Transitional probabilities are prioritized over stimulus/pattern probabilities in auditory deviance detection: Memory basis for predictive sound processing

Representations encoding the probabilities of auditory events do not directly support predictive processing. In contrast, information about the probability with which a given sound follows another (transitional probability) allows predictions of upcoming sounds. We tested whether behavioral and cortical auditory deviance detection (the latter indexed by the mismatch negativity event-related potential) relies on probabilities of sound patterns or on transitional probabilities. We presented healthy adult volunteers with three types of rare tone-triplets among frequent standard triplets of High-Low-High (HLH) or LHL pitch structure: proximity deviant (HHH/LLL), reversal deviant (LHL/HLH), and first-tone deviant (LLH/HHL). If deviance detection was based on pattern probability, reversal and first-tone deviants should be detected with similar latency because both differ from the standard at the first pattern position. If deviance detection was based on transitional probabilities, then reversal deviants should be the most difficult to detect, because, unlike the other two deviants, they contain no low-probability pitch transitions. The data clearly showed that both behavioral and cortical auditory deviance detection utilizes transitional probabilities. Thus the memory traces underlying cortical deviance detection may provide a link between stimulus-probability based change/novelty detectors operating at lower levels of the auditory system and higher auditory cognitive functions that involve predictive processing

出産経験別にみた日本人女性における産後のトラウマ症状とその関連要因の検証 : 縦断的観察研究

学位の種別: 課程博士審査委員会委員 : (主査)東京大学教授 山本 則子, 東京大学准教授 村山 陵子, 東京大学准教授 島津 明人, 東京大学教授 武藤 香織, 東京大学講師 永松 健University of Tokyo(東京大学

Reasons for Increased Caesarean Section Rate in Vietnam: A Qualitative Study among Vietnamese Mothers and Health Care Professionals.

The Caesarean section rate in urban Vietnam is 43% in 2014, which is more than twice the recommended rate (10%-15%) by the World Health Organization. This qualitative study aims to identify the perceptions of pregnant mothers and health care professionals on the medical and social factors related to the increased Caesarean section rate in Vietnam. A qualitative descriptive study was conducted among pregnant mothers and healthcare professionals at two public hospitals in Nha Trang city. A content analysis was adopted in order to identify social and medical factors. As a result, 29 pregnant women and 19 health care professionals were invited to participate in the qualitative interviews. Private interviews were conducted with 10 women who wished to have a Caesarean section, and the others participated in focus group interviews. The main themes of the social factors were 'request for Caesarean section,' 'mental strain of obstetricians,' and 'decision-making process.' To conclude, this qualitative study suggests that there were unnecessary caesarean sections without a clear medical indication, which were requested by women and family members. Psychological fear occurred among women and family, and doctors were the main determinants for driving the requests for Caesarean section, which implies that education and emotional encouragement is necessary by midwives. In addition, a multi-faced approach including a mandatory reporting system in clinical fields and involving family members in antenatal education is important

Detecting violations of temporal regularities in waking and sleeping two-month-old infants

Correctly processing rapid sequences of sounds is essential for developmental milestones, such as language acquisition. We investigated the sensitivity of two-month-old infants to violations of a temporal regularity, by recording event-related brain potentials (ERP) in an auditory oddball paradigm from 36 waking and 40 sleeping infants. Standard tones were presented at a regular 300 ms inter-stimulus interval (ISI). One deviant, otherwise identical to the standard, was preceded by a 100 ms ISI. Two other deviants, presented with the standard ISI, differed from the standard in their spectral makeup. We found significant differences between ERP responses elicited by the standard and each of the deviant sounds. The results suggest that the ability to extract both temporal and spectral regularities from a sound sequence is already functional within the first few months of life. The scalp distribution of all three deviant-stimulus responses was influenced by the infants‟ state of alertness

ノンネイティブ シンジン ニホンゴキョウシ ニ トッテ ノ ケンシュウ ノ イギ -PAC ブンセキ ニ ヨル タイジン シンジン ニホンゴキョウシ ノ ビリーフチョウサ カラ-

本稿では、2名のノンネイティブ(対人)新人日本語教師に対して研修期間の前後に「いい日本語教師像」を探るPAC分析を行い、インタビューに表れた教師のビリーフに関する語りがどのように変化したか、その変化に教師研修がどのように関わっているかを分析した。その結果、2名とも、研修で得たヒントを基に授業改善を行ったこと、その成否を学生の反応などから判断し、効果を上げたと捉えていること、今回の授業改善で満足せず、さらに学び続ける意欲を持っていること、研修前に共に持っていた問題意識が研修で刺激され、発展した可能性があることが明らかになった。さらに、自己研修型の教師養成を目指す研修では、教師のビリーフに働きかけ、参加者の問題意識を顕在化し、研修実施者・参加者間で共有していくこと、学んだことを実践し、結果をふり返る機会を作ること、継続的な研修参加を促すことが重要であることが示唆された。This paper analyzes two Thai novice Japanese-language teachers\u27 beliefs on "good Japanese-language teachers" using PAC analysis, to assess their change in beliefs after a training program. The paper makes it clear that both teachers:1) made improvements in their teaching practice, which were stimulated by what they learned during the program,2) observed their students\u27 responses, then evaluated their new lesson plans as effective, and3) were not totally satisfied with the improvements, and therefore showed motivation for more learning.It also points out the stimulation by the program may have increased the two teachers\u27 awareness of the issues they faced before participating the program.These findings suggest following three important steps for developing self-directed Japanese-language teachers:1) promote clarification and sharing of beliefs among the teachers, 2) arrange opportunities to put into practice what teachers learned and reflect on the practice, and 3) encourage teachers to participate in the program repeatedly

Worldwide prevalence of tocophobia in pregnant women: systematic review and meta-analysis

Introduction: Tocophobia is defined as a severe fear of pregnancy and childbirth. There is increasing evidence that tocophobia may have short-term and long-term adverse effects on mother and baby. We performed a systematic review and meta-analysis to determine the global prevalence of tocophobia in pregnancy. Material and methods: Relevant articles were identified through searching six relevant databases: MEDLINE, CINAHL, Pubmed, PsycINFO, Maternity & Infant Care and Scopus between 1946 and April 2016. We used search terms for tocophobia prevalence in pregnant women that we agreed with a medical librarian. There were no language restrictions. Two review authors independently assessed data for inclusion, extracted data and assessed quality using a standardized appraisal tool. Meta-analysis was performed to determine the overall pooled-prevalence of tocophobia. Several subgroup and sensitivity analyses were conducted. Results: Thirty-three studies were included in the systematic review from 18 countries of which data from 29 studies were used in the meta-analysis of 853 988 pregnant women. Definition of tocophobia varied, whereas prevalence rates ranged between 3.7 and 43%. The overall pooled prevalence of tocophobia, using a random-effects model, was 14% (95% CI 0.12â 0.16). Significant heterogeneity was observed (I2 = 99.25%, p = 0.00), which was not explained in subgroup analyses including tocophobia definition used, screening trimester and parity. Conclusion: The prevalence of tocophobia is estimated at 14% and appears to have increased in recent years (2000 onwards). Considerable heterogeneity (99.25%) was noted that may be attributed to lack of consensus on the definition of tocophobia, so our results should be interpreted with caution

日本語教育における教師の実践的思考に関する研究(2) ―新人・ベテラン教師の授業観察時のプロトコルと観察後のレポートの比較より―

　本研究は、新人・ベテラン日本語教師各10名に実際の授業をビデオで見ながら考えたことを口頭で再生してもらったプロトコルと、その直後に書いてもらった感想レポートとの比較により、日本語教師の実践的思考(教授活動に関する実践知を用いた思考)を解明する試みである。各人のプロトコルとレポートの対応や流れを質的に分析したところ、ベテランは、プロトコルで断片的に述べていたことを、レポートでは常に授業の目的を意識し、個別の項目もその場面以外の様々な事象と関連づけて検討しつつ授業全体の中に位置づけて捉え直すという「思考の文脈化」を行っていた。また、教師養成の立場からと思われるコメントも見られた。新人は、プロトコル同様、レポートでも印象に残った点の羅列的記述が多かったが、プロトコルにはあるがレポートにないコメントの内容から、必ずしも授業の中で重要度が高いものをレポートに記述したとは言えないことがわかった。一方、プロトコルにはなくレポートで出たコメントも多く見られ、授業観察後に全体を見渡して気づいた問題点や教師の立場を客観的に見たことによる気づきが記述されている。さらに、自分と異なる教授観等に対する価値判断の一時留保なども今回の分析から新たにわかった。本研究では、プロトコルとレポートを相互補完的に分析することで片方のみでは掴めなかった教師の思考を分析することができた。　This study attempts to clarify practical thinking of Japanese language teachers by a qualitative analysis of the protocols and reports of 10 novice teachers (NTs) and 10 veteran teachers (VTs) . Teachers were asked to tell, while watching a video of Japanese class, what they thought (protocols) and to write what they thought right after that (reports). This paper analyzes flow of the thought and correspondences between protocols and reports. Treating the two as reciprocal, it clarifies what neither protocol nor report alone could do: VTs organize, in their reports, findings and ideas that appeared fragmentary when they observed, into holistic thoughts about the class in consideration of the purpose and the flow of the class; NTs do not always refer to important elements of the class they observed in their reports; NTs sometimes reserve judgment about teaching styles that are different from theirs

Effects of Place of Articulation Changes on Auditory Neural Activity: A Magnetoencephalography Study

In casual speech, phonemic segments often assimilate such that they adopt features from adjacent segments, a typical feature being their place of articulation within the vocal tract (e.g., labial, coronal, velar). Place assimilation (e.g., from coronal /n/ to labial /m/: rainbow→*raimbow) alters the surface form of words. Listeners' ability to perceptually compensate for such changes seems to depend on the phonemic context, on whether the adjacent segment (e.g., the /b/ in “rainbow”) invites the particular change. Also, some assimilations occur frequently (e.g., /n/→/m/), others are rare (e.g., /m/→/n/). We investigated the effects of place assimilation, its contextual dependency, and its frequency on the strength of auditory evoked mismatch negativity (MMN) responses, using pseudowords. Results from magnetoencephalography (MEG) revealed that the MMN was modulated both by the frequency and contextual appropriateness of assimilations

Congenital Zika Virus Infection in a Birth Cohort in Vietnam, 2017?2018

To detect congenital ZIKV infection (CZI) in a birth cohort and among high-risk neonates in Vietnam, we collected umbilical cord blood plasma samples of newly delivered babies and peripheral plasma samples of high-risk neonates in Nha Trang, central Vietnam, between July 2017 and September 2018. Samples were subjected to serological and molecular tests. Of the 2013 newly delivered babies, 21 (1%) were positive for Zika virus (ZIKV) IgM and 1,599 (79%) for Flavivirus IgG. Among the 21 ZIKV IgM-positives, 11 were confirmed to have CZI because their plasma samples had anti-ZIKV neutralization titers 3 4 times higher than those against dengue virus (DENV)-1 to 4 and Japanese encephalitis virus (JEV) and were tested for the ZIKV RNA positive by real-time reverse transcription-PCR. Therefore,the incidence of CZI in our birth cohort was approximately 0.5%. Of the 150 high-risk neonates, three (2%) and 95 (63%) were positive for ZIKV IgM and Flavivirus IgG antibodies, respectively. None of the three ZIKV IgM-positives had 3 4 times higher anti-ZIKV neutralization titers than those against DENV-1 to 4 and JEV, and were therefore considered as probable CZI. Our results indicate that CZI is not rare in Vietnam. Although those with confirmed CZI did not show apparent symptoms suspected of congenital Zika syndrome at birth, detailed examinations and follow-up studies are needed to clarify the CZI impact in Vietnam. This is the first report of CZI cases in a birth cohort in Asia