Literacy: A cultural influence on functional left-right differences in the inferior parietal cortex

The current understanding of hemispheric interaction is limited. Functional hemispheric specialization is likely to depend on both genetic and environmental factors. In the present study we investigated the importance of one factor, literacy, for the functional lateralization in the inferior parietal cortex in two independent samples of literate and illiterate subjects. The results show that the illiterate group are consistently more right-lateralized than their literate controls. In contrast, the two groups showed a similar degree of left-right differences in early speech-related regions of the superior temporal cortex. These results provide evidence suggesting that a cultural factor, literacy, influences the functional hemispheric balance in reading and verbal working memory-related regions. In a third sample, we investigated grey and white matter with voxel-based morphometry. The results showed differences between literacy groups in white matter intensities related to the mid-body region of the corpus callosum and the inferior parietal and parietotemporal regions (literate > illiterate). There were no corresponding differences in the grey matter. This suggests that the influence of literacy on brain structure related to reading and verbal working memory is affecting large-scale brain connectivity more than grey matter per se

Achieving a successful relationship between Neuroscience and Education: The views of Portuguese teachers

AbstractEducational Neuroscience is currently raising high attention by the educational and neuroscientific community. However, society has created too many expectations concerning what Neuroscience can bring to Education. With this study, we aim to identify eventual distorted expectations of the teachers and propose ways to overcome these. This study was carried out in Portugal with 30 participating schools, where 627 questionnaires were answered by teachers from Preschool to High School. Our results show that there are still misunderstandings concerning the Portuguese teachers’ views about the links between Neuroscience and Education. More collaborative efforts between professionals of both fields are needed for the field of Educational Neuroscience to succeed

“To talk or not to talk”- an rTMS study about naming during stimulation

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Economics and social psychology on public goods: experiments and explorations

Economics and social psychology come from different traditions in social science, and in the past they seldom met. Their territories seemed to be well delimited. The former discipline’s mainstream focused on market mediated interactions, making sense of an asocial concept of action by referring it to “the ordinary business of life” (Marshall, 1920, I.II.1) where agent’s choices supposedly are independent from those of other parties in the transactions (Sugden, 2002); on the other hand, the second discipline descends from the more romantic view of man as a social being, and was stimulated by questions on why and how the immersion of individuals in the multitude, or the simple presence of others, appeared to transform behaviour. Lately, however, economics has started moving in a direction that reduces this gap. In a double but interrelated move, economics is adopting experimental methods familiar to those of social psychology, and is becoming more concerned with the relevance of rational choice in contexts where there is clear inter-individual dependence, raising questions to which social psychologists have already devoted considerable time and effort. As a part of this movement, social dilemmas, that is, “situations in which (a) individual group members can obtain higher outcomes (at least under some circumstances) if they pursue their individual interest while (b) the group obtains higher incomes if all group members further the group interest” (Dijk and Wilke, 1998: 110) have become the focus of shared interest of both economists and social psychologists. The motivation for the study of social dilemmas does not differ much in economics and social psychology and it arises out of two major types of challenges. The first (Fontaine, 2002) is related to the growing consciousness of the pervasiveness of market failures (combined with government failures) concerning issues of major social urgency like pollution and the use of scarce resources. The second, (Dawes, 1991) cropped up out of the finding that people both in real-life and experimental contexts fail to behave systematically in the way depicted by standard game theory, often opting for more benign strategies. Interest in social dilemmas is thus related, on the one hand, with the concern with problems that the market cannot solve, and, on the other, with understanding the reasons that may drive people to act in ways that are not in line with rational self-interest. For economics those questions are arcane questions 1 that were never ignored by the best minds in this discipline. Marshall’s sentence in epigraph is a clear instance of this concern. This essay does not intend to cover the whole scope of existing approaches to social dilemmas since it only deals with dilemma situations that somehow fit into the economist’s category of public good provision problems and with the experimental studies in economics and social psychology2. On the basis of an exploratory joint survey of experimental literature from both disciplines, it focuses on their differences in theoretical framing and their use of the experimental method. The following points will be argued: (a) Twenty five years of experimental research in both disciplines have produced an impressive accumulation of coherent results showing that in spite of the free-riding prediction, there is a tendency to voluntary contribution in “small” groups; (b) Notwithstanding the abundance of experimental studies, several interesting problems remain unexplored. In economics, the research focus has been on “are the game theoretical predictions corroborated by experimental evidence?”, whereas in social psychology it has been on “what may cause the voluntary disposition to contribute”. Questions pertaining to “what institutional contexts might hinder or foster voluntary contribution” still offer a vast domain of unexplored possibilities. (c) In spite of all efforts, the conceptual framework that may account for the contributive disposition in public good dilemma situations and help “discover how this latent social asset can be developed” remains rather sketchy

Relationship between bullying behaviours and sleep quality in school-aged children

Do children who practice bullying have more sleep disturbances than those who do not practice bullying? The research questions for this study were 1)Are there are differences in sleep quality between aggressors and non-aggressors and between victims and non-victims? 2)Do aggressors have higher SDI than non-aggressors?3)What are the sleep characteristics in aggressors, non-aggressors, victims and non-victims?The purpose of the study was to analyse whether school-agedchildren who practice bullying have worse sleep quality than those who do not practice it and to identify the characteristics of dysfunctional sleep for aggressors?The research method was a cross-sectional study focusing on quantitative methodology. We analysed and compared the results of two questionnaires: bullying, aggressiveness among children with n= 1109, answered by the children and the Children’s Sleep Habits Questionnaire (CSHQ), with n= 883, answered by the parents. A convenience sample of 8 state and private schools in Portugal was worked upon.The SDI of aggressorsis not significantly different from the SDI of non-aggressors. In the 33 CSHQ items, in seven the aggressors manifest significant differences: they go to bed at the same time less often, "fight" going to bed, sleep poorly, wet the bed more often, have a more agitated sleep, wake up with nightmares and are grumpier.There are no differences between the two groups, as both have high SDI. In the aggressors, the SDI is accentuated in relation to non-aggressors with regard to the following: more difficulty in going to bed at the same time, fight more at bedtime, sleep less, wet the bed, have more agitated sleep, wake up with nightmares more and wake up grumpy.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

17beta-estradiol promotes the synthesis and the secretion of annexin I in the CCRF-CEM human cell line.

AIMS: Annexin I (ANXA1), a 37kDa member of the annexin family of Ca2+-binding and phospholipid-binding proteins, is particularly abundant in various populations of peripheral blood leukocytes. Since this protein modulates the anti-inflammatory actions of the steroid hormones, the purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of the female sex steroid hormone, 17beta-estradiol (E2beta), on the synthesis and secretion of ANXA1 in the human CCRF-CEM acute lymphoblastic leukemia cell line. METHODS: Complementary reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction and Western blot assays were performed to study the effect of E2beta on the expression of mRNA and protein ANXA1, respectively. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION: Treatment of CCRF-CEM cells with E2beta, for 30 min, stimulated the synthesis of ANXA1 mRNA molecules, and increased the cellular level of ANXA1 protein. Moreover, when the cells were incubated with E2beta under the same experimental conditions, a significant increase in the amount of ANXA1 secreted from the cells was also detected. ICI 182,780, a selective inhibitor of the intracellular estrogen receptor, had no effect on the E2beta-stimulated expression and externalisation of ANXA1. Taken together, these results indicate that E2beta induces de novo synthesis of ANXA1 and stimulates its secretion in the CCRF-CEM cell line, apparently through a mechanism independent of the intracellular estrogen receptor

Instrumentos de análise para o método dos cenário. II - Estratégia de actores

Na sequência do documento de trabalho “Instrumentos de Análise para o Método dos Cenários, 1-Análise Estrutural” (Caldas e Perestrelo, 98), trataremos no presente trabalho de outra etapa do Método dos Cenários, a Estratégia de Actores, tendo como referência principal o método MACTOR (Método ACTores, Objectivos; Relações de força). Este método inspirado na teoria dos jogos e na análise sociológica das organizações, desenvolvido em 1990 por Michel Godet (Godet, 1993) e sua equipa, nomeadamente François Bourse e Francis Meunier, é um excelente instrumento de análise dos jogos entre os diferentes actores, permitindo simplificar e organizar a informação de uma forma sistemática. A Estratégia de Actores, sendo uma das etapas da metodologia prospectiva de elaboração de cenários, pode também, como a experiência mostra, ser utilizada isoladamente, constituindo um bom instrumento na dinamização da participação dos actores, protagonistas de qualquer processo de mudança. Ao longo deste trabalho, que resulta da reflexão proporcionada por um certo número de experiências de aplicação a vários estudos de caso, tanto a nível urbano como regional (Perestrelo, 1990; Perestrelo e Caldas, 1996; CET, 1995/1997; CET, 1996/1998; CET, 1997/1998a; CET, 1997/1998b, Guerra, et al, 1999), apresentaremos os aspectos mais importantes do MACTOR e propomos alguns desenvolvimentos baseados na análise de “clusters” e na análise de conteúdo que, complementando este método, permitem uma análise mais cuidada da informação recolhida

Dexamethasone-induced and estradiol-induced CREB activation and annexin 1 expression in CCRF-CEM lymphoblastic cells: evidence for the involvement of cAMP and p38 MAPK.

AIMS: Annexin 1 (ANXA1), a member of the annexin family of calcium-binding and phospholipid-binding proteins, is a key mediator of the anti-inflammatory actions of steroid hormones. We have previously demonstrated that, in the human lymphoblastic CCRF-CEM cell line, both the synthetic glucocorticoid hormone, dexamethasone (Dex), and the estrogen hormone, 17beta-estradiol (E2beta), induce the synthesis of ANXA1, by a mechanism independent of the activation of their nuclear receptors. Recently, it was reported that the gene coding for ANXA1 contains acAMP-responsive element (CRE). In this work, we investigated whether Dex and E2beta were able to induce the activation of CRE binding proteins (CREB) in the CCRF-CEM cells. Moreover, we studied the intracellular signalling pathways involved in CREB activation and ANXA1 synthesis in response to Dex and E2beta; namely, the role of cAMP and the p38 mitogen activated protein kinase (MAPK). RESULTS: The results show that Dex and E2beta were as effective as the cAMP analogue, dBcAMP, in inducing CREB activation. On the contrary, dBcAMP induced ANXA1 synthesis as effectively as these steroid hormones. Furthermore, the cAMP antagonist, Rp-8-Br-cAMPS, and the specific p38 MAPK inhibitor,SB203580, effectively prevented both Dex-induced, E2beta-induced and dBcAMP-induced CREB activation and ANXA1 synthesis. CONCLUSIONS: Taken together, our results suggest that,in CCRF-CEM cells, Dex-induced and E2beta-inducedANXA1 expression requires the activation of the transcription factor CREB, which in turn seems to be mediated by cAMP and the p38 MAPK. These findings also suggest that, besides the nuclear steroid hormone receptors, other transcription factors, namely CREB, may play important roles in mediating the anti-inflammatory actions of glucocorticoids and oestrogen hormone