Lenguaje, memoria y corporeidad: estudio empírico del efecto de las representaciones corporeizadas

[ES]La teoría de la corporeidad plantea que la cognición está basada en los sistemas corporales y neurales relacionados con la percepción, la acción y la emoción (Glenberg, 2015). La parte experimental de esta Tesis Doctoral constituye un proyecto de replicación y extensión de dos experimentos que fueron seleccionados por haber supuesto aportaciones fundamentales para el estudio de la comprensión del lenguaje desde el punto de vista de la teoría de la corporeidad. El primero de ellos, replicado en la serie experimental 1 de esta Tesis, es un experimento realizado por Kaschak et al. (2005), en el cual se demostró cómo la percepción visual del movimiento puede afectar a la comprensión de frases que describen movimiento en una determinada dirección. El segundo (serie experimental 2) es un experimento llevado a cabo por Glenberg y Kaschak (2002) en el cual se describió por vez primera el efecto de compatibilidad acción-oración (action-sentence compatibility effect, ACE), que demuestra la relación entre la acción motora y la comprensión del lenguaje. Un objetivo adicional y novedoso de esta investigación era comprobar si los efectos de facilitación e interferencia en el procesamiento del lenguaje en los cuales se basaban estos dos estudios tenían implicaciones para la memoria a largo plazo. Para ello, se aplicaron diferentes pruebas de memoria (reconocimiento, recuerdo libre y recuerdo con claves) sobre el material verbal utilizado para la replicación de los dos paradigmas experimentales citados. A pesar de que se realizó una replicación directa de los experimentos originales, reproduciendo minuciosamente las condiciones metodológicas y procedimentales de éstos, en ninguna de las dos series experimentales se pudo obtener una replicación de los efectos críticos, ni tampoco pudieron observarse efectos relacionados en las diferentes pruebas de memoria utilizadas, para lo cual se plantean varias explicaciones posibles. Sin embargo, los resultados de la serie experimental 2 revelaron un interesante y consistente patrón de efectos, que evidenció una ventaja en el procesamiento y recuerdo de aquellas frases en las cuales se describía una acción de transferencia hacia el participante, en comparación con las frases en las que la transferencia tenía lugar desde el participante hacia otra persona. Se argumentó que estos resultados podían deberse a que los objetos o acontecimientos que se aproximan a nuestro cuerpo tienden a ser más importantes para nosotros en comparación con aquéllos que se alejan, y por eso a los primeros les prestamos más atención y los procesamos y simulamos de una forma más intensa. Esta hipótesis fue puesta a prueba en un experimento adicional, diseñado específicamente para ello, en el cual se confirmó el patrón de efectos predicho. Este novedoso hallazgo se discute en relación con diferentes estudios empíricos previos, y es interpretado desde varios marcos teóricos relacionados con el enfoque corpóreo, como la teoría de los modelos mentales o el papel del self en el procesamiento y recuerdo de la información

Absence of posture-dependent and posture-congruent memory effects on the recall of action sentences

[EN]In two experiments with large samples of participants, we explored contextual memory effects associated with body posture, which was considered a physical and proprioceptive context and, therefore, potentially relevant to the encoding and retrieval of information. In Experiment 1 (N = 128), we studied the effect of context dependence on memory by manip ulating the body posture adopted by the participants during the incidental encoding and sub sequent recall of a series of action sentences not intrinsically associated with particular body postures (e.g., “to put on a pair of glasses”, “to look at a postcard”). Memory perfor mance was not affected by context manipulation, as reflected by the absence of significant differences between remembering while in the posture adopted at study or in a different pos ture. Experiment 2 (N = 85) was designed to analyze context congruency memory effects, and for that purpose we manipulated the participants’ body posture during the recall of sen tences that described actions usually performed in body postures that were congruent or incongruent with the posture of the participants (e.g., recalling the sentence “to travel by taxi” while sitting or while standing). A content-neutral posture (lying) was used for the inci dental encoding phase. Memory performance was not affected by contextual congruency at the time of recall, as evidenced by the lack of significant differences between recalling in a posture congruent with the content to be recalled and recalling in an alternative posture. Bayesian analyses supported the strength of null findings in the two experiments, adding to the evidence that, when taken together, the results in this study clearly failed to show con textual memory effects of body posture on the recall of action-related verbal statements

Normative ratings for 536 action-related sentences in Spanish

[EN]Familiarity, emotionality, motor activity, memorability, and vividness of visual imagery ratings, on 7- point scales, were collected for 536 Spanish action-related sentences, including a corpus of 439 phrases originally normed in Swedish, German, and Croatian (Arar & Molander, 1996; Molander & Arar, 1998; Molander, Arar, Mavrinac, & Janig, 1999) and 97 new sentences describing actions usually performed using different body postures and face or hand movements. These norms constitute the only available set of ratings for action sentences in Spanish including those dimensions to date, and they allow for the design of studies aimed at empirically exploring the relationship between action, language, and cognition with well-controlled materials in Spanish-speaking samples of participants

Retrieving Against the Flow: Incoherence Between Optic Flow and Movement Direction Has Little Effect on Memory for Order

[EN]Research from multiple areas in neuroscience suggests a link between self-locomotion and memory. In two free recall experiments with adults, we looked for a link between (a) memory, and (b) the coherence of movement and optic flow. In both experiments, participants heard lists of words while on a treadmill and wearing a virtual reality (VR) headset. In the first experiment, the VR scene and treadmill were stationary during encoding. During retrieval, all participants walked forward, but the VR scene was stationary, moved forward, or moved backwards. In the second experiment, during encoding all participants walked forward and viewed a forward-moving VR scene. During retrieval, all participants continued to walk forward but the VR scene was stationary, forward-moving, or backward-moving. In neither experiment was there a significant difference in the amount recalled, or output order strategies, attributable to differences in movement conditions. Thus, any effects of movement on memory are more limited than theories of hippocampal function and theories in cognitive psychology anticipate

Transcranial direct current stimulation over the left posterior temporal lobe modulates semantic control: Evidence from episodic memory distortions

[EN]Evidence accumulates to show that semantic cognition requires, in addition to semantic representations, control processes that regulate the accessibility and use of semantic knowledge in a task- and time-appropriate fashion. Semantic control has been recently proposed to rely on a distributed network that includes the posterior temporal cortex. Along these lines, recent meta-analyses of neuroimaging data and studies with patients suffering from semantic aphasia have suggested that the left posterior middle temporal gyrus (pMTG) is critically involved whenever situational context must constrain semantic retrieval. In the present experiment, we used transcranial direct current stimulation over the left posterior temporal lobe in an attempt to interfere with semantic control while participants performed a DRM task, a procedure for inducing conceptually-based false recognition that is contingent on both activation and control processes. Paralleling findings with patients suffering from brain damage restricted to the temporoparietal cortex, anodal stimulation (relative to sham stimulation) resulted in increased false recognition but intact true recognition. These findings fit well with the idea that the left pMTG is a key component of a semantic control network, the alteration of which results in memory performance that is affected by the intrusion of contextually-inappropriate semantic information

¿Qué saben los alumnos sobre la memoria? Prácticas encaminadas a aprender a distinguir ciencia de pseudociencia en intervenciones psicológicas

Memoria ID-055. Ayudas de la Universidad de Salamanca para la innovación docente, curso 2018-2019

Regulation of cell death receptor S-nitrosylation and apoptotic signaling by Sorafenib in hepatoblastoma cells

Nitric oxide (NO) plays a relevant role during cell death regulation in tumor cells. The overexpression of nitric oxide synthase type III (NOS-3) induces oxidative and nitrosative stress, p53 and cell death receptor expression and apoptosis in hepatoblastoma cells. S-nitrosylation of cell death receptor modulates apoptosis. Sorafenib is the unique recommended molecular-targeted drug for the treatment of patients with advanced hepatocellular carcinoma. The present study was addressed to elucidate the potential role of NO during Sorafenib-induced cell death in HepG2 cells. We determined the intra- and extracellular NO concentration, cell death receptor expression and their S-nitrosylation modifications, and apoptotic signaling in Sorafenib-treated HepG2 cells. The effect of NO donors on above parameters has also been determined. Sorafenib induced apoptosis in HepG2 cells. However, low concentration of the drug (10nM) increased cell death receptor expression, as well as caspase-8 and -9 activation, but without activation of downstream apoptotic markers. In contrast, Sorafenib (10 µM) reduced upstream apoptotic parameters but increased caspase-3 activation and DNA fragmentation in HepG2 cells. The shift of cell death signaling pathway was associated with a reduction of S-nitrosylation of cell death receptors in Sorafenib-treated cells. The administration of NO donors increased S-nitrosylation of cell death receptors and overall induction of cell death markers in control and Sorafenib-treated cells. In conclusion, Sorafenib induced alteration of cell death receptor S-nitrosylation status which may have a relevant repercussion on cell death signaling in hepatoblastoma cells.Instituto de Salud Carlos III PI13/00021Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad BFU2012-32056Consejería de Economía, Innovación, Ciencia y Empleo, Junta de Andalucía BIO-0216Consejería de Economía, Innovación, Ciencia y Empleo, Junta de Andalucía CTS-6264Consejería de Salud, Junta de Andalucía PI13/ 0002

A pre-registered, multi-lab non-replication of the Action-sentence Compatibility Effect (ACE)

The Action-sentence Compatibility Effect (ACE) is a well-known demonstration of the role of motor activity in the comprehension of language. Participants are asked to make sensibility judgments on sentences by producing movements toward the body or away from the body. The ACE is the finding that movements are faster when the direction of the movement (e.g., toward) matches the direction of the action in the to-be-judged sentence (e.g., Art gave you the pen describes action toward you). We report on a pre-registered, multi-lab replication of one version of the ACE. The results show that none of the 18 labs involved in the study observed a reliable ACE, and that the meta-analytic estimate of the size of the ACE was essentially zero.Fil: Morey, Richard. Cardiff University; Reino UnidoFil: Kaschak, Michael. Florida State University; Estados UnidosFil: Díez Álamo, Antonio. Universidad de Salamanca; España. Arizona State University; Estados UnidosFil: Glenberg, Arthur. Arizona State University; Estados Unidos. Universidad de Salamanca; EspañaFil: Zwaan, Rolf A.. Erasmus University Rotterdam; Países BajosFil: Lakens, Daniël. Eindhoven University of Technology; Países BajosFil: Ibáñez, Santiago Agustín. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina. Universidad de San Andrés; Argentina. University of San Francisco; Estados Unidos. Universidad Adolfo Ibañez; Chile. Trinity College Dublin; IrlandaFil: García, Adolfo Martín. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina. Universidad de San Andrés; Argentina. University of San Francisco; Estados Unidos. Universidad Nacional de Cuyo. Facultad de Educación Elemental y Especial; Argentina. Universidad de Santiago de Chile; ChileFil: Gianelli, Claudia. Universitat Potsdam; Alemania. Scuola Universitaria Superiore; ItaliaFil: Jones, John L.. Florida State University; Estados UnidosFil: Madden, Julie. University of Tennessee; Estados UnidosFil: Alifano Ferrero, Florencia. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; ArgentinaFil: Bergen, Benjamin. University of California at San Diego; Estados UnidosFil: Bloxsom, Nicholas G.. Ashland University; Estados UnidosFil: Bub, Daniel N.. University of Victoria; CanadáFil: Cai, Zhenguang G.. The Chinese University; Hong KongFil: Chartier, Christopher R.. Ashland University; Estados UnidosFil: Chatterjee, Anjan. University of Pennsylvania; Estados UnidosFil: Conwell, Erin. North Dakota State University; Estados UnidosFil: Wagner Cook, Susan. University of Iowa; Estados UnidosFil: Davis, Joshua D.. University of California at San Diego; Estados UnidosFil: Evers, Ellen R. K.. University of California at Berkeley; Estados UnidosFil: Girard, Sandrine. University of Carnegie Mellon; Estados UnidosFil: Harter, Derek. Texas A&m University Commerce; Estados UnidosFil: Hartung, Franziska. University of Pennsylvania; Estados UnidosFil: Herrera, Eduar. Universidad ICESI; ColombiaFil: Huettig, Falk. Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics; Países BajosFil: Humphries, Stacey. University of Pennsylvania; Estados UnidosFil: Juanchich, Marie. University of Essex; Reino UnidoFil: Kühne, Katharina. Universitat Potsdam; AlemaniaFil: Lu, Shulan. Texas A&m University Commerce; Estados UnidosFil: Lynes, Tom. University of East Anglia; Reino UnidoFil: Masson, Michael E. J.. University of Victoria; CanadáFil: Ostarek, Markus. Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics; Países BajosFil: Pessers, Sebastiaan. Katholikie Universiteit Leuven; BélgicaFil: Reglin, Rebecca. Universitat Potsdam; AlemaniaFil: Steegen, Sara. Katholikie Universiteit Leuven; BélgicaFil: Thiessen, Erik D.. University of Carnegie Mellon; Estados UnidosFil: Thomas, Laura E.. North Dakota State University; Estados UnidosFil: Trott, Sean. University of California at San Diego; Estados UnidosFil: Vandekerckhove, Joachim. University of California at Irvine; Estados UnidosFil: Vanpaeme, Wolf. Katholikie Universiteit Leuven; BélgicaFil: Vlachou, Maria. Katholikie Universiteit Leuven; BélgicaFil: Williams, Kristina. Texas A&m University Commerce; Estados UnidosFil: Ziv Crispel, Noam. BehavioralSight; Estados Unido

Diverse Large HIV-1 Non-subtype B Clusters Are Spreading Among Men Who Have Sex With Men in Spain

In Western Europe, the HIV-1 epidemic among men who have sex with men (MSM) is dominated by subtype B. However, recently, other genetic forms have been reported to circulate in this population, as evidenced by their grouping in clusters predominantly comprising European individuals. Here we describe four large HIV-1 non-subtype B clusters spreading among MSM in Spain. Samples were collected in 9 regions. A pol fragment was amplified from plasma RNA or blood-extracted DNA. Phylogenetic analyses were performed via maximum likelihood, including database sequences of the same genetic forms as the identified clusters. Times and locations of the most recent common ancestors (MRCA) of clusters were estimated with a Bayesian method. Five large non-subtype B clusters associated with MSM were identified. The largest one, of F1 subtype, was reported previously. The other four were of CRF02_AG (CRF02_1; n = 115) and subtypes A1 (A1_1; n = 66), F1 (F1_3; n = 36), and C (C_7; n = 17). Most individuals belonging to them had been diagnosed of HIV-1 infection in the last 10 years. Each cluster comprised viruses from 3 to 8 Spanish regions and also comprised or was related to viruses from other countries: CRF02_1 comprised a Japanese subcluster and viruses from 8 other countries from Western Europe, Asia, and South America; A1_1 comprised viruses from Portugal, United Kingom, and United States, and was related to the A1 strain circulating in Greece, Albania and Cyprus; F1_3 was related to viruses from Romania; and C_7 comprised viruses from Portugal and was related to a virus from Mozambique. A subcluster within CRF02_1 was associated with heterosexual transmission. Near full-length genomes of each cluster were of uniform genetic form. Times of MRCAs of CRF02_1, A1_1, F1_3, and C_7 were estimated around 1986, 1989, 2013, and 1983, respectively. MRCA locations for CRF02_1 and A1_1 were uncertain (however initial expansions in Spain in Madrid and Vigo, respectively, were estimated) and were most probable in Bilbao, Spain, for F1_3 and Portugal for C_7. These results show that the HIV-1 epidemic among MSM in Spain is becoming increasingly diverse through the expansion of diverse non-subtype B clusters, comprising or related to viruses circulating in other countries

Absence of posture-dependent and posture-congruent memory effects on the recall of action sentences.

In two experiments with large samples of participants, we explored contextual memory effects associated with body posture, which was considered a physical and proprioceptive context and, therefore, potentially relevant to the encoding and retrieval of information. In Experiment 1 (N = 128), we studied the effect of context dependence on memory by manipulating the body posture adopted by the participants during the incidental encoding and subsequent recall of a series of action sentences not intrinsically associated with particular body postures (e.g., "to put on a pair of glasses", "to look at a postcard"). Memory performance was not affected by context manipulation, as reflected by the absence of significant differences between remembering while in the posture adopted at study or in a different posture. Experiment 2 (N = 85) was designed to analyze context congruency memory effects, and for that purpose we manipulated the participants' body posture during the recall of sentences that described actions usually performed in body postures that were congruent or incongruent with the posture of the participants (e.g., recalling the sentence "to travel by taxi" while sitting or while standing). A content-neutral posture (lying) was used for the incidental encoding phase. Memory performance was not affected by contextual congruency at the time of recall, as evidenced by the lack of significant differences between recalling in a posture congruent with the content to be recalled and recalling in an alternative posture. Bayesian analyses supported the strength of null findings in the two experiments, adding to the evidence that, when taken together, the results in this study clearly failed to show contextual memory effects of body posture on the recall of action-related verbal statements