual field, the scanning characteristics of the eye over the pattern occurred in a heavily overlapping manner to assure good perception of the pattern.     

Effects of textual prompts and feedback on social niceties of adolescents with autism spectrum disorder in a simulated workplace

Previous research demonstrates the efficacy of behavioral skills training with a textual prompt to establish greetings and conversational skills. This study examined the efficacy of a brief intervention of textual prompts with performance feedback for increasing social niceties of adolescents and young adults with autism spectrum disorder in a simulated workplace. Target social niceties included “Do you have a minute?” when a participant initiated an interaction and “Thank you for your time” when a participant ended the interaction. Results revealed this intervention was effective for 7 of 9 participants. This study expands upon previous studies by showing the efficacy of a resource-efficient training on acquisition and generalization of social niceties by people with autism spectrum disorder.     

Positive emotions have different impacts on mood and sympathetic changes in crying from negative emotions

Motivation and Emotion - Emotional crying has been extensively discussed but has concentrated on crying as a result of negative emotion. There are few psychological and neurophysiological findings...     

Creativity,consciousness, and “becoming wise fast enough”

Thirteen 11th-grade students in enriched mathematics and 9 in a regular course solved nine word problems that varied in the ease with which they could be solved by verbal-logical or visual strategies. A pervasive use of verbal-logical solution methods was noted for both groups. Significant differences were found in the final solution strategies. In the course of solving each problem, students tried different strategies. Enriched students alternated almost exclusively between verbal-logical and visual solution methods, whereas regular students alternated equally between verbal-logical and visual solution methods or between verbal-logical strategies and trial and error.     

Tactile pattern recognition by graphic display: Importance of 3-D information for haptic perception of familiar objects

Haptic recognition of familiar objects by the early blind, the late blind, and the sighted was investigated with two-dimensional (2-D) and three-dimensional (3-D) stimuli produced by small tactor-pins. The 2-D stimulus was an outline of an object that was depicted by raising tactor-pins to 1.5 mm. The 3-D stimulus was a relief that was produced by raising the tactors up to 10 mm, corresponding to the height of the object. Mean recognition times for correct answers to the 3-D stimuli were faster than those for the 2-D stimuli, in all three subject groups. No statistically significant differences in percentage of correct responses between the 2-D and the 3-D stimuli were found for the late-blind and sighted groups, but the early-blind group demonstrated a significant difference. In addition, the haptic legibility for the quality of depiction of the object, without regard to whether or not the stimulus was understood, was measured. The haptic legibility of the 3-D stimuli was significantly higher than that of the 2-D stimuli for all the groups. These results suggest that 3-D presentation seems to promise a way to overcome the limitations of 2-D graphic display.