The neuroprotective effects of bilingualism upon the inferior parietal lobule: A Structural Neuroimaging Study in Aging Chinese Bilinguals

Abstract It is a timely issue to understand the impact of bilingualism upon brain structure in healthy aging and upon cognitive decline given evidence of its neuroprotective effects. Plastic changes induced by bilingualism were reported in young adults in the left inferior parietal lobule (LIPL) and its right counterpart (RIPL) (Mechelli et al., 2004). Moreover, both age of second language (L2) acquisition and L2 proficiency correlated with increased grey matter (GM) in the LIPL/RIPL. However it is unknown whether such findings replicate in older bilinguals. We examined this question in an aging bilingual population from Hong Kong. Results from our Voxel Based Morphometry study show that elderly bilinguals relative to a matched monolingual control group also have increased GM volumes in the inferior parietal lobules underlining the neuroprotective effect of bilingualism. However, unlike younger adults, age of L2 acquisition did not predict GM volumes. Instead, LIPL and RIPL appear differentially sensitive to the effects of L2 proficiency and L2 exposure with LIPL more sensitive to the former and RIPL more sensitive to the latter. Our data also intimate that such differences may be more prominent for speakers of languages that are linguistically closer such as in Cantonese-Mandarin bilinguals as compared to Cantonese-English bilinguals

Computerized Neuropsychological Assessment in Aging: Testing Efficacy and Clinical Ecology of Different Interfaces

Digital technologies have opened new opportunities for psychological testing, allowing new computerized testing tools to be developed and/or paper and pencil testing tools to be translated to new computerized devices. The question that rises is whether these implementations may introduce some technology-specific effects to be considered in neuropsychological evaluations. Two core aspects have been investigated in this work: the efficacy of tests and the clinical ecology of their administration (the ability to measure real-world test performance), specifically (1) the testing efficacy of a computerized test when response to stimuli is measured using a touch-screen compared to a conventional mouse-control response device; (2) the testing efficacy of a computerized test with respect to different input modalities (visual versus verbal); and (3) the ecology of two computerized assessment modalities (touch-screen and mouse-control), including preference measurements of participants. Our results suggest that (1) touch-screen devices are suitable for administering experimental tasks requiring precise timings for detection, (2) intrinsic nature of neuropsychological tests should always be respected in terms of stimuli presentation when translated to new digitalized environment, and (3) touch-screen devices result in ecological instruments being proposed for the computerized administration of neuropsychological tests with a high level of preference from elderly people

Bilingualism provides a neural reserve for aging populations.

It has been postulated that bilingualism may act as a cognitive reserve and recent behavioral evidence shows that bilinguals are diagnosed with dementia about 4-5 years later compared to monolinguals. In the present study, we investigated the neural basis of these putative protective effects in a group of aging bilinguals as compared to a matched monolingual control group. For this purpose, participants completed the Erikson Flanker task and their performance was correlated to gray matter (GM) volume in order to investigate if cognitive performance predicts GM volume specifically in areas affected by aging. We performed an ex-Gaussian analysis on the resulting RTs and report that aging bilinguals performed better than aging monolinguals on the Flanker task. Bilingualism was overall associated with increased GM in the ACC. Likewise, aging induced effects upon performance correlated only for monolinguals to decreased gray matter in the DLPFC. Taken together, these neural regions might underlie the benefits of bilingualism and act as a neural reserve that protects against the cognitive decline that occurs during aging

A High Performance IP Traffic Generation Tool Based On The Intel IXP2400 Network Processor

Traffic generation is essential in the processes of testing and developing new network elements, such as equipment, protocols and applications, regarding both the production and research area. Traditionally, two approaches have been followed for this purpose: the first is based on software applications that can be executed on inexpensive Personal Computers, while the second relies on dedicated hardware. Obviously, performance in the latter case (in terms of sustainable rates, precision in delays and jitters) outclasses that in the former, but also the costs usually grow of some order of magnitude. In this paper we describe a software IP traffic generator based on a hardware architecture specialized for packet processing (known as Network Processor), which we have developed and tested. Our approach is positioned between the two different philosophies listed above: it has a software (and then flexible) implementation running on a specific hardware only slightly more expensive than PCs

Markers of unsustainable gambling for early detection of at-risk online gamblers

In this work we propose novel markers for identifying at-risk gamblers based on the concept of sustainability. The first hypothesis here verified is that problematic gamblers oscillate between intervals of increasing wager size followed by rapid drops, probably because they exceed their economic sustainability limits. Due to the non-periodic nature of these fluctuations, the proposed marker detects a certain occurring feature, such as a rapid drop in wager size, over a wide range of fluctuation periods, drop sizes and shapes. The second marker, counting the number of games the gambler is involved in, aims at predicting possible consequences of an exceeding amount of time dedicated to gambling, that ultimately causes social and relational breakdowns. In the experimental phase we demonstrate how the adoption of these markers allows for identifying larger segments of high- and medium-risk gamblers with respect to previous research on actual betting behaviours

FAD8, lip and osmotin are cold-acclimation genes in Olea europaea L.

Olive tree is an evergreen species of economic value lacking winter dormancy and showing low tolerance to frost. This low tolerance limits its cultivation in cold regions, where, by contrast, oil quality is improved by an enrichment in unsaturated fatty acids, i.e., linoleic (C18:2) and linolenic (C18:3) acids, produced by the activity of specific fatty acid desaturases (FADs). Cold-resistant genotypes have been empirically selected from centuries however the genetic network controlling cold-tolerance in olive tree is still unknown. Transient changes in cytosolic calcium are involved in sensing the cold stress and in activating cold acclimation in numerous plants, including olive tree (1-2). A role for the PR-5 protein Osmotin (OeOSM) in olive tree cold acclimation has been suggested, possibly as transfer protein to the cell wall of cutinsomes, containing unsaturated fatty acid-derived compounds (3, 4). The expression of genes coding for specific FADs, i.e. OeFAD2.2 and OeFAD7, necessary for C18:2 and C18:3 production, respectively, has been demonstrated to be positively related to olive tree drupe cold-response. However, the expression of both genes normally occurs during oil biogenesis, and increases under cold-stress independently of the acclimation capabilities of the genotypes, suggesting that these genes are unrelated with cold acclimation (2). By contrast, in Arabidopsis thaliana and other plants, FAD8, isoform of FAD7, is specifically activated by cold (5). Moreover, FAD8 expression in maize is activated concomitantly with the beta-Zip LIP transcription factor mlip19 (6), and members of LIP19-family are activated by calcium transients (7). The research aim was to identify transcripts of an OeLIP gene in leaves and drupes of two genotypes, one incapable and the other capable of cold acclimation, by cold-stresses applied before, during and after the possible natural/artificial acquisition of cold acclimation, investigating, in parallel, the changes in OeOSM and OeFAD8 expression, the immuno-localization of OeOSM, and by detecting the levels of C18:3-compounds deriving by OeFAD8 activity. Preliminarly, leaves and drupes belonging to cv. Moraiolo and cv. Canino were exposed to cold shocks of different duration and intensity at the same developmental stages, and the cold response evaluated in their protoplasts in terms of presence/absence of cytosolic calcium transients, for determining their differences in cold acclimation under all cold conditions. Both genotypes were cold sensitive at the beginning of the oil biogenesis in the drupe (WAF 10), however Canino was able to acquire artificial acclimation at this WAF. Only cv. Moraiolo showed calcium rises, i.e. remained cold-sensitive at the end of oil biogenesis (WAF 19) in leaves and drupes, and continued to be sensitive even in full winter (WAF 26), showing its total inability to cold acclimate, differently from the other genotype. An OeLIP gene was isolated and characterized, and its changes monitored by q-PCR in both leaves and drupes under the same cold-shocks applied for monitoring cytosolic calcium changes. OeLIP was activated by cold-induced calcium signalling. Its expression increased with cold, but became stable only in Canino. OeFAD8 transcription was also induced by calcium signalling, and changed in parallel with that of OeLIP. The production of C18:3, and related compounds, by OeFAD8 activity, increased in Canino in concomitance with acclimation. Also OeOSM was activated by calcium signalling, and its transcripts were high and stable during acclimation acquisition and maintenance by Canino drupes and leaves. Moreover, both organs showed increased cutinisation of the outer cell walls of epicarp and adaxial epidermis, respectively, with this event strongly increasing in Canino, and positively coupling with an increased immunolocalization of OeOSM in the cuticle. All together, results demonstrate that OeFAD8, OeLIP and OeOSM jointly control cold-acclimation in Olea europaea drupes and leaves

Computerized Neuropsychological Assessment in Aging: Testing Efficacy and Clinical Ecology of Different Interfaces

Digital technologies have opened new opportunities for psychological testing, allowing new computerized testing tools to be developed and/or paper and pencil testing tools to be translated to new computerized devices. The question that rises is whether these implementations may introduce some technology-specific effects to be considered in neuropsychological evaluations. Two core aspects have been investigated in this work: the efficacy of tests and the clinical ecology of their administration (the ability to measure real-world test performance), specifically (1) the testing efficacy of a computerized test when response to stimuli is measured using a touch-screen compared to a conventional mouse-control response device; (2) the testing efficacy of a computerized test with respect to different input modalities (visual versus verbal); and (3) the ecology of two computerized assessment modalities (touch-screen and mouse-control), including preference measurements of participants. Our results suggest that (1) touch-screen devices are suitable for administering experimental tasks requiring precise timings for detection, (2) intrinsic nature of neuropsychological tests should always be respected in terms of stimuli presentation when translated to new digitalized environment, and (3) touch-screen devices result in ecological instruments being proposed for the computerized administration of neuropsychological tests with a high level of preference from elderly people

Semantic interference and its control: A functional neuroimaging and connectivity study

International audienceDuring picture naming, the ease with which humans generate words is dependent upon the context in which they are named. For instances, naming previously presented items results in facilitation. Instead, naming a picture semantically related to previous items displays persistent interference effects (i.e., cumulative semantic interference, CSI). The neural correlates of CSI are still unclear and it is a matter of debate whether semantic control, or cognitive control more in general, is necessary for the resolution of CSI. We carried out an event-related fMRI experiment to assess the neural underpinnings of the CSI effect and the involvement and nature of semantic control. Both left inferior frontal gyrus (LIFG) and the left caudate nucleus (LCN) showed a linear increase of BOLD response positively associated with the consecutive number of presentations of semantically related pictures independently of task-load. The generalized psychophysiological interaction analysis showed that LIFG demonstrated a quantitative neural connectivity difference with the left supramarginal and angular gyri for increases of task-load and with the fusiform gyri for linear CSI increases. Furthermore, seed-to-voxel functional connectivity showed that LIFG activity coupled with different regions involved in cognitive control and lexicosemantic processing when semantic interference was elicited to a minimum or maximum degree. Our results are consistent with the lexical-competitive nature of the CSI effect, and we provide novel evidence that semantic control lies upon a more general cognitive control network (i.e., LIFG and LCN) responsible for resolving interference between competing semantically related items through connectivity with different brain areas in order to guarantee the correct response