Brain-behavior relationships in incidental learning of non-native phonetic categories

Available online 12 September 2019.Research has implicated the left inferior frontal gyrus (LIFG) in mapping acoustic-phonetic input to sound category representations, both in native speech perception and non-native phonetic category learning. At issue is whether this sensitivity reflects access to phonetic category information per se or to explicit category labels, the latter often being required by experimental procedures. The current study employed an incidental learning paradigm designed to increase sensitivity to a difficult non-native phonetic contrast without inducing explicit awareness of the categorical nature of the stimuli. Functional MRI scans revealed frontal sensitivity to phonetic category structure both before and after learning. Additionally, individuals who succeeded most on the learning task showed the largest increases in frontal recruitment after learning. Overall, results suggest that processing novel phonetic category information entails a reliance on frontal brain regions, even in the absence of explicit category labels.This research was supported by NIH grant R01 DC013064 to EBM and NIH NIDCD Grant R01 DC006220 to SEB. The authors thank F. Sayako Earle for assistance with stimulus development; members of the Language and Brain lab for help with data collection and their feedback throughout the project; Elisa Medeiros for assistance with collection of fMRI data; Paul Taylor for assistance with neuroimaging analyses; and attendees of the 2016 Meeting of the Psychonomic Society and the 2017 Meeting of the Society for Neurobiology of Language for helpful feedback on this project. We also extend thanks to two anonymous reviewers for helpful feedback on a previous version of this manuscript

Generación de una nueva fuente de tolerancia a herbicidas IMI mediante radiación gamma en trigo pan (T. aestivum L.)

El Laboratorio de Calidad Industrial de Granos ubicado en Barrow (Convenio INTA-MDA), Buenos Aires brinda apoyo a los Programas de Mejoramiento (PM) públicos y privados analizando líneas desde las primeras generaciones hasta aquellas que son promisorias para la presentación de legajos ante el Registro Nacional de Cultivares. Con 58 años de actividad es Laboratorio Oficial, referente zonal y nacional evaluando calidad comercial e industrial de cereales y oleaginosas. Anualmente se analizan más de 6000 muestras que incluyen diferentes cultivos, etapas del mejoramiento y prácticas de manejo. Para el análisis del trigo candeal es único en el país con equipos y metodologías adecuados para la selección de líneas en las distintas generaciones de acuerdo a lo requerido por la industria. En el centro sur bonaerense fue pionero en generar información sobre el comportamiento de los cultivares comerciales de trigo pan considerando la procedencia. Como parte de la articulación con la cadena productiva cumple servicios de asesoramiento, analizando la calidad de la materia prima de numerosas empresas ligadas a la segunda transformación. El trabajo conjunto entre INTA y MDA permite que la transferencia a productores y asesores se logre amplificar en jornadas y publicaciones sobre distintos tópicos de calidad. También participa en aéreas de investigación mediante convenios con universidades e institutos nacionales e internacionales incluyendo la formación de recursos humanos. La aplicación desde 2008 del Sistema de Gestión de la Calidad basado en Norma ISO 17025 asegura que los resultados emitidos sean comparables con cualquier otro laboratorio, valorizando la labor realizada

Impairments in Attention in Occasionally Snoring Children: An Event-Related Potential Study

Objective—To determine whether minimal snoring is benign in children. Procedure—22 rarely snoring children (mean age=6.9 years, 11 females) and age- and sexmatched controls participated in an auditory oddball task wearing 128-electrode nets. Parents completed Conner’s Parent Rating Scales-Revised Long (CPRS-R:L). Results—Snorers scored significantly higher on 4 CPRS-R:L subscales. Stepwise regression indicated that two ERP variables from a region of the ERP that peaked at 844 ms post-stimulus onset predicted CPRS-R:L ADHD Index scores. Conclusions—Occasional snorers according to parental report do exhibit ADHD-like behaviors. Basic sensory processing is longer than in controls, suggesting that delayed frontal activation requires more effort in snorers

Impairments in attention in occasionally snoring children: An event-related potential study.

Objective: To determine whether minimal snoring is benign in children. Procedure: 22 rarely snoring children (mean age = 6.9 years, 11 females) and age- and sex-matched controls participated in an auditory oddball task wearing 128-electrode nets. Parents completed the Conners Parent Rating Scales–Revised Long (CPRS–R:L). Results: Snorers scored significantly higher on four CPRS-R:L subscales. Stepwise regression indicated that two ERP variables from a region of the ERP that peaked at 844 msec post-stimulus onset predicted CPRS-R:L Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) Index scores. Conclusions: Occasional snorers, according to parental report, do exhibit ADHD-like behaviors. Basic sensory processing is longer than in controls, suggesting that delayed frontal activation requires more effort in snorers

Impairments in Attention in Occasionally Snoring Children: An Event-Related Potential Study

Objective—To determine whether minimal snoring is benign in children. Procedure—22 rarely snoring children (mean age=6.9 years, 11 females) and age- and sexmatched controls participated in an auditory oddball task wearing 128-electrode nets. Parents completed Conner’s Parent Rating Scales-Revised Long (CPRS-R:L). Results—Snorers scored significantly higher on 4 CPRS-R:L subscales. Stepwise regression indicated that two ERP variables from a region of the ERP that peaked at 844 ms post-stimulus onset predicted CPRS-R:L ADHD Index scores. Conclusions—Occasional snorers according to parental report do exhibit ADHD-like behaviors. Basic sensory processing is longer than in controls, suggesting that delayed frontal activation requires more effort in snorers

MEDUSA: Observation of atmospheric dust and water vapor close to the surface of Mars

Background: The study of airborne dust and water vapor properties at the Martian surface level is an important task for the achievement of some of the primary scientific goals of Mars exploration: to study the water cycle and present / past habitability, climate history and hazardous conditions. Method: The MEDUSA instrument has been designed for the direct in situ measurement of dust and water vapor properties, such as dust size distribution, number density, deposition rate and electrification, and water vapor abundance. Conclusion: The MEDUSA instrument reached a Technical Readiness Level > 5 within the ESA ExoMars mission development and it is well suited to be accommodated on landers and rovers for Mars exploration

Neurochemistry Predicts Convergence of Written and Spoken Language: A Proton Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy Study of Cross-Modal Language Integration

Recent studies have provided evidence of associations between neurochemistry and reading (dis)ability (Pugh et al., 2014). Based on a long history of studies indicating that fluent reading entails the automatic convergence of the written and spoken forms of language and our recently proposed Neural Noise Hypothesis (Hancock et al., 2017), we hypothesized that individual differences in cross-modal integration would mediate, at least partially, the relationship between neurochemical concentrations and reading. Cross-modal integration was measured in 231 children using a two-alternative forced choice cross-modal matching task with three language conditions (letters, words, and pseudowords) and two levels of difficulty within each language condition. Neurometabolite concentrations of Choline (Cho), Glutamate (Glu), gamma-Aminobutyric (GABA), and N- acetyl-aspartate (NAA) were then measured in a subset of this sample (n = 70) with Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy (MRS). A structural equation mediation model revealed that the effect of cross-modal word matching mediated the relationship between increased Glu (which has been proposed to be an index of neural noise) and poorer reading ability. In addition, the effect of cross-modal word matching fully mediated a relationship between increased Cho and poorer reading ability. Multilevel mixed effects models confirmed that lower Cho predicted faster cross-modal matching reaction time, specifically in the hard word condition. These Cho findings are consistent with previous work in both adults and children showing a negative association between Cho and reading ability. We also found two novel neurochemical relationships. Specifically, lower GABA and higher NAA predicted faster cross-modal matching reaction times. We interpret these results within a biochemical framework in which the ability of neurochemistry to predict reading ability may at least partially be explained by cross-modal integration