Marking the counterfactual: ERP evidence for pragmatic processing of German subjunctives

Counterfactual conditionals are frequently used in language to express potentially valid reasoning from factually false suppositions. Counterfactuals provide two pieces of information: their literal meaning expresses a suppositional dependency between an antecedent (If the dice had been rigged…) and a consequent (… then the game would have been unfair). Their second, backgrounded meaning refers to the opposite state of affairs and suggests that, in fact, the dice were not rigged and the game was fair. Counterfactual antecedents are particularly intriguing because they set up a counterfactual world which is known to be false, but which is nevertheless kept to when evaluating the conditional's consequent. In the last years several event-related potential (ERP) studies have targeted the processing of counterfactual consequents, yet counterfactual antecedents have remained unstudied. We present an EEG/ERP investigation which employed German conditionals to compare subjunctive mood (which marks counterfactuality) with indicative mood at the critical point of mood disambiguation via auxiliary introduction in the conditional's antecedent. Conditional sentences were presented visually one word at a time. Participants completed an acceptability judgment and probe detection task which was not related to the critical manipulation of linguistic mood. ERPs at the point of mood disambiguation in the antecedent were compared between indicative and subjunctive. Our main finding is a transient negative deflection in frontal regions for subjunctive compared to indicative mood in a time-window of 450–600 ms. We discuss this novel finding in respect to working memory requirements for rule application and increased referential processing demands for the representation of counterfactuals' dual meaning. Our result suggests that the counterfactually implied dual meaning is processed without any delay at the earliest point where counterfactuality is marked by subjunctive mood

Comparative analysis of artificial and natural plantations in the Kurdjipsky subdivision of Maikop forest area in Republic of Adygea

The Republic of Adygea is one of the southern entities located in the northwestern part of the North Caucasus. The northern part of the republic stretches across the Kuban lowlands and the southern part along the slopes of the Greater Caucasus. Climatic conditions are favourable for the growth of heat-loving woody and shrub vegetation. The area covered by forests is 285.7 thousand hectares, including 278.4 thousand hectares covered by forests. The forests of the republic are distributed unevenly; most of the forests are concentrated in the piedmont and mountainous areas. The main forest-forming species are oriental beech and English oak. The forests of the Republic have an important water and soil protection function. The area of forests is insignificant, more widespread are forest shelter belts and boles scattered among the fields, often confined to river valleys, reservoirs, and low-lying places. Plantings include English oak, common ash, Caucasian hornbeam, field maple, poplar, willow, grey alder and black alder. Plantations located in forest shelter belts perform water protection, water protection, sanitary-hygienic, and aesthetic functions [1]. The work provides a comparative analysis of plantations of natural and artificial origin of the same age, growing in the same forest and vegetation conditions

ParaHox gene expression in larval and postlarval development of the polychaete Nereis virens (Annelida, Lophotrochozoa).

RIGHTS : This article is licensed under the BioMed Central licence at http://www.biomedcentral.com/about/license which is similar to the 'Creative Commons Attribution Licence'. In brief you may : copy, distribute, and display the work; make derivative works; or make commercial use of the work - under the following conditions: the original author must be given credit; for any reuse or distribution, it must be made clear to others what the license terms of this work are.BACKGROUND: Transcription factors that encode ANTP-class homeobox genes play crucial roles in determining the body plan organization and specification of different organs and tissues in bilaterian animals. The three-gene ParaHox family descends from an ancestral gene cluster that existed before the evolution of the Bilateria. All three ParaHox genes are reported from deuterostomes and lophotrochozoans, but not to date from any ecdysozoan taxa, and there is evidence that the ParaHox genes, like the related Hox genes, were ancestrally a single chromosomal cluster. However, unlike the Hox genes, there is as yet no strong evidence that the ParaHox genes are expressed in spatial and temporal order during embryogenesis. RESULTS: We isolated fragments of the three Nereis virens ParaHox genes, then used these as probes for whole-mount in situ hybridization in larval and postlarval worms. In Nereis virens the ParaHox genes participate in antero-posterior patterning of ectodermal and endodermal regions of the digestive tract and are expressed in some cells in the segment ganglia. The expression of these genes occurs in larval development in accordance with the position of these cells along the main body axis and in postlarval development in accordance with the position of cells in ganglia along the antero-posterior axis of each segment. In none of these tissues does expression of the three ParaHox genes follow the rule of temporal collinearity. CONCLUSION: In Nereis virens the ParaHox genes are expressed during antero-posterior patterning of the digestive system (ectodermal foregut and hindgut, and endodermal midgut) of Nereis virens. These genes are also expressed during axial specification of ventral neuroectodermal cell domains, where the expression domains of each gene are re-iterated in each neuromere except for the first parapodial segment. These expression domains are probably predetermined and may be directed on the antero-posterior axis by the Hox genes, whose expression starts much earlier during embryogenesis. Our results support the hypothesis that the ParaHox genes are involved in antero-posterior patterning of the developing embryo, but they do not support the notion that these genes function only in the patterning of endodermal tissues

Learning from informative losses boosts the sense of agency

Sense of agency, the feeling of having control over one's actions, is modulated by whether one's choices lead to desired or undesired outcomes. Learning similarly depends on outcome values from previous experience. In the current study, we evaluate a possible link between the sense of agency and learning, by investigating how intentional binding, an implicit measure of agency, changes during a probabilistic learning task. In two experiments, we show increased intentional binding in trials that follow losses, compared with trials that follow wins. Experiment 1 demonstrated that this post-error agency boost (PEAB) effect is rule-specific, as it did not occur if the trial following an error involved different action-outcome contingencies. Furthermore, PEAB was not modulated by the type of outcome presentation (monetary vs. affective). Experiment 2 showed that the PEAB effect can also occur when the current action involves a forced (as opposed to free) choice, but only when the previous, loss-provoking action was chosen freely. Thus, PEAB occurs when current actions are informed by outcomes of one's own previous action choices. Electroencephalography (EEG) data linked these effects to two event-related potential components, namely, the Feedback Related Negativity and the P300. Taken together, these results support the notion that PEAB reflects an adaptive property of human sense of agency, facilitating effective learning about the action-outcome structure of a specific task, to optimise future performance. By clarifying the conditions for enhancing the sense of agency through learning, this work adds to our understanding of human learning and agency

Optimization of the serving and repair cycle during the lifetime of the bus

The problem of maintenance and repair of the bus cycle in the servi-be for his life, which indicates the possibility of improvement and development of subjects ", mainte- nance and repair of vehicles"

Processing counterfactual and hypothetical conditionals: An fMRI investigation

Counterfactual thinking is ubiquitous in everyday life and an important aspect of cognition and emotion. Although counterfactual thought has been argued to differ from processing factual or hypothetical information, imaging data which elucidate these differences on a neural level are still scarce. We investigated the neural correlates of processing counterfactual sentences under visual and aural presentation. We compared conditionals in subjunctive mood which explicitly contradicted previously presented facts (i.e. counterfactuals) to conditionals framed in indicative mood which did not contradict factual world knowledge and thus conveyed a hypothetical supposition. Our results show activation in right occipital cortex (cuneus) and right basal ganglia (caudate nucleus) during counterfactual sentence processing. Importantly the occipital activation is not only present under visual presentation but also with purely auditory stimulus presentation, precluding a visual processing artifact. Thus our results can be interpreted as reflecting the fact that counterfactual conditionals pragmatically imply the relevance of keeping in mind both factual and supposed information whereas the hypothetical conditionals imply that real world information is irrelevant for processing the conditional and can be omitted. The need to sustain representations of factual and suppositional events during counterfactual sentence processing requires increased mental imagery and integration efforts. Our findings are compatible with predictions based on mental model theory

Optimization of the serving and repair cycle during the lifetime of the bus

The problem of maintenance and repair of the bus cycle in the servi-be for his life, which indicates the possibility of improvement and development of subjects ", mainte- nance and repair of vehicles"

Issue activity of subjects of the russian federation and municipalities: Tendencies of the beginning of the XXI century

© 2014, Mediterranean Center of Social and Educational Research. All rights reserved. The article is devoted to research of practice of issue of the state securities of the subjects of the Russian Federation and securities of municipalities during the period from 2000 to 2014. The work purpose – research of dynamics of issue activity of subjects of the Russian Federation and municipalities, definition of the tendencies which have developed for the analyzed period in issue activity. The group of territorial subjects of the Russian Federation - issuers of the state bonds on the degree of investment activity was carried out, the directions of use of means from issue of bonds are allocated. Besides, suggestions for improvement of practice of the issue activity of regional and municipal authorities are made