Graph Theoretic Features of the Adult Mental Lexicon Predict Language Production in Mandarin: Clustering Coefficient

Department of Chinese and Bilingual StudiesRefereed conference pape

Lexical competition between words, the body, and in social interaction Noise Ratios Task design Dependent Variables

International audienceObjective: To differentiate the effect of compounding demands, both corporal and social, on a cognitive task requiring the retrieval of competing lexical items in speech production.Methods: Three experimental groups of adults (ages 18-35) were recruited to complete one of three tasks followed by a questionnaire designed to measure emotion contagion. Experiment 1 had participants in a sitting position to complete a picture naming task. The task consisted of 500 test pictures that included groups of visuo-semantic neighbors (e.g., deer, elk, and antelope) that would lead to greater lexical competition as seen in spoken errors and/or reduced reaction times. A signal-to-noise ratio, known as 1/f noise, was calculated from the picture naming reaction times and used as a descriptor of individual differences. In Experiment 2, participants performed the picture naming task while standing. A 1/f noise ratio was calculated for each participants’ movement tracked online using a Microsoft Kinect. In Experiment 3 participants performed the picture naming task while standing in the same room as an experimenter that recorded the participants’ errors as they were being made. Results: Spoken errors and slower reaction times increased with task complexity, as did the randomness (i.e., white noise) of the 1/f noise ratio. Participants that experienced less lexical competition, succeeded in maintaining greater periodicity (i.e., pink noise) within their 1/f noise ratio for both picture naming reaction times and bodily movement. Participants more susceptible to emotion contagion, as measured in the questionnaire, were more likely to compound the effect of lexical competition in Experiment 3 due to the presence of the experimenter.Conclusion: The ability to control cognitive demands lessons as complexity increases due to online maintenance of cognitive, corporal and social cues. Cognitive control can be seen in those participants able to maintain periodicity within their responses to external stimuli

Facial Expressions of Sentence Comprehension

International audienceUnderstanding facial expressions allows access to one's intentional and affective states. Using the findings in psychology and neuroscience, in which physical behaviors of the face are linked to emotional states, this paper aims to study sentence comprehension shown by facial expressions. In our experiments, participants took part in a roughly 30-minute computer mediated task, where they were asked to answer either "true" or "false" to knowledge-based questions, then immediately given feedback of "correct" or "incorrect". Their faces, which were recorded during the task using the Kinect v2 device, are later used to identify the level of comprehension shown by their expressions. To achieve this, the SVM and Random Forest classifiers with facial appearance information extracted using a spatiotemporal local descriptor, named LPQ-TOP, are employed. Results of online sentence comprehension show that facial dynamics are promising to help understand cognitive states of the mind

Cannabis use in male and female first episode of non-affective psychosis patients: long-term clinical, neuropsychological and functional differences

BACKGROUND: Numerous studies show the existence of a high prevalence of cannabis use among patients with psychosis. However, the differences between men and women who debut with a first episode of psychosis (FEP) regarding cannabis use have not been largely explored. The aim of this study was to identify the specific sex factors and differences in clinical evolution associated with cannabis use. METHOD: Sociodemographic characteristics at baseline were considered in our sample of FEP patients to find differences depending on sex and the use of cannabis. Clinical, functional and neurocognitive variables at baseline, 1-year, and 3-years follow-up were also explored. RESULTS: A total of 549 patients, of whom 43% (N = 236) were cannabis users, 79% (N = 186) male and 21% (N = 50) female, were included in the study. There was a clear relationship between being male and being a user of cannabis (OR = 5.6). Cannabis users were younger at illness onset. Longitudinal analysis showed that women significantly improved in all three dimensions of psychotic symptoms, both in the subgroup of cannabis users and in the non-users subgroup. Conversely, subgroups of men did not show improvement in the negative dimension. In cognitive function, only men presented a significant time by group interaction in processing speed, showing a greater improvement in the subgroup of cannabis users. CONCLUSION: Despite knowing that there is a relationship between cannabis use and psychosis, due to the high prevalence of cannabis use among male FEP patients, the results showed that there were very few differences in clinical and neurocognitive outcomes between men and women who used cannabis at the start of treatment compared to those who did not

A family study on first episode of psychosis patients: exploring neuropsychological performance as an endophenotype

Introduction: Family studies provide a suitable approach to analyzing candidate endophenotypes of schizophrenia, including cognitive features. Objective: To characterize different neurocognitive functions in a group of patients with first episode of psychosis (FEP), their first-degree relatives (parents and siblings), and healthy controls (HC), in order to identify potential endophenotypes for schizophrenia spectrum disorders (SSD). Methods: Participants were assessed in the context of a national project in Spain called PAFIP-FAMILIAS. They completed the same neuropsychological battery, which included tests of verbal memory, visual memory, processing speed, working memory, executive functions, motor dexterity, attention, and theory of mind. Group comparisons were performed using one-way ANOVA, followed by tests of multiple comparisons when appropriate. Results: One hundred thirty-three FEP patients were included, as well as 244 of their first-degree relatives (146 parents and 98 siblings) and 202 HC. In general, relatives showed an intermediate performance between the HC and the FEP patients in all neurocognitive domains. However, the domains of executive functions and attention stood out, as relatives (especially parents) showed similar performance to FEP patients. This was replicated when selecting patients subsequently diagnosed with schizophrenia and their relatives. Conclusion: These findings suggest that executive and attention dysfunctions might have a family aggregation and could be relevant cognitive endophenotypes for psychotic disorders. The study shows the potential of exploring intra-family neuropsychological performance supporting neurobiological and genetic research in SSD.Funding information: Instituto de Salud Carlos III; Fundación Marqués de Valdecilla; Universidad de Cantabria Acknowledgments: The authors wish to thank the PAFIP-FAMILIAS research team, and especially all the patients and their relatives who participated in the study. The PAFIP-FAMILIAS project received funding from the Carlos III Health Institute (FIS PI17/00221). Additionally, this work was supported by a Miguel Servet contract from the Carlos III Health Institute (Dr. Rosa Ayesa-Arriola) (CP18/00003), and a predoctoral contract (Nancy Murillo-Garcia) from the Valdecilla Biomedical Research Institute and the University of Cantabria (BOC49, REF. IDI-13)

Intelligence quotient changes over 10 years: Diversity of cognitive profiles in first episode of psychosis and healthy controls

Objective: This study aimed to analyse whether intelligence quotient (IQ) improves, declines, or remains stable over 10 years among FEP patients and healthy subjects. Methods: A group of FEP patients enrolled in a Program of First Episode Psychosis in Spain called PAFIP, and a sample of Healthy Controls (HC) completed the same neuropsychological battery at baseline and approximately 10 years later, which included the WAIS vocabulary subtest to estimate premorbid IQ and 10-year IQ. Cluster analysis was performed separately in the patient group and the HC group to determine their profiles of intellectual change. Results: One hundred and thirty-seven FEP patients were grouped into five clusters: "Improved low IQ" (9.49 % of patients), "Improved average IQ" (14.6 %), "Preserved low IQ" (17.52 %), "Preserved average IQ" (43.06 %), and "Preserved high IQ" (15.33 %). Ninety HC were grouped into three clusters: "Preserved low IQ" (32.22 % of the HC), "Preserved average IQ" (44.44 %), and "Preserved high IQ" (23.33 %). The first two clusters of FEP patients, characterized by a low IQ, earlier age at illness onset, and lower educational attainment, showed a substantial cognitive improvement. The remaining clusters demonstrated cognitive stability. Conclusions: The FEP patients showed intellectual improvement or stability, but no decline post-onset of psychosis. However, their profiles of intellectual change are more heterogeneous than that of HC over 10 years. Particularly, there is a subgroup of FEP patients with a significant potential for long-term cognitive enhancementFunding: This work was supported by a Miguel Servet contract (Dr. Rosa Ayesa-Arriola) from the Carlos III Health Institute (CP18/00003); a “Juan de la Cierva-Formación” contract (Dr. Esther Setién-Suero) from the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (FJC2019-042390-I/AEI/10.13039/501100011033); and a predoctoral contract (Nancy Murillo-Garcia) from the Valdecilla Biomedical Research Institute and the University of Cantabria (BOC49, REF. IDI-13). Acknowledgements: We acknowledge the collaboration of all members of the PAFIP team and thank the patients and their families for their participation in the stud

Exploring the impact of COVID-19 on newborn neurodevelopment: a pilot study.

The COVID-19 pandemic can seize the opportunity to explore the hypothesis of prenatal exposure to viral infections increases the risk for neurodevelopmental disorders. Advancing our knowledge in this regard would improve primary prevention of mental disorders in children. For this pilot study, six-week-old infants born to mothers exposed (n = 21) or unexposed (n = 21) to severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) were assessed in Santander-Cantabria (Spain) using the Neonatal Behavioral Assessment Scale (NBAS). Groups comparisons were performed to explore the effects that infection and timing of exposure (in terms of the three trimesters of pregnancy). The infants' competencies and performances on the NBAS were generally similar in the exposed and unexposed to SARS-CoV-2 groups. The most significant difference found was a less optimally response to cuddliness (item on the state regulation domain) particularly in infants born to mothers exposed in the third trimester of pregnancy, and in pull-to-sit (item on the motor system domain). Although our interpretations must be careful, these preliminary results highlight the possible association between prenatal SARS-CoV-2 exposure and poorer development in motor skills and infant interactive behavior. Further longitudinal studies are needed to explore these relationships and disentangle the biological mechanisms implicated

Effectiveness of bio-effectors on maize, wheat and tomato performance and phosphorus acquisition from greenhouse to field scales in Europe and Israel: a meta-analysis

Biostimulants (Bio-effectors, BEs) comprise plant growth-promoting microorganisms and active natural substances that promote plant nutrient-acquisition, stress resilience, growth, crop quality and yield. Unfortunately, the effectiveness of BEs, particularly under field conditions, appears highly variable and poorly quantified. Using random model meta-analyses tools, we summarize the effects of 107 BE treatments on the performance of major crops, mainly conducted within the EU-funded project BIOFECTOR with a focus on phosphorus (P) nutrition, over five years. Our analyses comprised 94 controlled pot and 47 field experiments under different geoclimatic conditions, with variable stress levels across European countries and Israel. The results show an average growth/yield increase by 9.3% (n=945), with substantial differences between crops (tomato > maize > wheat) and growth conditions (controlled nursery + field (Seed germination and nursery under controlled conditions and young plants transplanted to the field) > controlled > field). Average crop growth responses were independent of BE type, P fertilizer type, soil pH and plant-available soil P (water-P, Olsen-P or Calcium acetate lactate-P). BE effectiveness profited from manure and other organic fertilizers, increasing soil pH and presence of abiotic stresses (cold, drought/heat or salinity). Systematic meta-studies based on published literature commonly face the inherent problem of publication bias where the most suspected form is the selective publication of statistically significant results. In this meta-analysis, however, the results obtained from all experiments within the project are included. Therefore, it is free of publication bias. In contrast to reviews of published literature, our unique study design is based on a common standardized protocol which applies to all experiments conducted within the project to reduce sources of variability. Based on data of crop growth, yield and P acquisition, we conclude that application of BEs can save fertilizer resources in the future, but the efficiency of BE application depends on cropping systems and environments

Genome-wide meta-analysis of 241,258 adults accounting for smoking behaviour identifies novel loci for obesity traits

Few genome-wide association studies (GWAS) account for environmental exposures, like smoking, potentially impacting the overall trait variance when investigating the genetic contribution to obesity-related traits. Here, we use GWAS data from 51,080 current smokers and 190,178 nonsmokers (87% European descent) to identify loci influencing BMI and central adiposity, measured as waist circumference and waist-to-hip ratio both adjusted for BMI. We identify 23 novel genetic loci, and 9 loci with convincing evidence of gene-smoking interaction (GxSMK) on obesity-related traits. We show consistent direction of effect for all identified loci and significance for 18 novel and for 5 interaction loci in an independent study sample. These loci highlight novel biological functions, including response to oxidative stress, addictive behaviour, and regulatory functions emphasizing the importance of accounting for environment in genetic analyses. Our results suggest that tobacco smoking may alter the genetic susceptibility to overall adiposity and body fat distribution.Peer reviewe