Semantic radical consistency and character transparency effects in Chinese: an ERP study

BACKGROUND: This event-related potential (ERP) study aims to investigate the representation and temporal dynamics of Chinese orthography-to-semantics mappings by simultaneously manipulating character transparency and semantic radical consistency. Character components, referred to as radicals, make up the building blocks used dur...postprin

Are abstract concepts like dinosaur feathers?

Ewolucja ludzkiego układu nerwowego pozwoliła nam na wykonywanie niezwykle skomplikowanych czynności takich jak obliczenia matematyczne, analizy gospodarcze czy choćby napisanie tej książki. Mimo to wciąż nie jesteśmy pewni jak i dlaczego człowiek nabył zdolność abstrakcyjnego myślenia. Jedna z teorii sugeruje, że myślenie abstrakcyjne i konkretne opierają się na tym samym mechanizmie: doświadczeniu. Według tej teorii, nazwanej teorią ucieleśnionego poznania, świat rozumiemy dzięki doświadczeniom fizycznym. Kiedy opisujemy jakiś argument jako "chwiejny" albo pogląd jako "bezpodstawny" to korzystamy z doświadczeń, które zdobyliśmy bawiąc się kolckami jako dzieci. W tej książce zadaję postawione przez psychologa Daniela Casasanto pytanie: „czy pojęcia abstrakcyjne są jak pióra dinozaurów”. Jakie procesy ewolucyjne doprowadziły do tego, że jesteśmy w stanie opisać nawet bardzo abstrakcyjne zagadnienia w odniesieniu do konkretnych zjawisk? Przedstawiając wyniki badań nad mową i gestem osób widzących, słabowidzących oraz niewidomych, staram się pokazać, że podstawy zrozumienia wielu pojęć abstrakcyjnych szukać można w geście

Are abstract concepts like dinosaur feathers? Objectification as a conceptual tool: evidence from language and gesture of English and Polish native speakers

Studies based on the Contemporary Theory of Metaphor (Lakoff & Johnson, 1980, 1999) usually identify conceptual metaphors by analysing linguistic expressions and creating a post hoc interpretation of the findings. This method has been questioned for a variety of reasons, including its circularity (Müller, 2008), lack of falsifiability (Vervaeke & Kennedy, 1996, 2004), and lack of predictive power (Ritchie, 2003). It has been argued that CTM requires additional constraints to improve its applicability for empirical research (Gibbs, 2011; Ritchie, 2003). This paper sets out to propose additional methodological structure to CTM, a theory of conceptual metaphor in which much of abstract thought is generated by metaphorical mapping from embodied experience (Ruiz de Mendoza Ibáñez & Pérez Hernández, 2011). Introducing Objectification Theory defined by Szwedek (2002, 2007, 2011) ameliorates a number of methodological issues in CTM. First, the embodiment claim of CTM in its current form cannot be empirically proven incorrect (Vervaeke & Kennedy, 2004) as any mapping within it is possible (although only some actually happen). Objectification introduces pre-metaphorical structure of the kind suggested by Glucksberg (2001), constraining source and target domain selection, predicting which mappings are more likely to happen. Second, while many claim that metaphors trace back to a literal concept based on embodied physical experience (Gibbs, Costa Lima, & Francozo, 2004), it is unclear what criteria are used to define „physical”. Metaphorical domains are often described using the terms „abstract” and „concrete”, Objectification proposes objective criteria for deciding whether a concept is experientially grounded. Finally, Objectification provides grounds for introducing a hierarchical framework for metaphor typology, preventing post-hoc addition of metaphor types if and when suitable for the explanation of a phenomenon; thus increasing the consistency of the CTM framework, both internally and with other cognitive science disciplines. This thesis focuses on providing evidence for Objectification Theory and identifying its applications in metaphor and gesture research

Beyond writing: The development of literacy in the Ancient Near East

Previous discussions of the origins of writing in the Ancient Near East have not incorporated the neuroscience of literacy, which suggests that when southern Mesopotamians wrote marks on clay in the late-fourth millennium, they inadvertently reorganized their neural activity, a factor in manipulating the writing system to reflect language, yielding literacy through a combination of neurofunctional change and increased script fidelity to language. Such a development appears to take place only with a sufficient demand for writing and reading, such as that posed by a state-level bureaucracy; the use of a material with suitable characteristics; and the production of marks that are conventionalized, handwritten, simple, and non-numerical. From the perspective of Material Engagement Theory, writing and reading represent the interactivity of bodies, materiality, and brains: movements of hands, arms, and eyes; clay and the implements used to mark it and form characters; and vision, motor planning, object recognition, and language. Literacy is a cognitive change that emerges from and depends upon the nexus of interactivity of the components

Sensory theories of developmental dyslexia: three challenges for research.

Recent years have seen the publication of a range of new theories suggesting that the basis of dyslexia might be sensory dysfunction. In this Opinion article, the evidence for and against several prominent sensory theories of dyslexia is closely scrutinized. Contrary to the causal claims being made, my analysis suggests that many proposed sensory deficits might result from the effects of reduced reading experience on the dyslexic brain. I therefore suggest that longitudinal studies of sensory processing, beginning in infancy, are required to successfully identify the neural basis of developmental dyslexia. Such studies could have a powerful impact on remediation.This is the accepted manuscript. The final version is available from NPG at http://www.nature.com/nrn/journal/v16/n1/abs/nrn3836.html

Peripheral vision and pattern recognition:a review

We summarize the various strands of research on peripheral vision and relate them to theories of form perception. After a historical overview, we describe quantifications of the cortical magnification hypothesis, including an extension of Schwartz's cortical mapping function. The merits of this concept are considered across a wide range of psychophysical tasks, followed by a discussion of its limitations and the need for non-spatial scaling. We also review the eccentricity dependence of other low-level functions including reaction time, temporal resolution, and spatial summation, as well as perimetric methods. A central topic is then the recognition of characters in peripheral vision, both at low and high levels of contrast, and the impact of surrounding contours known as crowding. We demonstrate how Bouma's law, specifying the critical distance for the onset of crowding, can be stated in terms of the retinocortical mapping. The recognition of more complex stimuli, like textures, faces, and scenes, reveals a substantial impact of mid-level vision and cognitive factors. We further consider eccentricity-dependent limitations of learning, both at the level of perceptual learning and pattern category learning. Generic limitations of extrafoveal vision are observed for the latter in categorization tasks involving multiple stimulus classes. Finally, models of peripheral form vision are discussed. We report that peripheral vision is limited with regard to pattern categorization by a distinctly lower representational complexity and processing speed. Taken together, the limitations of cognitive processing in peripheral vision appear to be as significant as those imposed on low-level functions and by way of crowding

Inhibition of Stuttering from Second Speech Signals: An Evaluation of Temporal and Hierarchical Aspects

Stuttering is an intermittent and involuntary speech disorder overtly characterized by syllable repetitions, phoneme prolongations and postural fixations that disrupt the natural flow of speech. Overt stuttering is reduced by 60-100% as the person who stutters produces speech while perceiving an ongoing second speech signal. The purpose of the current investigation was to further examine mechanisms of stuttering inhibition during perception of second speech signals. To do this the researcher conducted two experiments examining the level of inhibition during temporal-spatial alignment alterations and level of inhibition during hierarchically difficult scripted telephone conversations under combined altered auditory feedback signals.    The first study examined temporal-spatial alignments of speakers during choral and shadow speech. Choral speech is when two speakers talk in approximate simultaneity. This effect is believed to be the most powerful inhibitor of stuttering, reducing it 90-100%. A slightly less powerful inhibitor of stuttering is shadow speech, which is historically defined as the person who stutters lagging or shadowing behind a fluent speakers utterance. Reductions under shadow speech typically range from 80-90%. Interestingly, prior to the current investigation, empirical analysis of output from people who stutter (PWS) when maintaining the lead speaker position during shadow speech, had yet to be evaluated. This temporal-spatial alignment most mimics delayed auditory feedback with a second speaker. Experiment I included four conditions: 1) choral speech, 2) shadow speech with the person who stutters maintaining the lead speaker position, 3) shadow speech with the person who stutters maintaining the lag speaker position, and 4) baseline. Nine participants who stutter verbally read 300 syllable passages while a second fluent speaker read the same passage and maintained close temporal-spatial alignments during choral conditions and three to four word separations during shadow speech conditions. Stuttering frequency was significantly reduced 95% during choral speech and approximately 80% during both shadow speech conditions. Results challenge notions put forth by previous hypotheses regarding reductions in stuttering during perception of second signals.    Experiment II examined stuttering inhibition during scripted telephone conversations under altered auditory feedback. As with the lag shadow speech condition, altered auditory feedback and more specifically delayed auditory feedback, presents a second speech signal along with ongoing speech. Delayed auditory feedback and frequency-altered feedback generate second speech signals from the speakers' initial speech productions. Reductions in stuttering frequency under altered auditory feedback typically range from 60-80%. These reductions occur during the presentation of one signal and one combination of signals across a variety of settings; specifically, telephone conversations, which are judged to be one of the most hierarchically difficult situations for people who stutter. The second experiment examined nine people who stutter during 15 scripted telephone conversations under baseline, one combination of DAF and FAF (i.e., 50 ms delay and ½ octave shift up respectively; 1 COMBO), and two combinations of DAF and FAF (i.e., 1 COMBO plus 200 ms delay and ½ shift down respectively; 2 COMBO). Stuttering was significantly inhibited during both altered feedback conditions (i.e., 63% during 1 COMBO and 74% during 2 COMBO). Furthermore, significant reductions in stuttering frequency during the 2 COMBO conditions as compared to the 1 COMBO indicated that presentation of increased gestural information enhances the inhibitory effects.   Results from both studies challenge notions put forth by previous models of stuttering reduction during the perception of second signals. The findings that stuttering was reduced to similar extents during both lead and lag conditions in Experiment I and that more robust stuttering inhibition occurred during the COMBO II condition in Experiment II, challenge fundamental notions from previous reduction theories during the perception of second signals. Furthermore, these findings support the flexible and dynamic gestural percepts hypothesized in the Gestural Model of Stuttering Inhibition. It is likely that increased gestural information alters mirror neuron system activation patterns, which enables a more efficient and effective release of the central neural block that is stuttering, therefore increasing inhibitory effectiveness from the perception of second signals.  Ph.D

Desarrollo del procesamiento subléxico en niños normo-lectores y disléxicos

Existen motivos suficientes para investigar aspectos relacionados con los trastornos lectores. Hoy en día muchos niños presentan alguna dificultad específica en el aprendizaje de la lectura sin manifestar ningún déficit intelectual o sensorial y estando sometidos a un régimen de escolarización normal. La mayoría de los fracasos escolares tienen su origen en los trastornos de la lectura haciendo del desarrollo académico una frustración permanente por los resultados negativos obtenidos en prácticamente todas las materias académicas. Los experimentos de la tesis doctoral representan un modesto paso para poder conocer en mayor detalle el desarrollo en los procesos subléxicos de la lectura en niños normo-lectores y adultos, así como comparar dichos procesos en niños con problemas de lectoescritura. Pensamos que los resultados de los experimentos pueden tener implicaciones prácticas, de manera que permitan favorecer los resultados escolares, en particular en aquellos niños con dislexia. En una primera serie de experimentos, con la tarea de priming enmascarado, se exploraron las diferencias en la lectura de letras reversibles del tipo (b/d) y letras no reversibles en la lectura en niños. A diferencia de lo que ocurre con dos objetos presentados en espejo, que son generalizados y percibidos como el mismo objeto, los niños que aprenden a leer han de suprimir dicha generalización para poder distinguir las diferentes letras. En este trabajo, revisamos experimentos recientes con niños normo-lectores y con dislexia, y examinamos si la supresión de la generalización de las letras en espejo afecta a todas las letras o especialmente a las reversibles (b-d). De hecho, nuestro sistema visual tiene la capacidad de reconocer que dos objetos que son idénticos, incluso cuando uno es la imagen en espejo del otro (Baylis y Conductor, 2001). Nuestros datos sugieren que la supresión de la generalización de letras en espejo funciona de forma diferente entre letras reversibles y no reversibles, además arrojan luz sobre cómo el sistema cognitivo procesa las letras en espejo cuando forman parte de palabras. En una segunda serie de experimentos examinamos el papel de un elemento tipográfico en la lectura, mostrando que los pequeños aumentos de espaciado entre letras tienen un efecto beneficioso en la identificación visual de palabras para los jóvenes normolectores y, sobre todo, también en la comprensión de textos para los niños con dislexia. Finalmente, en una tercera serie de experimentos, mostramos que los disléxicos son sensibles a las señales visuales de una palabra, probablemente a causa de malas representaciones de las letras minúsculas. En definitiva, estos resultados aportan un primer paso para comprender mejor la dislexia y conseguir que los resultados obtenidos tengan implicaciones educativas. Teniendo en cuenta los resultados obtenidos a lo largo de nuestras investigaciones, llegamos a la conclusión de que para poder predecir y tratar trastornos de la lectura es importante la identificación temprana de determinados aspectos como el reconocimientos visual de palabras ya sean letras reversibles o no reversibles, ver si los factores tipográficos varían en la lectura de los sujetos, más concretamente si el espaciado entre letras afecta de manera positiva en la lectura de personas que manifiesten algún trastorno lector o si se observan malas representaciones de letras minúsculas. Desde que el hacinamiento entre las letras de una palabra parece afectar a la lectura, ¿es razonable pensar que los niños con trastornos de lectura padecen mucho más ese efecto?, ¿Por qué los niños disléxicos son más susceptibles a la influencia de hacinamiento entre letras? Debido a la influencia de las características de las letras vecinas si se aumenta el espaciado entre las letras queda reducido el hacinamiento entre ellas, lo que permite a los niños disléxicos llegar a tener una mayor atención espacial a la hora de leer. El efecto del espaciado permite reconocer mejor las letras dentro de la palabra, este aspecto proporcionará explicaciones paralelas basadas en el déficit de atención en la conciencia fonológica dentro de la dislexia. Curiosamente, esta ventaja también se ha dado en jóvenes con desarrollo lector normal lo que sugiere que los beneficios de optimización del espaciado entre letras pueden extenderse más allá de los niños diagnosticados con dislexia

Frontiers in psychodynamic neuroscience

he term psychodynamics was introduced in 1874 by Ernst von Brücke, the renowned German physiologist and Freud’s research supervisor at the University of Vienna. Together with Helmholtz and others, Brücke proposed that all living organisms are energy systems, regulated by the same thermodynamic laws. Since Freud was a student of Brücke and a deep admirer of Helmholtz, he adopted this view, thus laying the foundations for his metapsychology. The discovery of the Default Network and the birth of Neuropsychoanalysis, twenty years ago, facilitated a deep return to this classical conception of the brain as an energy system, and therefore a return to Freud's early ambition to establish psychology as natural science. Our current investigations of neural networks and applications of the Free Energy Principle are equally ‘psychodynamic’ in Brücke’s original sense of the term. Some branches of contemporary neuroscience still eschew subjective data and therefore exclude the brain’s most remarkable property – its selfhood – from the field, and many neuroscientists remain skeptical about psychoanalytic methods, theories, and concepts. Likewise, some psychoanalysts continue to reject any consideration of the structure and functions of the brain from their conceptualization of the mind in health and disease. Both cases seem to perpetuate a Cartesian attitude in which the mind is linked to the brain in some equivocal relationship and an attitude that detaches the brain from the body -- rather than considering it an integral part of the complex and dynamic living organism as a whole. Evidence from psychodynamic neuroscience suggests that Freudian constructs can now be realized neurobiologically. For example, Freud’s notion of primary and secondary processes is consistent with the hierarchical organization of self-organized cortical and subcortical systems, and his description of the ego is consistent with the functions of the Default Network and its reciprocal exchanges with subordinate brain systems. Moreover, thanks to new methods of measuring brain entropy, we can now operationalize the primary and secondary processes and therefore test predictions arising from these Freudian constructs. All of this makes it possible to deepen the dialogue between neuroscience and psychoanalysis, in ways and to a degree that was unimaginable in Freud's time, and even compared to twenty years ago. Many psychoanalytical hypotheses are now well integrated with contemporary neuroscience. Other Freudian and post-Freudian hypotheses about the structure and function of the mind seem ripe for the detailed and sophisticated development that modern psychodynamic neuroscience can offer. This Research Topic aims to provide comprehensive coverage of the latest advances in psychodynamic neuroscience and neuropsychoanalysis. Potential authors are invited to submit papers (original research, case reports, review articles, commentaries) that deploy, review, compare or develop the methods and theories of psychodynamic neuroscience and neuropsychoanalysis. Potential authors include researchers, psychoanalysts, and neuroscientists