The aim of this study was to assess whether age-related differences in reaction time can be explained satisfactorily in terms of a global age-related differences in processing speed alone. We investigated the age-related differences in simple, discrimination and choice reaction time in 4- to 6-year-old children and young adults using approach proposed by Madden et al. and Ridderinkhoff & van der Molen. This research demonstrates that there are clear age-related differences in processing speed not only between young children and adults but also between three age groups of young children. The use of the regression approach in this study provides further support for the presence of the global age-related differences in processing speed both between young children and adults and between young children of three age groups. The current data also confirmed the results of previous researches that the magnitude of the slowing coefficient decreases with increasing age. However, using transformation method proposed by Madden et al. and Ridderinkhoff & van der Molen we revealed that there are not only global age-related differences but also process-specific age-related differences in processing speed. We assume that the age-related differences in processing speed can be understood in relation to the heterochronicity of child brain development.
Primary Objective: To examine the potential for treating deficits in Theory of Mind (ToM), i.e., using a person's beliefs to understand and predict behaviour, and to test the hypothesis that improvements in ToM can be distinguished from performance in other domains such as judging line orientation and executive function. Materials and Methodology: In Study 1, two individuals with TBI participated in a protocol targeting ToM, which was assessed using a cartoon interpretation task. Participants also performed on a short form of the Benton Judgment of Line Orientation Task as a control. In Study 2, a third person with TBI participated in Attention Process Training (APT-1) followed by the ToM protocol. Executive function was assessed using the Paced Auditory Serial Addition Task (PASAT). Results: In Study 1, ToM performance but not judgments of line orientation responded to the ToM training. In Study 2, executive function, but not ToM, showed strong improvement with APT-1. In contrast, ToM but not executive function showed significant improvement with ToM training. Conclusion: ToM is a good candidate for intervention. For three persons with TBI, ToM performance showed selective improvement associated with ToM treatment, which suggests a practical as well as theoretical value for distinguishing ToM from executive function.
The article highlights the empirical study.In which refers to children with learning difficulties at school.The types of child parent relationship in their families.Shows the effect of violations of child-parent relationships aggravating abnormalities in the formation of the VPF, and as a consequence, difficulties in school.Inadequate family relationships as partial cause disharmony in the emotional sphere of the child.
The paper is aimed to develop Luria's theory of the syndrome analysis to developmental neuropsychology through qualitative and quantitative studies of higher mental functions underdevelopment. A neuropsychological study of the development of higher mental functions in preschool children is considered primordial to prevent a risk of further learning problems. A comprehensive program of neuropsychological remediation effectively helps to overcome revealed difficulties and is a means for prevention of learning problems at school.
Executive functions study is one of the main topics in A.R. Luria works. Attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) syndrome presents a good model of executive disorders. An experimental study of them reveals a complex structure of the executive behavior, including sustaining of activity and attention, selectivity in decision making, shifting, planning and prognostic abilities. Cross-cultural (Russian/Italian) differences in executive functioning of ADHD children are discussed. A comparison of ADHD syndrome in preschool and primary school age is aimed to prevent an aggravation of defects and their early remediation.
Considering that relations promote development of superior mental functions we believe that parents and teachers, should be present and paying attention to their children providing opportunity for an ideal neurodevelopment.It is important to orientate parents and teachers so they can provide conditions, with knowledge and conscience, for this development to occur.Neuroeducation emphasizes the need to stimulate the brain through effective and important relations.This work uses the Social Historical theory and Vygotsky's and Luria's postulates.We believe that the individual constitutes himself by means of social contact.This work has the goal to approach the theory which emphasizes this contact and orientate, with specific guidelines and practical work, parents and teachers aiming for a better child neurodevelopment.Bonds are necessary for a better and trustful relation.When you are in a significant relation nervous connections are stimulated and these lead to a more effective motor, cognitive and affective development.
In two experiments, the hypothesis was tested that participants' ability to remotely access the picture they would be shown in the nearest 15 min.depends of the magnitude of the reward.In Experiment 1, in the no-extra reward condition participants received a regular pay of £4 for participation independently of the success of their attempt to access the target picture, whereas in the extra-reward condition participants who successfully identified the picture were paid an additional sum of £80 on top of their regular pay.Results indicated that in the no-extra reward condition participants scored positively and significantly above zero, whereas in the extra reward condition the remote viewing score was negative and not significantly different from zero.In Experiment 2, the reward in the extra reward condition was decreased form £80 to £8 for a successful attempt.In both conditions of this experiment participants scored around zero.In both experiments, participants' performance was at their best in the first 25 trials, and deteriorated during the subsequent 25 trials.In Experiment 1 the drop in performance was statistically significant.The study did not support the hypothesis that an additional material reward improves ESP performance.Nevertheless, the results partially support the ESP based experimenter's expectancy effect.
Facial identity discrimination is crucial for success in the social world. Yet, how this task is accomplished remains incompletely understood. Face perception involves identifying members of same or different of social categories (such as gender and race). We know that differences in facial morphology are critical for discriminating individual faces. What is unclear, however, is whether the same mechanisms are used to discriminate identities when they are members of the same versus different social categories. To address this question, this study examined and compared perceptual performance on within- and between-category facial identity discrimination tasks and evaluated the relationship between the perceptual performances and physical features of face images used for discrimination. Face images from each of five pairs of individuals (two Asian females, two Caucasian females, two African males, one African male and one Caucasian male, or one Caucasian female and one Caucasian male) were morphed to create images along a continuum of facial dissimilarity. Using the original and created images, with psychophysical methods we measured perceptual thresholds for facial identity discrimination in a group of human observers (n=24). For each pair of original face images, the differences in six physical facial features (end-lip raise, mid-top-lip raise, mid-top-lip, mid-low-lip, eye-opening, mid-eyebrow raise and luminance) were also measured. Perceptual thresholds were the lowest (best performance) for the across-race condition, the second lowest for the across-gender condition and the highest for the three same-race and same-gender conditions. Two physical facial features, mid-top-lip raise and luminance, each accounted for a significant portion of perceptual performance (35% and 40%, respectively). These results indicate that between-category facial identity discrimination is more precise than within-category discrimination. Precise discrimination of facial identity is associated with selective physical facial features.
Online survey results for a university sample population indicated that both male (n=361) and female (n=764) participants had a mean desired lifetime fertility of 2.2 offspring.For females, desired fertility had a significant negative relationship with level of interest in life course goals associated with a rewarding career, acquiring fame, and making contribution to ideas and discoveries, but a significant positive relationship with the goal of inspiring others with one's religious beliefs.In contrast for males, none of these life goals was related to variation in lifetime fertility preference.We interpret these data in the context of the 'transmission competition' hypothesis-an evolutionary explanation for decreasing fertility in developed countries, where for females, gene transmission is limited by competition from 'meme transmission', the latter represented in modern times by the pursuit and achievement of life course goals perceived as providing an enduring personal legacy.This accounts, we suggest, for the origin of the now popular 'childfree' culture.Attraction to accomplishment-based memetic legacy and the childfree lifestyle will eventually be eclipsed, we predict-again because of the effects of natural selection-by an emerging culture driven to a large extent by an intrinsic attraction to parenthood-'parenting drive'.
Buddhism is one of the oldest spiritual traditions that have retained considerable influence.The Tibetan version offers distinct advice as to the pursuit of happiness.The present text evaluates this advice in the context of a biological approach to understand what happiness is.Briefly, the notion that it is possible to develop the brain's capacity for positive feelings, and that meditative techniques are a useful tool, can be substantiated.Consequently, with sufficient training, happiness can, at least in theory, be achieved regardless of external circumstances.To this purpose, it is essential to avoid excessive activity in nerve circuits causing negative feelings, either by avoiding situations that activate these feelings, or by using cognitive techniques that impede the underlying neurology.Finally, the emphasis on compassion as a route to happiness appears to be not just "politically correct", but to reflect particular qualities of the human brain.
The residential style of rodents varies across and within species from colonial to solitary and territorial [1].A mechanism that supports this behavioral distinction might be differential levels of social motivation rather than explicit species-typical social behavior.Accordingly, socially motivated animals learn seeking behavior that leads to a colonial residential pattern and socially unmotivated animals do not learn this behavior and remain solitary.The present experiments test this hypothesis by measuring social motivation in a gregarious social species of vole, the prairie vole, and in a solitary species, the meadow vole.Although their explicit social behavior was similar, Prairie voles readily learned to perform an instrumental response for access to a target vole while meadow voles did not.Neither the estrus status nor the sex of the target affected instrumental responding in either species.In sum, differential social motivation may contribute to distinctive residential patterns in rodents.
This study sought to investigate the attentional demands while performing a blind navigation task in young and elderly subjects.Fourteen subjects of age 20 to 32 years and 10 subjects of age 62 to 80 years participated in the experience.Blinded navigation task consisted of visually identifying and then walking blindly towards a target 8 meters ahead.To measure attentional demands during navigating, participants were asked to respond to auditory signals by saying "top" as quickly as possible without altering their gait.Reaction times were longer in the older adults and approaching the target for the two groups.Navigation measures (traveled distance, angular deviation and body rotation) were significantly larger in older than young adults.Interestingly, the dual-task leads both groups to walk significantly further which brought the young subjects closer to the target and elderly subjects further from the target.
The Attentional Control Theory (ACT) proposes that high-anxious individuals maintain performance effectiveness (accuracy) at the expense of processing efficiency (response time), in particular, the two central executive functions of inhibition and shifting. In contrast, research has generally failed to consider the third executive function which relates to the function of updating. In the current study, seventy-five participants completed the Parametric Go/No-Go and n-back tasks, as well as the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory in order to explore the effects of anxiety on attention. Results indicated that anxiety lead to decay in processing efficiency, but not in performance effectiveness, across all three Central Executive functions (inhibition, set-shifting and updating). Interestingly, participants with high levels of trait anxiety also exhibited impaired performance effectiveness on the n-back task designed to measure the updating function. Findings are discussed in relation to developing a new model of ACT that also includes the role of preattentive processes and dual-task coordination when exploring the effects of anxiety on task performance.
The aim of this work is to analyze the role of the "surprise" in marketing food (SMF), with particular attention to the cognitive and emotional processes that can be elicited by these toys.Usually, the advertising messages induce people to believe that an emotion of surprise is really related to the SMF.Our main questions are: could an object found in a food-product really elicit an emotion of surprise?What happens in children's emotional and cognitive processes when they open a SMF?To answer to these questions, starting from the appraisal theories and elaborating the model of surprise of Meyer, Reisenzein, & Schützwohl [1], we have proposed an alternative model on the possible cognitive and emotional processes that are elicited by the SMF.Under this model, it is hypothesized that there are some high arousal positive emotions that come first during the "see phase", and that are matched with specific expectations of the child.During the "open phase", these positive emotions can reach the intensity and arousal peak if there is congruence between the child expectations and the SMF.On the contrary, if there is a discrepancy, the valence of these emotions changes.Finally, during the "play phase", in a "congruence condition" the child probably plays with the toy experiencing positive emotions.In a "discrepancy condition" instead, if the child find something better compared to what she/he thought then positive emotions emerge before and during the play phase, while if the child find something worst, then very probability she/he do not play with the toy and some negative emotions or a neutral state (like indifference) could be present.
The recognition of facial affect is a core component of social cognition and is influenced by bottom-up and top- down processes. Spatial frequency-specific processing is a fundamental mechanism underpinning visual perception that also contributes to emotion processing. Yet, it remains relatively unclear how this bottom-up process modulates analysis of affect signals. In this study, face images were manipulated via high-pass and low-pass spatial frequency filtering, and the effects of these manipulations were measured on two tasks: emotion detection and emotion perception. The detection task measured individuals' ability to detect the presence of happiness or fear when relying only upon high spatial frequency (HSF), low spatial frequency (LSF) or unfiltered (BSF) images. The perception task evaluated individuals' tendency to perceive one type of images (e.g. LSF) as happier or more fearful than another (e.g. HSF). On the detection task, individuals were better at detecting happiness in LSF images as compared to HSF images, a result not found in the fear detection condition. On the perception task, images with HSFs were perceived as significantly happier than images without HSFs, but only at low emotional salience levels. No significant effect for spatial frequency manipulation was found in the fear perception condition. Together, these results highlight the significant bottom-up role of spatial frequency content in perceiving happiness as opposed to fear and indicates the unique roles of bottom-up visual mechanisms when processing these two emotions.
Aims: For social psychologists, mimicry could serve a function of "social glue", binding people together and creating harmonious relationships. Design:In three experiments, we used the paradigm of incidental similarity in order to enhance the desire to create affiliation and rapport between a participant and a stranger, and to evaluate its effect on mimicry behavior.Findings: Undergraduates who believed they had the same first name (Study 1), birthday (Study 2) or fingerprint similarity (Study 3) as a female-target presented on a videotape were more likely to mimic the nonverbal behavior of the target than participants who did not perceive a similarity with the target.Conclusions: These results support the notion that mimicry will help us to create affiliation and rapport because the desire to build such relations enhances when incidental similarity exists between two strangers.
THC is the primary psychoactive compound of Cannabis sativa and while the human abuse potential of THC is well recognised, knowledge of its reinforcing and dependence-producing effects is limited.In addition to euphoric properties, cannabinoids are known to attenuate learning and memory in both humans and animals but the underlying mechanism is unclear.The present study investigated the effects of chronic THC treatment on CB1 receptor-mediated reward.In addition, DA and 5HT and their metabolites DOPAC, HVA and 5HIAA were measured in the striatum and hippocampus.Chronic THC (0.5, 2.0 and 5.0mg/Kg ip, 21 days) had no significant effect on conditioned place preference while DA content of the striatum was increased by chronic THC in a dose-dependant manner.
Abnormal knee kinematics and meniscus injury resulting from anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) deficiency are often implicated in joint degeneration even though changes in tibio-femoral contact location after injury are small, typically only a few millimeters. Ligament reconstruction surgery does not significantly reduce the incidence of early onset osteoarthritis. Increased knowledge of knee contact mechanics would increase our understanding of the effects of ACL injury and help guide ACL reconstruction methods. Presented here is a cadaver specific computational knee model combined with a body-level musculoskeletal model from a subject of similar height and weight as the cadaver donor. The knee model was developed in the multi-body framework and includes representation of the menisci. Experimental body-level measurements provided input to the musculoskeletal model. The location of tibio-menisco-femoral contact as well as contact pressures were compared for models with an intact ACL, partial ACL transection (posterolateral bundle transection), and full ACL transection during a muscle driven forward dynamics simulation of a dual limb squat. During the squat, small changes in femur motion relative to the tibia for both partial and full ACL transection push the lateral meniscus in the posterior direction at extension. The central-anterior region of the lateral meniscus then becomes "wedged" between the tibia and femur during knee flexion. This "wedging" effect does not occur for the intact knee. Peak contact pressure and contact locations are similar for the partial tear and complete ACL transection during the deep flexion portion of the squat, particularly on the lateral side. The tibio-femoral contact location on the tibia plateau shifts slightly to the posterior and lateral direction with ACL transection.
Introduction: Morbid obesity is a significant risk factor for type 2 diabetes, dyslipidemia and cardiovascular disease. A weight reduction of 5-10% is considered a great health benefit. However, no sufficient documentation exists today on the long-term effects of outpatient treatment of obesity. This study aims to improve health parameters in morbidly obese patients in a 2 year treatment study under medical supervision in group environment. Materials and Methodology: In a multidisciplinary outpatient treatment program, 141 patients were in writing informed about the program, and 69 morbidly obese patients ((BMI>40kg/m 2 or BMI>35kg/m 2 with comorbidities) (18-65 years)) agreed to participate and were non-randomly enrolled in a retrospective cohort study at Innlandet Hospital Trust (Kongsvinger division) in May 2010. The patients were observed retrospectively for a 2-year period from 2007 till 2009. The intervention program in the cohort consisted of group therapy and individual interviews with guidance on physical activity, diet, lifestyle changes and behavioral adjustments. Body weight, waist circumference and comorbidities were assessed regularly. Results: The treatment resulted in a 10% weight loss in average. Blood pressure and blood lipids improved. Approximately 10% of the patients obtained a weight reduction equal to patients having undergone bariatric surgery. The drop-out rate was 10%. Conclusions: This study concludes that our treatment program contributes significantly to weight loss and improves metabolic risk factors.
