Functional neuroanatomical differences between adults and school-age children in the processing of single words

A critical issue in developmental cognitive neuroscience is the extent to which the functional neuroanatomy underlying task performance differs in adults and children. Direct comparisons of brain activation in the left frontal and extrastriate cortex were made in adults and children (aged 7 to 10 years) performing single-word processing tasks with visual presentation; differences were found in circumscribed frontal and extrastriate regions. Conceivably, these differences could be attributable exclusively to performance discrepancies; alternatively, maturational differences in functional neuroanatomy could exist despite similar performance. Some of the brain regions examined showed differences attributable to age independent of performance, suggesting that maturation of the pattern of regional activations for these tasks is incomplete at age 10.     

Extracting 3D from motion: differences in human and monkey intraparietal cortex

We compared three-dimensional structure-from-motion (3D-SFM) processing in awake monkeys and humans using functional magnetic resonance imaging. Occipital and midlevel extrastriate visual areas showed similar activation by 3D-SFM stimuli in both species. In contrast, intraparietal areas showed significant 3D-SFM activation in humans but not in monkeys. This suggests that human intraparietal cortex contains visuospatial processing areas that are not present in monkeys.     

Cholinergic enhancement and increased selectivity of perceptual processing during working memory

Using functional magnetic resonance imaging, we investigated the mechanism by which cholinergic enhancement improves working memory. We studied the effect of the cholinesterase inhibitor physostigmine on subcomponents of this complex function. Cholinergic enhancement increased the selectivity of neural responses in extrastriate cortices during visual working memory, particularly during encoding. It also increased the participation of ventral extrastriate cortex during memory maintenance and decreased the participation of anterior prefrontal cortex. These results indicate that cholinergic enhancement improves memory performance by augmenting the selectivity of perceptual processing during encoding, thereby simplifying processing demands during memory maintenance and reducing the need for prefrontal participation.     

一种频率增强的语句语义相似度计算

目前,在基于HowNet进行语句语义相似度计算的算法中,没有考虑语句中的不同词语对语句之间相似度值的不同贡献程度,以致计算结果不理想.为了更好地解决上述缺陷,提出了一种频率增强语句语义相似度算法.该算法利用HowNet作为词典库,在同时考虑义原距离和义原深度的条件下,进行词语相似度计算;在此基础上算法进一步将词语在语料库中的频率函数作为权重值,引入至语句的语义相似度计算中,以降低高频率词语在语句相似度值中的比重.实验表明,改进的算法在语句相似度计算结果上与人们的主观判断更接近,结果更合理.     

Forgetting: trace erosion or retrieval failure?

A series of lists of random words was presented. Following each list, the subject attempted to recall the words of the list prior to the list just presented. Recall probability for a given word depended on the length of the list in which it was embedded, not on the length of the list intervening between presentation and test. These results indicate that forgetting is a failure in the memory search during retrieval rather than a degradation of the memory trace occurring between presentation and test.     

英汉颜色词——“红色”的文化语义对比

词语语义域是文化习俗的反映,不同的文化习俗决定了词语语义域的差异,颜色词是中英民族使用较频繁的词,通过对比英汉颜色词语能较大程度地反映中英民族由于文化习俗的差异导致的词语语义域的不同,从而对于跨文化交际和语言教学具有积极的促进作用.     

《左传》中的“得”

“得”作动词的基本义是《左传》中最主要的用法。在“得”后接名词性成分或动词性成分时,“得”成为次要动词,并慢慢虚化为助动词。“得”在语义上由“得到”到“可能”,从“得”作动词接名词性成分到作助动词接动词性成分,是语义的引伸。语义的变化虽然影响语法结构的变化,但语义和语法结构的变化并不完全同步。     

基于词典的服务语义标注和匹配算法

万维网服务语义标注和匹配算法的研究成果大都是基于本体技术,但存在复杂度高等不足。提出了用描述概念特征的特征词集的语义相似性计算来间接判断概念的相似性方法,并以此方法对服务描述文件进行简单扩展,实现了一种简便的面向普通用户的万维网服务语义标注和匹配算法。     

Neuronal correlates of goal-based motor selection in the prefrontal cortex

Choosing an action that leads to a desired goal requires an understanding of the linkages between actions and their outcomes. We investigated neural mechanisms of such goal-based action selection. We trained monkeys on a task in which the relation between visual cues, action types, and reward conditions changed regularly, such that the monkeys selected their actions based on anticipated reward conditions. A significant number of neurons in the medial prefrontal cortex were activated, after cue presentation and before motor execution, only by particular action-reward combinations. This prefrontal activity is likely to underlie goal-based action selection.     

Functional organization of primate visual cortex revealed by high resolution optical imaging

A high spatial resolution optical imaging system was developed to visualize cerebral cortical activity in vivo. This method is based on activity-dependent intrinsic signals and does not use voltage-sensitive dyes. Images of the living monkey striate (VI) and extrastriate (V2) visual cortex, taken during visual stimulation, were analyzed to yield maps of the distribution of cells with various functional properties. The cytochrome oxidase--rich blobs of V1 and the stripes of V2 were imaged in the living brain. In V2, no ocular dominance organization was seen, while regions of poor orientation tuning colocalized to every other cytochrome oxidase stripe. The orientation tuning of other regions of V2 appeared organized as modules that are larger and more uniform than those in V1.     

Attentional modulation of neural processing of shape, color, and velocity in humans

Positron emission tomography (PET) was used to measure changes in regional cerebral blood flow of normal subjects, while they were discriminating different attributes (shape, color, and velocity) of the same set of visual stimuli. Psychophysical evidence indicated that the sensitivity for discriminating subtle stimulus changes was higher when subjects focused attention on one attribute than when they divided attention among several attributes. Correspondingly, attention enhanced the activity of different regions of extrastriate visual cortex that appear to be specialized for processing information related to the selected attribute.     

Perceptual learning incepted by decoded fMRI neurofeedback without stimulus presentation

It is controversial whether the adult primate early visual cortex is sufficiently plastic to cause visual perceptual learning (VPL). The controversy occurs partially because most VPL studies have examined correlations between behavioral and neural activity changes rather than cause-and-effect relationships. With an online-feedback method that uses decoded functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) signals, we induced activity patterns only in early visual cortex corresponding to an orientation without stimulus presentation or participants' awareness of what was to be learned. The induced activation caused VPL specific to the orientation. These results suggest that early visual areas are so plastic that mere inductions of activity patterns are sufficient to cause VPL. This technique can induce plasticity in a highly selective manner, potentially leading to powerful training and rehabilitative protocols.     

Selective attention gates visual processing in the extrastriate cortex

Single cells were recorded in the visual cortex of monkeys trained to attend to stimuli at one location in the visual field and ignore stimuli at another. When both locations were within the receptive field of a cell in prestriate area V4 or the inferior temporal cortex, the response to the unattended stimulus was dramatically reduced. Cells in the striate cortex were unaffected by attention. The filtering of irrelevant information from the receptive fields of extrastriate neurons may underlie the ability to identify and remember the properties of a particular object out of the many that may be represented on the retina.     

Complementary neural mechanisms for tracking items in human working memory

Recognition of a specific visual target among equally familiar distracters requires neural mechanisms for tracking items in working memory. Event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging revealed evidence for two such mechanisms: (i) Enhanced neural responses, primarily in the frontal cortex, were associated with the target and were maintained across repetitions of the target. (ii) Reduced responses, primarily in the extrastriate visual cortex, were associated with stimulus repetition, regardless of whether the stimulus was a target or a distracter. These complementary neural mechanisms track the status of familiar items in working memory, allowing for the efficient recognition of a currently relevant object and rejection of irrelevant distracters.     

Restriction endonuclease analysis of mitochondrial DNA from normal and Texas cytoplasmic male-sterile maize

Mitochondrial DNA from normal and cytoplasmic male-sterile maize was digested with restriction endonucleases RI from Escherichia coli or dIII from Hemophilus influenzae. Electrophoresis of resulting fragments revealed distinctions between the two cytoplasmic types. These distinctions suggest that factors responsible or cytoplasmic male sterility are located in the mitochondrial DNA, and that the mitochondrial genome is not inherited paternally.     

Visual temporal order: a new illusion

Brief visutal stimuli presented in rapid sequience, one to the left and one to the right, appear to occur left first, then right, regardless of the actual order of presentation. This illutsion persists under conditions of forced-choice testing and does not vary with presemitation to the same or opposite retinal hemifields, A series of experiments suggests that this illutsion may be the product of an internal mechanism that scans visual inputs in a left-to-right order.     

Functional mapping of the primate auditory system

Cerebral auditory areas were delineated in the awake, passively listening, rhesus monkey by comparing the rates of glucose utilization in an intact hemisphere and in an acoustically isolated contralateral hemisphere of the same animal. The auditory system defined in this way occupied large portions of cerebral tissue, an extent probably second only to that of the visual system. Cortically, the activated areas included the entire superior temporal gyrus and large portions of the parietal, prefrontal, and limbic lobes. Several auditory areas overlapped with previously identified visual areas, suggesting that the auditory system, like the visual system, contains separate pathways for processing stimulus quality, location, and motion.     

S i m o n效应源于反应选择阶段:基于知觉负荷对S i m o n效应的影响

将Simon任务与知觉负荷任务的视觉搜索范式相结合,通过比较高低负荷条件下Simon效应的大小,探讨Simon效应的产生是否与刺激鉴别阶段有关.实验一的刺激为颜色,实验二的刺激为字母.两个实验的结果均显示,高负荷条件和低负荷条件下的Simon效应差异并不显著,表明Simon效应的产生与刺激鉴别阶段的加工无关,同时也说明无关刺激位置的编码是自动激活的.     

英语词汇知识深度及其学习策略研究

本文依据词汇知识框架理论和层面分析方法探讨了英语词汇知识所涉及的内容。根据国内一些学者实证研究的结果和教学实践,确定了英语词汇深度习得的主要对象为英语核心词汇,主要内容为多义词不同词义之间的联系,半开放型搭配和词与词之间的各种关系。提出了如下学习策略：围绕核心词义构建多义词家谱,用组块法学习半开放型搭配,学习者应参与构建词汇语义网络。