First Half Of Trials Research Articles

The development of lexical inhibition in spoken word recognition.

As a spoken word unfolds over time, similar sounding words (cap and cat) compete until one word "wins". Lexical competition becomes more efficient from infancy through adolescence. We examined one potential mechanism underlying this development: lexical inhibition, by which activated candidates suppress competitors. In Experiment 1, younger (7-8 years) and older (12-13 years) children heard words (cap) in which the onset was manipulated to briefly boost competition from a cohort competitor (cat). This was compared to a condition with a nonword (cack) onset that would not inhibit the target. Words were presented in a visual world task during which eye movements were recorded. Both groups showed less looking to the target when perceiving the competitor-splice relative to the nonword-splice, showing engagement of lexical inhibition. Exploratory analyses of linguistic adaptation across the experiment revealed that older children demonstrated consistent lexical inhibition across the experiment and younger children did not, initially showing no effect in the first half of trials and then a robust effect in the latter half. In Experiment 2, adults also displayed consistent lexical inhibition in the same task. These findings suggest that younger children do not consistently engage lexical inhibition in typical listening but can quickly bring it online in response to certain linguistic experiences. Computational modeling showed that age-related differences are best explained by increased engagement of inhibition rather than growth in activation. These findings suggest that continued development of lexical inhibition in later childhood may underlie increases in efficiency of spoken word recognition. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

Increased Neural Reward Responsivity in Adolescents with ASD after Social Skills Intervention.

The reward system has been implicated as a potential neural mechanism underlying social-communication deficits in individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). However, it remains unclear whether the neural reward system in ASD is sensitive to behavioral interventions. The current study measured the reward positivity (RewP) in response to social and nonsocial stimuli in seven adolescents with ASD before and after participation in the Program for the Education and Enrichment of Relational Skills (PEERS®) intervention. This study also included seven neurotypical adolescents who were tested at two time points but did not receive intervention. We examined the RewP across the course of a task by comparing brain activity during the first versus second half of trials to understand patterns of responsivity over time. Improvements in social skills and decreased social-communication impairments for teens with ASD were observed after PEERS®. Event-related potential (ERP) results suggested increased reward sensitivity during the first half of trials in the ASD group after intervention. Adolescents with ASD who exhibited less reward-related brain activity before intervention demonstrated the greatest behavioral benefits from the intervention. These findings have implications for how neuroscience can be used as an objective outcome measure before and after intervention in ASD.

Vein Graft Interposition: A Training Model Using Gradually Thawed Cryopreserved Vessels.

Microsurgical interposition of vein grafts is an extraordinarily filigree surgical technique, which requires both sound theoretical knowledge and solid manual skills. Although there are a large number of training models, the majority of these are either relatively expensive, technically complex, or employ synthetic materials with poor resemblance to human tissue. The authors' model allows training of ex vivo vein graft interposition on gradually thawed cryopreserved vessels and it, therefore, is cost-efficient and readily available when needed. Furthermore, it respects the 3R-principle (Reduce-Refine-Replace), as it is based on rat cadaveric vessels. Three trainees with basic microsurgical experience, but without prior performance of vein graft interpositioning, were chosen to perform 20 femoral vein graft (5 mm) interpositions into femoral artery defects. The patency and leakage rate served as qualitative variable and operation time as a quantitative variable for efficiency control. For the first half of trials, the trainees had a patency failure rate of 50% and for the second half a rate of 13.3%. The leakage rate noticeably decreased from 44.4% in the first half of trials to 10% in the second half. Although the trainees needed 60 minutes on average for their first 10 trials, they improved to 51 minutes for their last 10 anastomoses. The authors' microsurgical model offers a simple, low-cost simulation training, specifically designed for learning of vein graft interposition into arterial defects. The model is associated with a high learning curve, based on an objective control of the anastomoses by assessment of the patency, leakage, and operation time.

Epineurial Nerve Coaptation: A Biological Nonliving Training Model Using Gradually Thawed Cryopreserved Sciatic Nerves.

The authors present a novel biological nonliving epineurial nerve coaptation training model, which allows cost-efficient practicing on organic mammal nerves and offers an objective performance control on the basis of successful suturing and respecting the 3R model.Anatomic dissection of 40 rat cadavers was performed. Four residents without prior microneurosurgical experience were included. Each trainee performed 20 epineurial nerve coaptations. The number of successful sutures served as qualitative variable and operation time as a quantitative variable for efficiency control.The rate for successful sutures was 51.9% in the first half of trials and improved to 94.4% in the second half. Whereas, the trainees needed a mean time of 34 minutes for the first 10 coaptations, the last 10 coaptations were performed within 24.5 minutes.The authors' presented model is an easily accessible, low-cost microneurosurgical simulation model, allowing a realistic and instructive performance of epineurial nerve coaptation. Because cadaveric nerves are used, an approval of the local ethics committee is not needed. Furthermore, anatomic knowledge about the topography related to the harvest of the sciatic nerve of rats is provided in this study.

Differences in the Repeated Sprint Performance Between the First and Latter Halves of Trials Under Conditions of Several Thermal States in Exercising Muscles.

Inoue, K, Yamashita, N, Kume, M, and Yoshida, T. Differences in the repeated sprint performance between the first and latter halves of trials under conditions of several thermal states in exercising muscles. J Strength Cond Res 35(3): 782-790, 2021-The purpose of this study was to determine whether the effects of thermal states in exercising muscle on repeated sprint cycling (RSC) performance differ between the first and latter half of trials. Nine male subjects performed 8 × 8 seconds of RSC with a 40-second rest period. The subjects wore water-perfused trousers with water at 6° C (COLD), 17° C (COOL), 30° C (WARM), or 44° C (HOT). During the first half of trials, the peak power output (PPO), mean power output (MPO), and sum of work output (SWO) were significantly (p < 0.05) greater under the WARM and HOT conditions than under the COLD and COOL conditions, and a difference in the PPO and MPO between WARM and HOT was noted in the second sprint bout during the first half of the exercise. However, during the latter half of trials, there was no significant difference in the PPO, MPO, and SWO among the 4 conditions. The tympanic temperature (Tty) was significantly elevated under the HOT condition but fell under the COLD and COOL conditions, whereas the Tty under the WARM condition did not change significantly (p < 0.05) during the experiment. The total sweat loss was significantly (p < 0.05) greater in the HOT condition than in the other conditions. These results suggest that the effect of thermal states in exercising muscle on the RSC performance is greater in the first half of exercise than in the latter half, possibly because of the elevation of the core temperature and sweat loss under HOT conditions.

A relative bilingual advantage in switching with preparation: Nuanced explorations of the proposed association between bilingualism and task switching.

Bilingual language switching may increase general switching efficiency, but the evidence on this question is mixed. We hypothesized that group differences in switching might be stronger at a long cue-target interval (CTI), which may better tap general switching abilities (Yehene & Meiran, 2007). Eighty Spanish-English bilinguals and 80 monolinguals completed a color-shape switching task, and an analogous language-switching task, varying CTI (short vs. long) in both tasks. With longer preparation time (long CTI), bilinguals exhibited significantly smaller task-switching costs than monolinguals, but only in the first half of trials. Group differences diminished with practice, though practice benefitted RTs on short CTI trials more than long, and bilinguals committed fewer errors with practice especially at short CTI. Groups did not differ in mixing costs; however, across CTIs and tasks, bilinguals and monolinguals alike, exhibited robust correlations between mixing costs, but not between switching costs. These results confirm an association between bilingualism and switching efficiency that may be magnified with manipulations that target general switching ability (or could reflect better ability to take advantage of preparation time). However, practice effects observed within experimental paradigms, and between task correlations in costs, may reflect cognitive mechanisms specific to laboratory tasks much more than associations with general switching ability and executive control mechanisms-for which more reliable and valid measures can hopefully be developed in future work. (PsycINFO Database Record

Automatic amygdala response to facial expression in schizophrenia: initial hyperresponsivity followed by hyporesponsivity.

BackgroundIt is well established that the amygdala is crucially involved in the processing of facial emotions. In schizophrenia patients, a number of neuroimaging findings suggest hypoactivation of the amygdala in response to facial emotion, while others indicate normal or enhanced recruitment of this region. Some of this variability may be related to the baseline condition used and the length of the experiment. There is evidence that schizophrenia patients display increased activation of the amygdala to neutral faces and that this is predominantly observed during early parts of the experiment. Recent research examining the automatic processing of facial emotion has also reported amygdala hyperactivation in schizophrenia. In the present study, we focused on the time-course of amygdala activation during the automatic processing of emotional facial expression. We hypothesized that in comparison to healthy subjects, patients would initially show hyperresponsivity of the amygdala to masked emotional and neutral faces. In addition, we expected amygdala deactivation in response to masked facial emotions from the first to the second phase to be more pronounced in patients than in controls.ResultsAmygdala activation in response to angry, happy, neutral, and no facial expression (presented for 33 ms) was measured by functional magnetic resonance imaging in 30 schizophrenia patients and 35 healthy controls. Across all subjects, the bilateral amygdala response to faces (relative to the no facial expression condition) was larger in the initial phase (first half of trials) than in the second phase (second half of trials). During the initial phase, schizophrenia patients exhibited an increased right amygdala response to all faces and an increased left amygdala response to neutral faces compared with controls. During the second phase, controls manifested a higher right amygdala response for all faces and a higher left amygdala response to angry faces than patients.ConclusionsSchizophrenia patients are characterized by high initial amygdala responsivity to facial expressions at an automatic processing level, which substantially decreases with time. Amygdala deactivation over time might reflect an automatic mechanism by which schizophrenia patients suppress the processing of facial stimuli. This blocking mechanism could help patients avoid overstimulation during social interactions.

Can protections promote intergroup cooperation after they have been removed?

Procedural justice schemes may promote cooperation by assuring fair distribution of resources and the achievement of group goals. Refunds on investments if group goals are not achieved may make the intergroup relationship safe, but such protections may be impractical over the long term. The current investigation examined whether intergroup cooperation would continue after the removal of protective refunds. Groups took part in a multiple trial, intergroup public-goods game. Half of the groups always had refunds, and half had refunds for only the first half of trials. Results showed that on the first trial following the cessation of protections, cooperation decreased for all groups despite past performance histories. However, cooperation rebounded if past success carried over when protections were absent. The protective refund scheme provided the opportunity for positive intergroup relations, but cooperative actions justifying intergroup trust were necessary for cooperation to continue when groups were unprotected.

Testing the Tau Hypothesis against Alternative Information Sources used for Collision Avoidance

Research on the visual information used in collision avoidance has inappropriately attributed adequate task performance to the use of the visual variable tau (τ). We constructed a collision avoidance experiment where the τ hypothesis was tested against the use of other potential information sources, including expansion rate. Subjects viewed a head-on flight towards one or two barriers. During the first half of trials, a single barrier was present and subjects were instructed to approach it as closely as possible before ascending over it. During the second half of the trials, a second barrier was placed above the first and subjects flew through the resulting gap. The ascent dynamics were manipulated between subjects, such that a time-to-contact margin demarcated the collision boundary with one group, but a constant distance-to-contact margin with another group. Subjects in the time-relevant group responded in a manner more consistent with the use of expansion rate information, but neither a single critical expansion rate or τ strategy adequately explains performance in the two-barrier condition. Subjects in the distance-relevant group responded in a manner consistent with the use of relative distance information.

Contingent negative variation in obsessional-compulsive patients

Obsessional-compulsive disorder has been conceptualised in terms of overattention to irrelevant details. The aim of the present study was to investigate whether this feature would be reflected in the ‘early’ CNV component. Sixteen obsessional patients and matched controls were tested in a motor-set CNV paradigm with a 5 sec interval between S1 and S2. Patients exhibited a higher amplitude of the ‘late’ component and male patients prolonged negativity during the first half of trials. In addition, patients yielded lower levels of heart-period than controls. Results are accounted for better by the assumption of uncertainty and doubt in patients compared with controls.