Motor timing and covariation with time perception: investigating the role of handedness

Time is a fundamental dimension of our behavior and enables us to guide our actions and to experience time such as predicting collisions or listening to music. In this study, we investigate the regulation and covariation of motor timing and time perception functions in left- and right-handers who are characterized by distinct brain processing mechanisms for cognitive-motor control. To this purpose, we use a combination of tasks that assess the timed responses during movements and the perception of time intervals. The results showed a positive association across left- and right-handers between movement-driven timing and perceived interval duration when adopting a preferred tempo, suggesting cross-domain coupling between both abilities when an intrinsic timescale is present. Handedness guided motor timing during externally-driven conditions that required cognitive intervention, which specifies the relevance of action expertise for the performance of timed-based motor activities. Overall, our results reveal that individual variation across domain-general and domain-specific levels of organization plays a steering role in how one predicts, perceives and experiences time, which accordingly impacts on cognition and behavior

Hearing Feelings: Affective Categorization of Music and Speech in Alexithymia, an ERP Study

Background: Alexithymia, a condition characterized by deficits in interpreting and regulating feelings, is a risk factor for a variety of psychiatric conditions. Little is known about how alexithymia influences the processing of emotions in music and speech. Appreciation of such emotional qualities in auditory material is fundamental to human experience and has profound consequences for functioning in daily life. We investigated the neural signature of such emotional processing in alexithymia by means of event-related potentials. Methodology: Affective music and speech prosody were presented as targets following affectively congruent or incongruent visual word primes in two conditions. In two further conditions, affective music and speech prosody served as primes and visually presented words with affective connotations were presented as targets. Thirty-two participants (16 male) judged the affective valence of the targets. We tested the influence of alexithymia on cross-modal affective priming and on N400 amplitudes, indicative of individual sensitivity to an affective mismatch between words, prosody, and music. Our results indicate that the affective priming effect for prosody targets tended to be reduced with increasing scores on alexithymia, while no behavioral differences were observed for music and word targets. At the electrophysiological level, alexithymia was associated with significantly smaller N400 amplitudes in response to affectively incongruent music and speech targets, but not to incongruent word targets. Conclusions: Our results suggest a reduced sensitivity for the emotional qualities of speech and music in alexithymia during affective categorization. This deficit becomes evident primarily in situations in which a verbalization of emotional information is required

The influence of individual differences on neural correlates of emotional and cognitive information processes

Moderne Mehr-Ebenen-Ansätze gehen davon aus, dass Emotionen auf unterschiedlichen Ebenen der Informationsverarbeitung und durch unterschiedliche Prozesse erzeugt werden. Im Rahmen des ‘dual memory model of emotion’ werden diese Prozesse als schematische (automatische) und propositionale (kontrollierte) Verarbeitungsprozesse bezeichnet. Darüber hinaus integriert das Modell Strategien zur Emotionsregulation, wie Aufmerksamkeitslenkung und semantische Elaborierung emotionaler Information. Über die zugrundeliegenden neuronalen Korrelate weiß man bisher allerdings noch wenig. Die vorliegende Arbeit konzentriert sich auf die Identifizierung behavioraler und neuronaler Korrelate der schematischen und propositionalen Verarbeitungsprozesse und wie diese durch interindividuelle Differenzen in der Affektivität und in der kognitiven Verarbeitung von Emotionen moduliert werden. Interindividuelle Differenzen im aktuellen negativen Affekt waren mit Aktivitätsveränderungen in der Insula während der schematischen Verarbeitung negativer Stimuli assoziiert. Dies kann als verstärkte Verarbeitung des hedonischen Wertes negativer Stimuli in Individuen mit hohem aktuellen negativen Affekt interpretiert werden. Interindividuelle Differenzen in der Zustandsangst und im kognitiven Verarbeiten von Emotionen modulierten behaviorale und neuronale Korrelate propositionaler Verarbeitungsprozesse. Hohe Zustandsangst und Schwierigkeiten im kognitiven Verarbeiten von Emotionen waren assoziiert mit erhöhtem kognitiven Aufwand, wenn der emotionale Gehalt der Stimuli ignoriert werden musste. Die neuronalen Befunde deuten darauf hin, dass für Individuen mit Schwierigkeiten im kognitiven Verarbeiten von Emotionen Aufmerksamkeitslenkung im Vergleich zu Elaborierung emotionaler Informationen eine weniger effektive Strategie zur Emotionsregulation darstellt.Modern multi-level theories claim that emotion may be generated by different ways using different processes. The dual memory model of emotion refers to these processes as schematic processing (automatic) and propositional processing (controlled). The model further integrates emotion regulatory strategies, such as re-direction of attention and emotional elaboration as essential components of emotion processing. However, research on the neurobiological correlates of the different processing modes is scarce. Hence, the present work focuses on the identification of behavioral and neural correlates of the hypothesized processing modes and how these are modulated by individual differences in affectivity and in the cognitive processing of emotions. Individual differences in state negative affect were associated with altered activity in the insula during schematic processing of negative emotional information. This may indicate increased processing of the hedonic dimension of aversive stimuli in individuals with high state negative affect. Individual differences in state anxiety and in the cognitive processing of emotions modulated behavioral and neural correlates of propositional processing of emotional information. Specifically, in individuals with high state anxiety and with difficulties to cognitively process emotions, re-direction of attention was associated with increased cognitive effort. Findings at the neural level indicate that re-direction of attention as compared to elaboration of emotional information may represent a less effective emotion regulatory strategy in individuals with difficulties to cognitively process emotions

Histoire de l'industrie sucrière dans la région du Nord, ses commencements, ses progrès, son état actuel, ses rapports avec l'agriculture

Société industrielle du nord de la France, n° "73 ter". Supplément au bulletin n° 73. Problème d'impression : les pages 193 à 208 se répètent tandis qu'il manque les pages 209 à 22

Les actions menées par les CAF en matière de logement indécent [Résultats d’une enquête réalisée en 2005 ]

Mériau-Farsat Françoise, Rastier Anne-Catherine, Lefèbvre Françoise, Barberousse Frédérique. Les actions menées par les CAF en matière de logement indécent [Résultats d’une enquête réalisée en 2005 ]. In: Recherches et Prévisions, n°88, 2007. pp. 105-109