Corrigendum: Reduced mu power in response to unusual actions is context-dependent in 1-year-olds

During social interactions infants predict and evaluate other people’s actions. Previous behavioral research found that infants’ imitation of others’ actions depends on these evaluations and is context-dependent: 1-year-olds predominantly imitated an unusual action (turning on a lamp with one’s forehead) when the model’s hands were free compared to when the model’s hands were occupied or restrained. In the present study, we adapted this behavioral paradigm to a neurophysiological study measuring infants’ brain activity while observing usual and unusual actions via electroencephalography. In particular, we measured differences in mu power (6 – 8 Hz) associated with motor activation. In a between-subjects design, 12- to 14-month-old infants watched videos of adult models demonstrating that their hands were either free or restrained. Subsequent test frames showed the models turning on a lamp or a soundbox by using their head or their hand. Results in the hands-free condition revealed that 12- to 14-month-olds displayed a reduction of mu power in frontal regions in response to unusual and thus unexpected actions (head touch) compared to usual and expected actions (hand touch). This may be explained by increased motor activation required for updating prior action predictions in response to unusual actions though alternative explanations in terms of general attention or cognitive control processes may also be considered. In the hands-restrained condition, responses in mu frequency band did not differ between action outcomes. This implies that unusual head-touch actions compared to hand-touch actions do not necessarily evoke a reduction of mu power. Thus, we conclude that reduction of mu frequency power is context-dependent during infants’ action perception. Our results are interpreted in terms of motor system activity measured via changes in mu frequency band as being one important neural mechanism involved in action prediction and evaluation from early on

Time reversal in thermoacoustic tomography - an error estimate

The time reversal method in thermoacoustic tomography is used for approximating the initial pressure inside a biological object using measurements of the pressure wave made on a surface surrounding the object. This article presents error estimates for the time reversal method in the cases of variable, non-trapping sound speeds.Comment: 16 pages, 6 figures, expanded "Remarks and Conclusions" section, added one figure, added reference

Consciousness, Action Selection, Meaning and Phenomenic Anticipation

Phenomenal states are generally considered the ultimate sources of intrinsic motivation for autonomous biological agents. In this article, we will address the issue of the necessity of exploiting these states for the design and implementation of robust goal-directed artificial systems. We will provide an analysis of consciousness in terms of a precise definition of how an agent "understands" the informational flows entering the agent and its very own action possibilities. This abstract model of consciousness and understanding will be based in the analysis and evaluation of phenomenal states along potential future trajectories in the state space of the agents. This implies that a potential strategy to follow in order to build autonomous but still customer-useful systems is to embed them with the particular, ad hoc phenomenality that captures the system-external requirements that define the system usefulness from a customer-based, requirements-strict engineering viewpoint

Die reduktive Erklärbarkeit des phänomenalen Bewusstseins - C.D. Broad zur Erklärungslücke

Beckermann A. Die reduktive Erklärbarkeit des phänomenalen Bewusstseins - C.D. Broad zur Erklärungslücke. In: Pauen M, Stephan A, eds. Phänomenales Bewußtsein - Rückkehr zur Identitätstheorie?. Paderborn: mentis; 2002: 122-147

BLOOD FLOW MEASUREMENTS WITH THE PULSED DOPPLER METHOD IN NORMAL AND SMALL-FOR-DATE FETUSES AND FETUSES TREATED WITH TOCOLYTIC SUBSTANCES IN THE LAST TRIMENON

Peer Reviewe

12- to 14-month-olds expect unconstrained agents to act efficiently: Event-related potential (ERP) evidence from the head-touch paradigm

Behavioral research has shown that 12- but not 9-month-olds imitate an unusual and inefficient action (turning on a lamp with one's forehead) more when the model's hands are free. Rational-imitation accounts suggest that infants evaluate actions based on the rationality principle, that is, they expect people to choose efficient means to achieve a goal. Accordingly, infants' expectations should be violated when observing inefficient actions. However, this has yet to be clearly tested. Here, we conducted three electrophysiological experiments to assess infants' neural indices of violation of expectation (VOE) when observing hand- and head-touch actions. We presented infants with video sequences showing a model whose hands were either free (Experiments 1 and 3) or restrained (Experiment 2). Subsequent images depicted a person turning on a lamp or a toy soundbox using her hand or head. We analyzed the Negative central (Nc) component, associated with the amount of attentional engagement, and the N400 component, reflecting semantic violations. In line with rational-imitation accounts, results revealed that 12- to 14-month-olds (Experiment 1) but not 9-month-olds (Experiment 3) were surprised while observing an inefficient, hands-free, head touch, as indicated by an increased Nc amplitude and an N400-like component. In contrast, infants did not show differences in our measures of VOE between head- and hand-touch outcomes when the model's hands were restrained (Experiment 2). Thus, we suggest that 12- to 14-month-olds incorporate the action context when evaluating action outcomes

Ontogeny of sensorimotor gating and short-term memory processing throughout the adolescent period in rats

Adolescence and puberty are highly susceptible developmental periods during which the neuronal organization and maturation of the brain is completed. The endocannabinoid (eCB) system, which is well known to modulate cognitive processing, undergoes profound and transient developmental changes during adolescence. With the present study we were aiming to examine the ontogeny of cognitive skills throughout adolescence in male rats and clarify the potential modulatory role of CB1 receptor signalling. Cognitive skills were assessed repeatedly every 10th day in rats throughout adolescence. All animals were tested for object recognition memory and prepulse inhibition of the acoustic startle reflex. Although cognitive performance in short-term memory as well as sensorimotor gating abilities were decreased during puberty compared to adulthood, both tasks were found to show different developmental trajectories throughout adolescence. A low dose of the CB1 receptor antagonist/inverse agonist SR141716 was found to improve recognition memory specifically in pubertal animals while not affecting behavioral performance at other ages tested. The present findings demonstrate that the developmental trajectory of cognitive abilities does not occur linearly for all cognitive processes and is strongly influenced by pubertal maturation. Developmental alterations within the eCB system at puberty onset may be involved in these changes in cognitive processing. Keywords: Cognition, Adolescence, Ontogeny, Puberty, CB1 receptor, Ra