Temporal integration of speech prosody is shaped by language experience: an fMRI study

Differences in hemispheric functions underlying speech perception may be related to the size of temporal integration windows over which prosodic features (e.g., pitch) span in the speech signal. Chinese tone and intonation, both signaled by variations in pitch contours, span over shorter (local) and longer (global) temporal domains, respectively. This cross-linguistic (Chinese and English) study uses functional magnetic resonance imaging to show that pitch contours associated with tones are processed in the left hemisphere by Chinese listeners only, whereas pitch contours associated with intonation are processed predominantly in the right hemisphere. These findings argue against the view that all aspects of speech prosody are lateralized to the right hemisphere, and promote the idea that varying-sized temporal integration windows reflect a neurobiological adaptation to meet the 'prosodic needs' of a particular language.     

沟通、意义和组织化行动研究

组织化行动对组织发展和学习意义很大。有一种观点认为,组织化行动由成员之间的共识而引发;但又有另一种观点认为组织化行为产生的基础在于交换而不在于共识。本研究试图综合以上两种看法,指出等效型意义能够带来组织化或集体性行为。有效的沟通机制能够创造维持等效型意义。     

The Effect of Positive Rumination Training on Mental Health and Attentional Bias

To examine the effect of positive rumination training on mental health and attentional bias, 32 college freshmen with low level of mental health were recruited and assigned to the experimental and waitlist control groups, 16 participants in each group. The experimental group received a 8-session group counseling with 2 h per session. Results showed that positive rumination increased while negative rumination, depression and anxiety decreased significantly for the experimental group. For the waitlist control group, all these indicators did not change significantly. The attention engagement in sad faces of the experimental group decreased significantly while other indicators of attentional bias did not change. The results indicate that group positive rumination training can improve mental health. But further research is needed to examine its effect on attentional bias.

     

关于欺负类儿童自我概念的研究

采用问卷调查法,对广州市2所中学的380名初中生的欺负行为进行研究。考虑是否受到家庭欺负,对学生自我报告的类别进行调整,然后考察欺负类儿童的自我概念。结果表明：（1）欺负类儿童与非卷入类儿童在自我概念的各方面均没有显著差异;而欺负／受害类儿童与非卷入类儿童除社交认知外,在学业认知、自尊方面均存在显著差异。欺负／受害类儿童具有较低的学业认知和自尊。（2）欺负类儿童与欺负／受害类儿童在自我概念的各方面均存在显著差异,欺负类具有较高的自我概念。     

The duality of selection: excitatory and inhibitory processes in auditory selective attention

Behavioral and event-related potential (ERP) measurements were made in an auditory selective-attention paradigm, both before and after a series of inhibition or discrimination training sessions. The presence of distractors caused poor perceptual sensitivity, weak P3 responses, conservative responding, and slow reaction times relative to baseline. Distraction prompted a frontal enhancement of ERP components occurring 100-250 ms after the onset of attended signals (N1, P2, and N2). Training ameliorated behavioral interference from distraction. Participants receiving inhibition training acquired improved inhibitory processing of distractors, an effect that peaked 200 ms after distractor onset. In a proposed model, distinct excitatory and inhibitory mechanisms work interactively to maintain sensitivity to environmental change in the face of disruption from the contextual integration of irrelevant events.     

Neural circuitry underlying perception of duration depends on language experience

Thai, a language which exhibits a phonemic opposition in vowel length, allows us to compare temporal patterns in linguistic and nonlinguistic contexts. Functional MRI data were collected from Thai and English subjects in a speeded-response, selective attention paradigm as they performed same/different judgments of vowel duration and consonants (Thai speech) and hum duration (nonspeech). Activation occurred predominantly in left inferior prefrontal cortex in both speech tasks for the Thai group, but only in the consonant task for the English group. The Thai group exhibited activation in the left mid superior temporal gyrus in both speech tasks; the English group in the posterior superior temporal gyrus bilaterally. In the hum duration task, peak activation was observed bilaterally in prefrontal cortex for both groups. These crosslinguistic data demonstrate that encoding of complex auditory signals is influenced by their functional role in a particular language.     

言语产生老化中的抑制损伤:来自不同任务的证据

通过3个实验,探讨干扰抑制在言语产生老化中的作用。实验1采用经典Stroop任务,发现老年人在高水平的、自动的语义激活时产生了更大的抑制困难。实验2操纵潜在竞争词的语义激活水平,发现在潜在竞争词处于低水平的语义激活时,老年人的抑制能力与年轻人相当;在潜在竞争词处于高水平的语义激活时,老年人表现出抑制能力的劣势。实验3采用造句任务,发现老年人在抑制角色冲突时存在着较大的困难,老年人在顺序不一致的条件下的造句成绩显著差于年轻人。整个研究表明,老年人在言语产生中的抑制能力差于年轻人,但抑制老化效应受潜在干扰刺激的激活水平影响。     

双任务并存条件下的信息提取

将短时记忆再认与长时记忆范畴判断两类不同性质的信息提取任务相并列,探讨了双任务条件下的信息提取过程是如何进行的。实验结果表明,双任务并存时,ｎｏ反应的总平均反应时不等于两种任务单独进行时各自ｎｏ反应的平均反应时之和（减去一次视觉动作反应时后）,而是与其中一个较后完成的过程的ｎｏ反应平均反应时相近。因此推断双任务并存时,信息提取过程不是完成一个再进行另一个的系列加工过程,而是二者同时平行加工的过程。