Differential modulation of performance in insight and divergent thinking tasks with tDCS

While both insight and divergent thinking tasks are used to study creativity, there are reasons to believe that the two may call upon very different mechanisms. To explore this hypothesis, we administered a verbal insight task (riddles) and a divergent thinking task (verbal fluency) to 16 native English speakers and 16 non-native English speakers after they underwent Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation (tDCS) of the left middle temporal gyrus and right temporo- parietal junction. We found that, in the case of the insight task the depolarization of right temporo-parietal junction and hyperpolarization of left middle temporal gyrus resulted in increased performance, relative to both the control condition and the reverse stimulation condition in both groups (non-native > native speakers). However, in the case of the divergent thinking task, the same pattern of stimulation resulted in a decrease in performance, compared to the reverse stimulation condition, in the non-native speakers. We explain this dissociation in terms of differing task demands of divergent thinking and insight tasks and speculate that the greater sensitivity of non-native speakers to tDCS stimulation may be a function of less entrenched neural networks for non-native languages

Linking differences in action perception with differences in action execution.

Successful human social interactions depend upon the transmission of verbal and non-verbal signals from one individual to another. Non-verbal social communication is realized through our ability to read and understand information present in other people's actions. It has been proposed that employing the same motor programs, we use to execute an action when observing the same action underlies this action understanding. The main prediction of this framework is that action perception should be strongly correlated with parameters of action execution. Here, we demonstrate that subjects' sensitivity to observed movement speeds is dependent upon how quickly they themselves executed the observed action. This result is consistent with the motor theory of social cognition and suggests that failures in non-verbal social interactions between individuals may in part result from differences in how those individuals move

Additional Queen Square (QS) screening items improve the test accuracy of the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) after acute stroke

BACKGROUND The Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) is a popular cognitive screening tool used in stroke, but lacks sensitivity for detecting impairment in stroke-relevant domains of processing speed, non-verbal memory and executive functions. Our aim was to assess whether the test accuracy of the MoCA can be improved with additional tailored screening items targeting these three domains. METHODS We included 196 patients admitted to an acute stroke unit at the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery, Queen Square (QS), London. Participants completed the MoCA as well as a series of additional QS-screening items designed to assess speed of processing, non-verbal memory and executive functions. Performance on the MoCA and QS screening items was compared with performance on “gold standard” neuropsychological assessment. RESULTS In our sample, 22% of patients were classified as “cognitively intact” on the traditional MoCA alone (≥ 25). However, when tested on the QS-screening items, 40% of these patients failed on speed of processing, 56% failed on non-verbal memory and 26% failed on executive functions. Compared with neuropsychological assessment, the QS-screening items had good sensitivity (QS-Speed: 0.85; QS-Vis: 0.71; QS-EF: 0.73) and modest specificity (QS-Speed: 0.59; QS-Vis: 0.39; QS-EF: 0.54), regardless of stroke lateralisation. CONCLUSION Additional screening items detected impairments in speed of processing, non-verbal memory and executive functions over and above those captured using the standard MoCA. The use of these QS-screening items improves the detection of post-stroke cognitive deficits in domains not adequately covered by the standard MoCA

Young Children Treat Robots as Informants

Children ranging from 3 to 5 years were introduced to two anthropomorphic robots that provided them with information about unfamiliar animals. Children treated the robots as interlocutors. They supplied information to the robots and retained what the robots told them. Children also treated the robots as informants from whom they could seek information. Consistent with studies of children's early sensitivity to an interlocutor's non-verbal signals, children were especially attentive and receptive to whichever robot displayed the greater non-verbal contingency. Such selective information seeking is consistent with recent findings showing that although young children learn from others, they are selective with respect to the informants that they question or endorse

Seeing the body distorts tactile size perception

Vision of the body modulates somatosensation, even when entirely non-informative about stimulation. For example, seeing the body increases tactile spatial acuity, but reduces acute pain. While previous results demonstrate that vision of the body modulates somatosensory sensitivity, it is unknown whether vision also affects metric properties of touch, and if so how. This study investigated how non-informative vision of the body modulates tactile size perception. We used the mirror box illusion to induce the illusion that participants were directly seeing their stimulated left hand, though they actually saw their reflected right hand. We manipulated whether participants: (a) had the illusion of directly seeing their stimulated left hand, (b) had the illusion of seeing a non-body object at the same location, or (c) looked directly at their non-stimulated right-hand. Participants made verbal estimates of the perceived distance between two tactile stimuli presented simultaneously to the dorsum of the left hand, either 20, 30, or 40 mm apart. Vision of the body significantly reduced the perceived size of touch, compared to vision of the object or of the contralateral hand. In contrast, no apparent changes of perceived hand size were found. These results show that seeing the body distorts tactile size perception

Quick discrimination of A delta and C fiber mediated pain based on three verbal descriptors

Background: A delta and C fibers are the major pain-conducting nerve fibers, activate only partly the same brain areas, and are differently involved in pain syndromes. Whether a stimulus excites predominantly A delta or C fibers is a commonly asked question in basic pain research but a quick test was lacking so far. Methodology/Principal Findings: Of 77 verbal descriptors of pain sensations, "pricking", "dull" and "pressing" distinguished best (95% cases correctly) between A delta fiber mediated (punctate pressure produced by means of von Frey hairs) and C fiber mediated (blunt pressure) pain, applied to healthy volunteers in experiment 1. The sensation was assigned to A delta fibers when "pricking" but neither "dull" nor "pressing" were chosen, and to C fibers when the sum of the selections of "dull" or "pressing" was greater than that of the selection of "pricking". In experiment 2, with an independent cohort, the three-descriptor questionnaire achieved sensitivity and specificity above 0.95 for distinguishing fiber preferential non-mechanical induced pain (laser heat, exciting A delta fibers, and 5-Hz electric stimulation, exciting C fibers). Conclusion: A three-item verbal rating test using the words "pricking", "dull", and "pressing" may provide sufficient information to characterize a pain sensation evoked by a physical stimulus as transmitted via A delta or via C fibers. It meets the criteria of a screening test by being easy to administer, taking little time, being comfortable in handling, and inexpensive while providing high specificity for relevant information

The effect of instructor nonverbal immediacy behaviors and feedback sensitivity on student affective learning outcomes in writing conferences

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the effect of teacher nonverbal immediacy and verbal feedback sensitivity on affective learning outcomes in one-on-one writing conferences. The assumption is that if the teacher-student relationship is made stronger through the use of teacher nonverbal immediacy behaviors, then verbal feedback can be more direct and task-oriented, thereby allowing teachers to be more efficient in their evaluation. The hypotheses presented are that students who experience an immediate instructor during a writing conference will have more affect for the teacher, more affect for writing conferences, and more affect for writing in general than students who experience a non-immediate instructor, regardless of the sensitivity of the feedback provided. Participants in this survey included 179 high school students. All hypotheses were supported. Results of the study are discussed. Conclusions, limitations and topics for further research are addressed

Nursing-Related Qualities, Personality and Work Satisfaction : Assistant Nurses in a Ten-Year Perspective

The personalities and qualities of nursing personnel are considered to be of great importance for their interactions with patients and may also influence work satisfaction. The aim of the thesis was to explore the extent to which different personal qualities and personality factors, with a possible effect on motivation, professional conduct, and coping with anxiety, are represented in a group of assistant nurses (in Swedish undersköterskor), and how these qualities are related to nursing competence and long-range work satisfaction. A group of 51 female nursing students (mean age 31.8 years) participated in the study. The nursing-related qualities were empathy, sensitivity to non-verbal communication, feelings of discomfort in different nursing situations and work satisfaction. The personality factors were psychogenic needs and defence mechanisms. Relations between base data were explored in papers I, II and III. Paper I: No correlation was found between the degree of affective empathy and the sensitivity to non-verbal communication. Affective empathy, i.e. the ability to share other people’s feelings, was negatively related to the presence of the identity defence of not recognising a separate identity. Introaggression was related to an enhanced capacity for apprehending non-verbal expressions. Presence of the mechanism of isolation appeared to be related to a lower degree of sensitivity. Paper II: The degree of affective empathy appeared to be correlated to social needs such as the need for affiliation and the need to help and care for other people. Sensitivity to non-verbal communication was correlated to the non-neurotic dominance factor and to an increased need to help and care for people.Paper III: Subjects with the defence mechanism of repression experienced a lesser degree of discomfort than the rest of the subjects when seeing patients with an amputated breast or an amputated leg. Subjects with an insecure sex identity experienced a higher degree of discomfort in the same situation. Subjects characterised by the defence mechanism of isolation experienced considerably more discomfort than the others in close contact with different bodily excretions. At a follow-up two years later, 43 of the subjects were interviewed, work satisfaction was assessed, and nursing competence was appraised. At a follow-up ten years after completion of nursing school, 33 subjects took part in a telephone interview. Work satisfaction was assessed in 23 subjects still working as assistant nurses.Paper IV: Cluster analysis performed on baseline data resulted in four groups: ‘empathic’, ‘discomfort prone’, ‘service-minded’ and ‘dominant’. At the first follow-up, the service-minded had the greatest work satisfaction, with many considered to be ‘real jewels’. At the second follow-up eight years later, there appeared to be an overrepresentation of injuries and long-term sick leave in this group, whose members had apparent difficulties in being dominant and asserting own interests. Work satisfaction diminished in all the groups over time. Long-term work satisfaction was positively related to degree of empathy and negatively related to degree of sensitivity to aggressive expressions

The cognitive profile of Sotos syndrome

Sotos syndrome is a congenital overgrowth disorder, associated with intellectual disability. Previous research suggests that Sotos syndrome may be associated with relative strength in verbal ability and relative weakness in non-verbal reasoning ability but this has not been explicitly assessed. To date, the cognitive profile of Sotos syndrome is unknown. Cognitive abilities of a large and representative sample of individuals with Sotos syndrome (N = 52) were assessed using the British Ability Scales (BAS3). The majority of participants had intellectual disability or borderline intellectual functioning. The cluster score profile analysis revealed a consistent verbal ability > non-verbal reasoning ability profile. Four specific criteria were proposed as the Sotos syndrome cognitive profile (SSCP): verbal ability > non-verbal reasoning ability; quantitative reasoning T-score or matrices T-score mean T-score. Of the 35 participants included in the profile analysis, 28 met all four SSCP criteria, yielding a sensitivity of 0.8. The sensitivity of each of the SSCP criteria was >0.9. Individuals with Sotos syndrome display a clear and consistent cognitive profile, characterized by relative strength in verbal ability and visuospatial memory but relative weakness in non-verbal reasoning ability and quantitative reasoning. This has important implications for the education of individuals with Sotos syndrome

Relaciones de la socialización con inteligencia, autoconcepto y otros rasgos de la personalidad en niños de 6 años

Este estudio, en primer lugar, analiza las relaciones de la conducta social con iguales en contextos educativos con una serie de variables del desarrollo, tales como madurez intelectual, autoconcepto y otras dimensiones de la personalidad infantil. En segundo lugar el trabajo identifi ca variables predictoras de la adaptación social del niño en dicho ámbito. La muestra se encuentra constituida por 135 niños de 6 años, 59 varones y 76 mujeres, de nivel socioeconómico y cultural medio, procedentes de cinco centros públicos y privados. La evaluación incluye 4 instrumentos que permiten medir diversos aspectos positivos y negativos de la conducta social con los iguales (BAS-1), inteligencia verbal y no verbal (BADYG), autoconcepto (PAI), y otras 13 dimensiones de la personalidad infantil, tales como estabilidad emocional, excitabilidad, dominancia, sensibilidad... (ESPQ). Los análisis correlacionales (Pearson) evidencian que los sujetos con buena adaptación social muestran puntuaciones signifi cativamente altas en madurez intelectual global, verbal y no verbal, elevados niveles de autoconcepto, y tienden signifi cativamente a caracterizarse por ser emocionalmente estables, perseverantes y respetuosos con las normas, poco excitables, confi ados y seguros de sí mismos, tranquilos y relajados. El análisis de regresión múltiple permite identifi car como variables predictoras de buena adaptación social alta inteligencia no verbal y un carácter tranquilo y relajado.The main aim of this study is to analyze the relationship between social behaviour in the classroom with other developmental variables such as intelligence, self-concept and other traits of child personality. In addition, it also attempts to identify predictive variables of children’s social adaptation in scholar settings. The sample consists of 135 6-year-old subjects, 59 male and 76 female, proceeding from fi ve public and private schools. The variables evaluated with the 4 administered instruments are: positive and negative social behaviours with peers (BAS-1), verbal and non-verbal intelligence (BADYG), self-concept (PAI), and other 13 traits of child personality such as emotional stability, excitability, ascendancy, sensitivity… (ESPQ). Results of correlational analyses (Pearson) suggest that well adapted children have signifi cant high levels of overall intelligence, verbal and non-verbal intelligence, and self-concept. Moreover, they show a signifi cant tendency towards emotional stability, perseverance and subjection to the rules, low excitability, self-confi dence, calm and relax. Multiple regression analyses allow to identify as predicting variables of good social adaptation high level of non-verbal intelligence and a calm and relaxed temperament