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Background: A prominent model of semantic processing in modern cognitive psychology proposes that semantic memory originates in everyday life experience with concrete objects such as plants, animals, and tools (Martin Chao, 2001). When the meaning of a concrete content word is being acquired, the learner is confronted with stimuli of various modalities related to the word's meaning. This comes to be stored as sensory knowledge about the object. It is further postulated that there is a conceptual domain remote from the mechanisms of perception, which is often referred to as functional knowledge or verbal semantics. There is a large body of neuropsychological literature trying to establish how much sensory and functional semantics is needed to access a name, and whether the relative contribution of these types of knowledge is the same for all categories of objects. Another controversial issue is whether naming requires access to semantic knowledge, or whether object names can be accessed directly from vision without the intervention of semantics, as is generally accepted for written word naming. Some support for this assumption seems to come from cases of so-called non-optic aphasia, a condition in which patients can name from visual presentation only but not from any other modality of presentation such as auditory, verbal, tactile, etc. In optic aphasia, a condition far better established, naming is possible from all modalities except vision. Aims: The aim of this paper is to draw attention to the first case description of non-optic or negative optic aphasia described by Wolff (1897, 1904). Methods Procedures: The case describes the results of a re-examination of Voit, who was seen by several neurologists in the course of a decade in classical aphasiology. The patient demonstrated anomia in oral but not in written naming of objects in view. Wolff's examination involves extensive testing of semantic processing in several modalities, especially with respect to the status of functional and sensory semantic features Outcomes Results: The re-examination of patient Voit by Wolff in 1897 with new procedures revealed a specific impairment in processing sensory knowledge, while functional knowledge of objects was relatively preserved. This led to a naming impairment in all modalities of presentation except the visual one. Using more refined tasks, Wolff also demonstrated receptive impairments, in contrast to previous researchers who had concluded that the impairment was restricted to oral production. Conclusions: Although Wolff's (1904) case of negative optic aphasia has been almost completely forgotten (but see Bartels Wallesch, 1996), it is astonishingly modern in its conceptual approach and in the central questions it addresses on the mechanisms involved in the process of naming and on the structure of the semantic system. As is usual in classical cases, the methodology may appear less stringent than in most contemporary work, but the approach was brilliant.
We investigated the mental rehearsal of complex action instructions by recording spontaneous eye movements of healthy adults as they looked at objects on a monitor. Participants heard consecutive instructions, each of the form "move [object] to [location]''. Instructions were only to be executed after a go signal, by manipulating all objects successively with a mouse. Participants re-inspected previously mentioned objects already while listening to further instructions. This rehearsal behavior broke down after 4 instructions, coincident with participants' instruction span, as determined from subsequent execution accuracy. These results suggest that spontaneous eye movements while listening to instructions predict their successful execution.
Current models of eye movement control are derived from theories assuming serial processing of single items or from theories based on parallel processing of multiple items at a time. This issue has persisted because most investigated paradigms generated data compatible with both serial and parallel models. Here, we study eye movements in a sequential scanning task, where stimulus n indicates the position of the next stimulus n + 1. We investigate whether eye movements are controlled by sequential attention shifts when the task requires serial order of processing. Our measures of distributed processing in the form of parafoveal-on-foveal effects, long-range modulations of target selection, and skipping saccades provide evidence against models strictly based on serial attention shifts. We conclude that our results lend support to parallel processing as a strategy for eye movement control.
Tracheotomierte Patienten, die sowohl eine Dysphagie als auch respiratorische Defizite aufweisen, haben nach der Dekanülierung häufig Probleme, sich an die translaryngeale Atmung anzupassen. Wir entwickelten ein Dekanülierungsprotokoll für diese Patientengruppe, das optional in unser bestehendes Trachealkanülenmanagement integriert werden kann. Erfüllt ein Patient die hierfür definierten Kriterien, so erfolgt unter laryngoskopischer Kontrolle die Einlage eines Platzhalters, der bis zu 3 Tage in situ verbleibt. Während dieser Probedekanülierungsphase werden die respiratorischen Funktionen und das Speichelmanagement engmaschig überwacht. Auf der Grundlage dieser Evaluation wird dann die Entscheidung für oder gegen eine endgültige Dekanülierung getroffen. Wir stellen den Ablauf, die Kriterienkataloge und die Evaluationsparameter für diese Probedekanülierungsphase vor und illustrieren den Ablauf anhand von 2 Fallbeispielen.
We examined how the frequency of the fixated word influences the spatiotemporal distribution of covert attention during reading. Participants discriminated gaze-contingent probes that occurred with different spatial and temporal offsets from randomly chosen fixation points during reading. We found that attention was initially focused at fixation and that subsequent defocusing was slower when the fixated word was lower in frequency. Later in a fixation, attention oriented more towards the next saccadic target for high- than for low-frequency words. These results constitute the first report of the time course of the effect of load on attentional engagement and orienting in reading. They are discussed in the context of serial and parallel models of reading.
What features of a poem make it captivating, and which cognitive mechanisms are sensitive to these features? We addressed these questions experimentally by measuring pupillary responses of 40 participants who listened to a series of Limericks. The Limericks ended with either a semantic, syntactic, rhyme or metric violation. Compared to a control condition without violations, only the rhyme violation condition induced a reliable pupillary response. An anomaly-rating study on the same stimuli showed that all violations were reliably detectable relative to the control condition, but the anomaly induced by rhyme violations was perceived as most severe. Together, our data suggest that rhyme violations in Limericks may induce an emotional response beyond mere anomaly detection.
Stress-levels experienced by school-aged elite athletes are pronounced, but data on their mental health status are widely lacking. In our study, we examined self-reported psychological symptoms and chronic mood. Data from a representative sample of 866 elite student-athletes (aged 12-15 years), enrolled in high-performance sport programming in German Elite Schools of Sport, were compared with data from 80 student-athletes from the same schools who have just been deselected from elite sport promotion, and from 432 age-and sex-matched non-sport students from regular schools (without such programming). Anxiety symptoms were least prevalent in female elite student-athletes. In male elite student-athletes, only symptoms of posttraumatic stress were less prevalent than in the other groups. Somatoform symptoms were generally more frequent in athletes, a trend that was significantly pronounced in deselected athletes. Deselected athletes showed an increased risk for psychological symptoms compared with both other groups. Regarding chronic mood, again deselected athletes showed less positive scores. While there was a trend toward high-performance sport being associated with better psychological health at least in girls, preventative programs should take into account that deselection from elite sport programming may be associated with specific risks for mental disorders.
Background: Melatonin exerts multiple biological effects with potential impact on human diseases. This is underscored by genetic studies that demonstrated associations between melatonin receptor type 2 gene (MTNR1B) polymorphisms and characteristics of type 2 diabetes. We set out to test the hypothesis whether genetic variants at MTNR1B are also relevant for other disease phenotypes within the cardiovascular continuum. We thus investigated single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) of MTNR1B in relation to blood pressure (BP) and cardiac parameters in hypertensive patients.
Methods: Patients (n = 605, mean age 56.2 +/- 9.4 years, 82.3% male) with arterial hypertension and cardiac ejection fraction (EF) >= 40% were studied. Cardiac parameters were assessed by echocardiography.
Results: The cohort comprised subjects with coronary heart disease (73.1%) and myocardial infarction (48.1%) with a mean EF of 63.7 +/- 8.9%. Analysis of SNPs rs10830962, rs4753426, rs12804291, rs10830963, and rs3781638 revealed two haplotypes 1 and 2 with frequencies of 0.402 and 0.277, respectively. Carriers with haplotype 1 (CTCCC) showed compared to non-carriers a higher mean 24-hour systolic BP (difference BP: 2.4 mm Hg, 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.3 to 4.5 mm Hg, p = 0.023). Haplotype 2 (GCCGA) was significantly related to EF with an absolute increase of 1.8% (CI: 0.45 to 3.14%) in carriers versus non-carriers (p = 0.009).
Conclusion: Genetics of MTNR1B point to impact of the melatonin signalling pathway for BP and left ventricular function. This may support the importance of the melatonin system as a potential therapeutic target.
Background: The contractile history of a muscle or a muscle group can result in an acute enhancement of subsequent muscle force output. This phenomenon is referred to as postactivation potentiation (PAP) and it was frequently substantiated in original research manuscripts, systematic literature reviews, and meta-analyses. However, there is a lack in the literature regarding precise dose-response relations. This literature review describes the main determinants of PAP effects and additionally presents the state of the art regarding the acute effects of PAP protocols on measures of strength, power, and speed in subelite and elite athletes of different sport disciplines. Furthermore, an attempt is made to demonstrate evidence-based information concerning the design of effective PAP protocols.
Methods: Our literature search included the electronic databases Pubmed, SportDiscus, and Google Scholar (1995 - March 2013). In total, 23 studies met the inclusionary criteria for review.
Results: Findings from our literature review indicate that various conditioning activities produce acute PAP effects in subelite and particularly elite athletes. More specifically, conditioning activities that are characterised by multiple sets, moderate to high intensities (60 - 84 % of the one repetition maximum), and rest intervals of 7 - 10 min. following the conditioning activity have the potential to induce short-term improvements in muscle force output and sports performance.
Conclusion: It is recommended that subelite and particularly elite athletes from strength, power, and speed disciplines apply specifically tailored conditioning activities during the acute preparation process for competition to induce performance enhancing PAP effects.