The role of mobile technology in promoting social inclusion among adults with intellectual disabilities

Background: Mobile technology has the potential to assist adults with intellectual disabilities to initiate and maintain social connections in important areas of their lives, such as family, friends and work/volunteering. Method: The present study investigated how specific aspects of mobile device/app use are associated with the social inclusion of people with intellectual disabilities. The study also examined what background attributes were associated with particular patterns of mobile device/app use and social inclusion. Results: The findings revealed that the use of mobile technology among adults with intellectual disabilities was positively associated with their social inclusion with family, friends and work/volunteering. There were also some key background attributes associated with participants’ use of mobile technology and the extent to which mobile technology assisted their social inclusion. Conclusions: Implications for practice and policy are discussed

In vivo biomolecular imaging of zebrafish embryos using confocal Raman spectroscopy

Zebrafish embryos provide a unique opportunity to visualize complex biological processes, yet conventional imaging modalities are unable to access intricate biomolecular information without compromising the integrity of the embryos. Here, we report the use of confocal Raman spectroscopic imaging for the visualization and multivariate analysis of biomolecular information extracted from unlabeled zebrafish embryos. We outline broad applications of this method in: (i) visualizing the biomolecular distribution of whole embryos in three dimensions, (ii) resolving anatomical features at subcellular spatial resolution, (iii) biomolecular profiling and discrimination of wild type and ΔRD1 mutant Mycobacterium marinum strains in a zebrafish embryo model of tuberculosis and (iv) in vivo temporal monitoring of the wound response in living zebrafish embryos. Overall, this study demonstrates the application of confocal Raman spectroscopic imaging for the comparative bimolecular analysis of fully intact and living zebrafish embryos

Incidental retrieval of prior emotion mimicry.

When observing emotional expressions, similar sensorimotor states are activated in the observer, often resulting in physical mimicry. For example, when observing a smile, the zygomaticus muscles associated with smiling are activated in the observer, and when observing a frown, the corrugator brow muscles. We show that the consistency of an individual's facial emotion, whether they always frown or smile, can be encoded into memory. When the individuals are viewed at a later time expressing no emotion, muscle mimicry of the prior state can be detected, even when the emotion itself is task irrelevant. The results support simulation accounts of memory, where prior embodiments of other's states during encoding are reactivated when re-encountering a person

Memory distortion and its avoidance: an event-related potentials study on false recognition and correct rejection

Memory researchers have long been captivated by the nature of memory distortions and have made efforts to identify the neural correlates of true and false memories. However, the underlying mechanisms of avoiding false memories by correctly rejecting related lures remains underexplored. In this study, we employed a variant of the Deese/Roediger-McDermott paradigm to explore neural signatures of committing and avoiding false memories. ERP were obtained for True recognition, False recognition, Correct rejection of new items, and, more importantly, Correct rejection of related lures. With these ERP data, early-frontal, left-parietal, and late right-frontal old/new effects (associated with familiarity, recollection, and monitoring processes, respectively) were analysed. Results indicated that there were similar patterns for True and False recognition in all three old/new effects analysed in our study. Also, False recognition and Correct rejection of related lures activities seemed to share common underlying familiarity-based processes. The ERP similarities between False recognition and Correct rejection of related lures disappeared when recollection processes were examined because only False recognition presented a parietal old/new effect. This finding supported the view that actual false recollections underlie false memories, providing evidence consistent with previous behavioural research and with most ERP and neuroimaging studies. Later, with the onset of monitoring processes, False recognition and Correct rejection of related lures waveforms presented, again, clearly dissociated patterns. Specifically, False recognition and True recognition showed more positive going patterns than Correct rejection of related lures signal and Correct rejection of new items signature. Since False recognition and Correct rejection of related lures triggered familiarity-recognition processes, our results suggest that deciding which items are studied is based more on recollection processes, which are later supported by monitoring processes. Results are discussed in terms of Activation-Monitoring Framework and Fuzzy Trace-Theory, the most prominent explanatory theories of false memory raised with the Deese/Roediger-McDermott paradigm.This research was supported by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology and the Portuguese Ministry of Science, Technology and Higher Education through national funds and co-financed by FEDER through COMPETE2020 under the PT2020 Partnership Agreement (POCI-01-0145-FEDER-007653). Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology also funded the Psychology Research Centre at Universidade do Minho, Portugal (UID/PSI/01662/2013) (http://www.fct.pt). This study was funded in part by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology and Universidade do Minho Portugal (CIPSI-BI-CH-02 to SC) and in part by the Universidad de Salamanca (Spain) (FPI-USAL-10 to SC) (http://campus.usal.es/~agencia/). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript