Rethinking our composing, recomposing our thinking : composition studies and cognitive psychology consider writing

This thesis strives for an interdisciplinary conversation between composition studies and cognitive psychology. Under particular consideration is the role of automatic thinking in reading and writing and how certain pedagogies of writing might move students away from automatic thinking and towards deliberate, intentional thinking. Of particular interest is the pedagogy of Ann E. Berthoff, who is placed in a lineage of interdisciplinary thinkers including Lev Vygotsky, I.A. Richards, and Paulo Freire. Concepts advocated by Berthoff's composition theories and by her contemporaries, including David Bartholomae, Anthony Petrosky, and Mariolina Salvatori, closely correlate with cognitive psychology principles regarding how to overcome automatic thinking and reestablish executive control, responsible for intentional thought, within the brain. Berthoff's concepts include the use of the dialectic, collaborative learning, and time. These concepts are considered theoretically, scientifically, and practically within the context of the first-year writing classroom. Surrounding the theoretical discussion is the question of what the role of the first-year writing classroom can play in preparing students for a rapidly changing, increasingly unpredictable world and how interdisciplinary work can enhance understanding within and potential for the field composition studies

Visual search task immediate training effects on task-related functional connectivity

This is a pre-print of an article published in [ Brain Imaging and Behavior. The final authenticated version is available online at: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11682-018-9993-yBrain plasticity occurs over the course of the human lifetime. Learning and training modify our neuronal synapses and adapt our brain activity, from priming effects in modal areas to higher-order changes in the association cortex. The current state of the art suggests that learning and training effects might induce large-scale brain connectivity changes. Here, we used task-fMRI data and graph-based approaches to study the immediate brain changes in functional connections associated with training on a visual search task, and the individual differences in learning were studied by means of brain-behavior correlations. In a previous work, we found that trained participants improved their response speed on a visual search task by 31%, whereas the control group hardly changed. In the present study, we showed that trained individuals changed regional connections (local links) in cortical areas devoted to the specific visual search processes and to areas that support information integration, and largely modified distributed connections (distant links) linking primary visual areas to specific attentional and cognitive control areas. In addition, we found that the individuals with the most enhanced connectivity in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex performed the task faster after training. The observed behavioral and brain connectivity findings expand our understanding of large-scale dynamic readjustment of the human brain after learning experiences

Resting‐state fMRI detects the effects of learning in short term: A visual search training study

Can resting-state functional connectivity (rs-FC) detect the impact of learning on the brain inthe short term? To test this possibility, we have combined task-FC and rs-FC tested before andafter a 30-min visual search training. Forty-two healthy adults (20 men) divided into no-contactcontrol and trained groups completed the study. We studied the connectivity between fourdifferent regions of the brain involved in visual search: the primary visual area, the right poste-rior parietal cortex (rPPC), the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (rDLPFC), and the dorsalanterior cingulate cortex (dACC). Task-FC showed increased connectivity between the rPPCand rDLPFC and between the dACC and rDLPFC from pretraining to posttraining for boththe control group and the trained group, suggesting that connectivity between these areasincreased with task repetition. In rs-FC, we found enhanced connectivity between theseregions in the trained group after training, especially in those with better learning. Whole brainindependent component analyses did not reveal any change in main networks after training.These results imply that rs-FC may not only predict individual differences in task performance,but rs-FC might also serve to monitor the impact of learning on the brain after short periodsof cognitive training, localizing them in brain areas specifically involved in training

Cognition and piloting performance: offline and online measurements

In aeronautics, the notion that cognitive performance is correlated with accident rates raises the importance of implementing more efficient cognitive selection procedures for pilot candidates. The Cambridge Neuropsychological Testing Automated Battery (CANTAB) has established sensitivity to a range of cognitive functions and their neurobiological substrates. The ability of CANTAB to predict success during pilot training courses (notably based on the evaluation of flight performance) will be examined and compared to that of tests currently in use by one of the leading French civil aviation schools (ENAC) for their pilot candidate selection procedures. Ultimately, the goal is to inform the development of an optimized pilot selection tool that taps into the cognitive functions and underlying neural circuitries required for successful piloting activities. Moreover, through the implementation of a dual-task paradigm, this study aims to provide guidelines for future cockpit instrumentation designs better adapted to the human brain, in a further attempt to reduce accident rates

Attention Performance Measured by Attention Network Test Is Correlated with Global and Regional Efficiency of Structural Brain Networks

Functional neuroimaging studies have indicated the involvement of separate brain areas in three distinct attention systems: alerting, orienting and executive control (EC). However, the structural correlates underlying attention remains unexplored. Here, we utilized graph theory to examine the neuroanatomical substrates of the three attention systems measured by attention network test (ANT) in 65 healthy subjects. White matter connectivity, assessed with DTI deterministic tractography was modeled as a structural network comprising 90 nodes defined by the Automated Anatomical Labeling (AAL) template. Linear regression analyses were conducted to explore the relationship between topological parameters and the three attentional effects. We found a significant positive correlation between EC function and global efficiency of the whole brain network. At the regional level, node-specific correlations were discovered between regional efficiency and all three ANT components, including dorsolateral superior frontal gyrus, thalamus and parahippocampal gyrus for EC, thalamus and inferior parietal gyrus for alerting, and paracentral lobule and inferior occipital gyrus for orienting. Our findings highlight the fundamental architecture of interregional structural connectivity involved in attention and could provide new insights into the anatomical basis underlying human behavior

Neural Correlates of Visual Motion Prediction

Predicting the trajectories of moving objects in our surroundings is important for many life scenarios, such as driving, walking, reaching, hunting and combat. We determined human subjects’ performance and task-related brain activity in a motion trajectory prediction task. The task required spatial and motion working memory as well as the ability to extrapolate motion information in time to predict future object locations. We showed that the neural circuits associated with motion prediction included frontal, parietal and insular cortex, as well as the thalamus and the visual cortex. Interestingly, deactivation of many of these regions seemed to be more closely related to task performance. The differential activity during motion prediction vs. direct observation was also correlated with task performance. The neural networks involved in our visual motion prediction task are significantly different from those that underlie visual motion memory and imagery. Our results set the stage for the examination of the effects of deficiencies in these networks, such as those caused by aging and mental disorders, on visual motion prediction and its consequences on mobility related daily activities

Structural and functional brain changes following four weeks of unimanual motor training: evidence from fMRI-guided diffusion MRI tractography

We have reported reliable changes in behaviour, brain structure and function in 24 healthy right-handed adults who practiced a finger-thumb opposition sequence task with their left hand for 10 mins daily, over four weeks. Here we extend these findings by employing diffusion MRI to investigate white-matter changes in the corticospinal tract, basal-ganglia, and connections of the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. Twenty-three participant datasets were available with pre-training and post-training scans. Task performance improved in all participants (mean: 52.8%, SD: 20.0%; group