Reliability of a novel paradigm for determining hemispheric lateralization of visuospatial function

Contains fulltext : 77000.pdf (publisher's version ) (Open Access)In most individuals, language production and visuospatial skills are subserved predominantly by the left and right hemispheres, respectively. Functional Transcranial Doppler (fTCD) provides a noninvasive and relatively low-cost method for measuring functional lateralization. However, while the silent word generation task provides an accurate and reliable paradigm for investigating lateralization of language production, there is no comparable gold-standard method for measuring visuospatial skills. Thirty undergraduate students (19 females) completed a task of spatial memory while undergoing fTCD recording. Participants completed this task at two different time points, separated by between 26 to 155 days. The relative activation between hemispheres averaged across all participants was found to be consistent across testing sessions. This was observed at the individual level also, with a quantitative index of lateralization showing high reproducibility. These findings indicate that the use of the spatial memory task with fTCD is a robust methodology for examining laterality of visuospatial skills

Descriptive statistics.

<p>Descriptive statistics.</p

Crosstabulation of participants’ cerebral lateralisation for language, based on LIs and 95% confidence intervals, as a function of handedness as derived from the full Edinburgh Handedness Inventory. Participant numbers are presented, with proportion of participants within each handedness category in parentheses.

<p>Crosstabulation of participants’ cerebral lateralisation for language, based on LIs and 95% confidence intervals, as a function of handedness as derived from the full Edinburgh Handedness Inventory. Participant numbers are presented, with proportion of participants within each handedness category in parentheses.</p

Characteristics of heterosexual regular relationships among a representative sample of adults: the second Australian study of health and relationships

Background: The aim of this study was to describe important characteristics of Australian adults’ heterosexual regular sexual relationships and examine how these characteristics have changed since 2002. Methods: Computer-assisted landline and mobile telephone interviews were completed by a representative sample of 20 094 Australian residents aged 16–69 years. The participation rate among eligible people was 66.2%. Data were collected on respondents’ social and demographic characteristics, relationship status and duration, cohabitation status, partner’s age, contraception use, expectations about sexual exclusivity, sexual partners in the previous year, actual and ideal frequencies of sex and levels of physical pleasure and emotional satisfaction in their relationships. Results: Most sexually active respondents 89%; 74% of all respondents, were in a heterosexual regular relationship. Most (97%) expected sexual exclusivity in their relationships, with 3% reporting extradyadic sex in the previous year. Respondents reported an average frequency of sex of 1.44 times per week, with most reporting very high levels of physical pleasure (men, 88%; women, 76%) and emotional satisfaction (men, 86%; women, 84%) in their relationships. Comparisons with data from the First Australian Study of Health and Relationships revealed that significantly more sexually active men were in a relationship in the current survey; that respondents’ average frequency of sex was significantly lower; and that women’s reports of extreme emotional satisfaction had risen. Otherwise, results were consistent with those of the first study. Conclusions: In general, results suggested that the characteristics of Australians’ heterosexual relationships changed little between 2002 and 2013. Despite a decline in respondents’ average weekly frequency of sex, the majority of respondents reported being in a highly satisfying, sexually exclusive relationship

Non-parametric correlations, Spearman’s rho, between cerebral lateralisation for language production and different handedness measures for the full sample (n = 57) are presented in the cells above the diagonal; the 95% confidence intervals of the correlations are in the cells below the diagonal.

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