Overt Response Research Articles

Showing friendship, fighting back, and getting even: resisting bullying victimization within adolescent girls’ friendships

ABSTRACTResearch suggests that about a quarter of bullying incidences occur within friendships. Yet little attention is given to the underlying social processes and wider macro-system forces that shape friendship victimization experiences. Guided by constructivist grounded theory and Wade's work on resistance, this research explored the phenomenon of victimization within adolescent girls’ friendships. Canadian women reflecting on their school-based victimization experiences were interviewed for this study. Results suggest that participants resisted victimization in important ways but that their resistance strategies were negotiated within gender expectations and ambient discursive constructions of resistance and victimization. Our findings illuminate the ways that discourses concealing women's resistance and privileging overt responses to bullying run counter to gendered expectations for resistance, leaving women in a double bind. Consequently, we found that retaliatory relational aggression allowed girls to deny their victim status while complying with gendered expectations for resistance but led to their bullying experiences being normalized and overlooked.

The Biological Role of Nestin(+)-Cells in Physiological and Pathological Cardiovascular Remodeling.

The intermediate filament protein nestin was identified in diverse populations of cells implicated in cardiovascular remodeling. Cardiac resident neural progenitor/stem cells constitutively express nestin and following an ischemic insult migrate to the infarct region and participate in angiogenesis and neurogenesis. A modest number of normal adult ventricular fibroblasts express nestin and the intermediate filament protein is upregulated during the progression of reparative and reactive fibrosis. Nestin depletion attenuates cell cycle re-entry suggesting that increased expression of the intermediate filament protein in ventricular fibroblasts may represent an activated phenotype accelerating the biological impact during fibrosis. Nestin immunoreactivity is absent in normal adult rodent ventricular cardiomyocytes. Following ischemic damage, the intermediate filament protein is induced in a modest population of pre-existing adult ventricular cardiomyocytes bordering the peri-infarct/infarct region and nestin(+)-ventricular cardiomyocytes were identified in the infarcted human heart. The appearance of nestin(+)-ventricular cardiomyocytes post-myocardial infarction (MI) recapitulates an embryonic phenotype and depletion of the intermediate filament protein inhibits cell cycle re-entry. Recruitment of the serine/threonine kinase p38 MAPK secondary to an overt inflammatory response after an ischemic insult may represent a seminal event limiting the appearance of nestin(+)-ventricular cardiomyocytes and concomitantly suppressing cell cycle re-entry. Endothelial and vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMCs) express nestin and upregulation of the intermediate filament protein may directly contribute to vascular remodeling. This review will highlight the biological role of nestin(+)-cells during physiological and pathological remodeling of the heart and vasculature and discuss the phenotypic advantage attributed to the intermediate filament protein.

Unconscious response priming during continuous flash suppression.

Continuous flash suppression (CFS) has become a popular tool for studying unconscious processing, but the level at which unconscious processing of visual stimuli occurs under CFS is not clear. Response priming is a robust and well-understood phenomenon, in which the prime stimulus facilitates overt responses to targets if the prime and target are associated with the same response. We used CFS to study unconscious response priming of shape: arrows with left or right orientation served as primes and targets. The prime was presented near the limen of consciousness and each trial was followed by subjective rating of visibility and a forced-choice response concerning the orientation of the prime in counterbalanced order. In trials without any reported awareness of the presence of the prime, discrimination of the prime’s orientation was at chance level. However, priming was elicited in such unconscious trials. Unconscious priming was not influenced by the prime-target onset-asynchrony (SOA)/prime duration, whereas conscious processing, as indicated by the enhanced discriminability of the prime’s orientation and conscious priming, increased at the longest SOAs/prime durations. These results show that conscious and unconscious processes can be dissociated with CFS and that CFS-masking does not completely suppress unconscious visual processing of shape.

Overt tumor regression after salvage boron neutron capture therapy (BNCT) for a recurrent glioblastoma patient

A 52-year-old woman was diagnosed with left parietal glioblastoma, and underwent craniotomy with near total tumor removal on October 11 th , 2017. After the surgery, she received concurrent chemoradiotherapy (6,000 cGy in 30 fractions and daily oral temozolomide) and adjuvant monthly temozolomide for following 12 months. However, tumor relapse was noted during February 2018 by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) examination. The tumor progressed rapidly, and patient experienced right limbs hemiplegia. Therefore, salvage BNCT was chosen as the treatment option. BNCT was performed at Tsing-Hua Open Pool Reactor on May 11 th , 2018. During the entire treatment procedure, she continuously received L-BPA [L-(4- 10 borophenyl) alanine] 450 mg/kg of body weight via an intravenous infusion. Before the patient started epithermal neutron irradiation, her blood boron concentration was 27.72 ppm. The prescribed mean tumor dose to gross tumor volume was 20.44 Gy-E. Two weeks after BNCT, a MRI examination revealed overt tumor response with near complete tumor regression. BNCT is a useful salvage treatment for recurrent glioblastoma and is less toxic to the adjacent normal tissue.

Quaking Deficiency Amplifies Inflammation in Experimental Endotoxemia via the Aryl Hydrocarbon Receptor/Signal Transducer and Activator of Transcription 1-NF-κB Pathway.

Macrophages, characterized by considerable diversity and plasticity, play a crucial role in a broad spectrum of biological processes, including inflammation. However, the molecular mechanisms underlying the diverse phenotypes of macrophages are not well defined. Here, we show that the RNA-binding protein, quaking (QKI), dynamically modulates macrophage polarization states. After lipopolysaccharide (LPS) stimulation, QKI-silenced RAW 264.7 cells displayed a pro-inflammatory M1 phenotype characterized by increased expression of iNOS, TNF-α, and IL-6 and decreased expression of anti-inflammatory factors, such as IL-10, found in inflammatory zone (Fizz1), and chitinase-like 3 (Chil3 or Ym1). By contrast, QKI5 overexpression led to a suppressive phenotype resembling M2 macrophages, even under M1 differentiation conditions. Moreover, myeloid-specific QKI-deficient mice tended to be more susceptible to LPS-induced endotoxic shock, while the exogenous transfer of macrophages overexpressing QKI5 exerted a significant improving effect. This improvement corresponded to a higher proportion of M2 macrophages, in line with elevated levels of IL-10, and a decrease in levels of pro-inflammatory mediators, such as IL-6, TNF-α, and IL-1β. Further mechanistic studies disclosed that QKI was a potent inhibitor of the nuclear factor-kappa B (NF-κB) pathway, suppressing p65 expression and phosphorylation. Strikingly, reduced expression of the aryl hydrocarbon receptor (Ahr) and reduced phosphorylation of signal transducer and activator of transcription 1 in QKI-deficient cells failed to restrain the transcriptional activity of NF-κB and NRL pyrin domain containing 3 (NLRP3) activation, while restoring QKI expression skewed the above M1-like response toward an anti-inflammatory M2 state. Taken together, these findings suggest a role for QKI in restraining overt innate immune responses by regulating the Ahr/STAT1–NF-κB pathway.

Mechanical perturbations can elicit triggered reactions in the absence of a startle response.

Perturbations delivered to the upper limbs elicit reflexive responses in stretched muscle at short- (M1: 25-50ms) and long- (M2: 50-100ms) latencies. When presented in a simple reaction time (RT) task, the perturbation can also elicit a preprogrammed voluntary response at a latency (< 100ms) that overlaps the M2 response. This early appearance of the voluntary response following a proprioceptive stimulus causing muscle stretch is called a triggered reaction. Recent work has demonstrated that a perturbation also elicits activity in sternocleidomastoid (SCM) over a time-course consistent with the startle response and it was, therefore, proposed that the StartReact effect underlies triggered reactions (Ravichandran et al., Exp Brain Res 230:59-69, 2013). The present work investigated whether perturbation-evoked SCM activity results from startle or postural control and whether triggered reactions can also occur in the absence of startle. In Experiment 1, participants "compensated" against a wrist extension perturbation. A prepulse inhibition (PPI) stimulus (known to attenuate startle) was randomly presented before the perturbation. Rather than attenuating SCM activity, the responses in SCM were advanced by the PPI stimulus. In Experiment 2, participants "assisted" a wrist extension perturbation. The perturbation did not reliably elicit startle but despite this, two-thirds of trials had RTs of less than 100ms and the earliest responses began at ~ 70ms. These findings suggest that SCM activity following a perturbation is the result of postural control and is not related to startle. Moreover, an overt startle response is not a prerequisite for the elicitation of a triggered reaction.

RGDfK-Peptide Modified Alginate Scaffold for Cell Transplantation and Cardiac Neovascularization.

Cell implantation for tissue repair is a promising new therapeutic strategy. Although direct injection of cells into tissue is appealing, cell viability and retention are not very good. Cell engraftment and survival following implantation are dependent on a sufficient supply of oxygen and nutrients through functional microcirculation as well as a suitable local microenvironment for implanted cells. In this study, we describe the development of a porous, biocompatible, three-dimensional (3D) alginate scaffold covalently modified with the synthetic cyclic RGDfK (Arg-Gly-Asp-D-Phe-Lys) peptide. Cyclic RGDfK peptide is protease resistant, highly stable in aqueous solutions, and has high affinity for cellular integrins. Cyclic RGDfK-modified alginate scaffolds were generated using a novel silicone sheet sandwich technique in combination with freeze-gelation, resulting in highly porous nonimmunogenic scaffolds that promoted both human and rodent cell survival in vitro, and neoangiogenesis in vivo. Two months following implantation in abdominal rectus muscles in rats, cyclic RGDfK-modified scaffolds were fully populated by host cells, especially microvasculature without an overt immune response or fibrosis, whereas unmodified control scaffolds did not show cell ingrowth. Importantly, modified scaffolds that were seeded with human mesenchymal precursor cells and were patched to the epicardial surface of infarcted myocardium induced myocardial neoangiogenesis and significantly improved cardiac function. In summary, purified cyclic RGDfK peptide-modified 3D alginate scaffolds are biocompatible and nonimmunogenic, enhance cell viability, promote angiogenesis, and may be used as a means to deliver cells to myocardial infarct areas to improve neovascularization and cardiac function.

Powerful Instructions: Automaticity Without Practice

Automaticity is widely assumed to reflect hardwired tendencies or the outcome of prior practice. Recent research on automatic effects of instruction (AEIs), however, indicates that newly instructed tasks can become immediately automatic without ever having been practiced. This research shows that the representations underlying AEIs need not always be directly linked to an overt response but must be highly accessible for future use and involve bidirectional links between stimuli and responses. AEIs were also found to decrease with increasing intellectual abilities among young adults and from childhood to young adulthood, possibly because of improved abstract cognitive control. We argue that AEIs are based on the unintentional retrieval of episodic memories that encode instructions.

A completely biological "off-the-shelf" arteriovenous graft that recellularizes in baboons.

Prosthetic arteriovenous grafts (AVGs) conventionally used for hemodialysis are associated with inferior primary patency rates and increased risk of infection compared with autogenous vein grafts. We tissue-engineered an AVG grown from neonatal human dermal fibroblasts entrapped in bovine fibrin gel that is then decellularized. This graft is both "off-the-shelf" (nonliving) and completely biological. Grafts that are 6 mm in diameter and about 15 cm in length were evaluated in a baboon model of hemodialysis access in an axillary-cephalic or axillary-brachial upper arm AVG construction procedure. Daily antiplatelet therapy was given. Grafts underwent both ultrasound assessment and cannulation at 1, 2, 3, and 6 months and were then explanted for analysis. Excluding grafts with cephalic vein outflow that rapidly clotted during development of the model, 3- and 6-month primary patency rates were 83% (5 of 6) and 60% (3 of 5), respectively. At explant, patent grafts were found to be extensively recellularized (including smoothelin-positive smooth muscle cells with a developing endothelium on the luminal surface). We observed no calcifications, loss of burst strength, or outflow stenosis, which are common failure modes of other graft materials. There was no overt immune response. We thus demonstrate the efficacy of an off-the-shelf AVG that is both acellular and completely biological.

Eyetracking metrics reveal impaired spatial anticipation in behavioural variant frontotemporal dementia

Eyetracking technology has had limited application in the dementia field to date, with most studies attempting to discriminate syndrome subgroups on the basis of basic oculomotor functions rather than higher-order cognitive abilities. Eyetracking-based tasks may also offer opportunities to reduce or ameliorate problems associated with standard paper-and-pencil cognitive tests such as the complexity and linguistic demands of verbal test instructions, and the problems of tiredness and attention associated with lengthy tasks that generate few data points at a slow rate. In the present paper we adapted the Brixton spatial anticipation test to a computerized instruction-less version where oculomotor metrics, rather than overt verbal responses, were taken into account as indicators of high level cognitive functions. Twelve bvFTD (in whom spatial anticipation deficits were expected), six SD patients (in whom deficits were predicted to be less frequent) and 38 healthy controls were presented with a 10 × 7 matrix of white circles. During each trial (N = 24) a black dot moved across seven positions on the screen, following 12 different patterns. Participants’ eye movements were recorded. Frequentist statistical analysis of standard eye movement metrics were complemented by a Bayesian machine learning (ML) approach in which raw eyetracking time series datasets were examined to explore the ability to discriminate diagnostic group performance not only on the overall performance but also on individual trials. The original pen and paper Brixton test identified a spatial anticipation deficit in 7/12 (58%) of bvFTD and in 2/6 (33%) of SD patients. The eyetracking frequentist approach reported the deficit in 11/12 (92%) of bvFTD and in none (0%) of the SD patients. The machine learning approach had the main advantage of identifying significant differences from controls in 24/24 individual trials for bvFTD patients and in only 12/24 for SD patients. Results indicate that the fine grained rich datasets obtained from eyetracking metrics can inform us about high level cognitive functions in dementia, such as spatial anticipation. The ML approach can help identify conditions where subtle deficits are present and, potentially, contribute to test optimisation and the reduction of testing times. The absence of instructions also favoured a better distinction between different clinical groups of patients and can help provide valuable disease-specific markers.

Visual long-term memory is not unitary: Flexible storage of visual information as features or objects as a function of affect.

Research has shown that observers store surprisingly highly detailed long-term memory representations of visual objects after only a single viewing. However, the nature of these representations is currently not well understood. In particular, it may be that the nature of such memory representations is not unitary but reflects the flexible operating of two separate memory subsystems: a feature-based subsystem that stores visual experiences in the form of independent features, and an object-based subsystem that stores visual experiences in the form of coherent objects. Such an assumption is usually difficult to test, because overt memory responses reflect the joint output of both systems. Therefore, to disentangle the two systems, we (1) manipulated the affective state of observers (negative vs. positive) during initial object perception, to introduce systematic variance in the way that visual experiences are stored, and (2) measured both the electrophysiological activity at encoding (via electroencephalography) and later feature memory performance for the objects. The results showed that the nature of stored memory representations varied qualitatively as a function of affective state. Negative affect promoted the independent storage of object features, driven by preattentive brain activities (feature-based memory representations), whereas positive affect promoted the dependent storage of object features, driven by attention-related brain activities (object-based memory representations). Taken together, these findings suggest that visual long-term memory is not a unitary phenomenon. Instead, incoming information can be stored flexibly by means of two qualitatively different long-term memory subsystems, based on the requirements of the current situation.

On-line action monitoring of response execution: An electrophysiological study

In between-hand choice-RT-tasks, small incorrect EMG activations occurring before the correct response (“partial errors”) are assumed to reflect the detection, inhibition and correction of erroneous hand selection, revealing the existence of an action monitoring system, acting “on-line”.Now, EMG activations of the correctly selected hand muscles, too small to reach the response threshold, may also occur before these hand muscles produce an overt correct response (“partial corrects”). We hypothesized that partial corrects reflect incorrect execution of correctly selected responses. We found 1) that response force was smaller on trials preceding a partial correct trial and 2) that the Error Negativity, a performance sensitive ERP, assumed to reveal “on-line” action monitoring, was larger for partial corrects than for correct trials.This also suggests that the competence of the action monitoring system is not restricted to selection errors but also extends to execution errors.

P.367 - A case of childhood onset of treatable sensory neuronopathy caused by mutations in riboflavin transporter RFVT2 presenting as pure sensory ataxia with excellent response to riboflavin – a five year follow up

Childhood onset neuronopathies are a clinically heterogeneous group of disorders. Its original description is known as Brown-Vialetto-Van Laere syndrome and characterized by motor neuronopathy with early onset of bulbar palsy, hearing loss and respiratory failure. Sensorimotor neuronopathy was described later. No treatment was available for this neurodegenerative disorder until recent discovery of riboflavin transporters RFVT3 and RFVT2. We report a case of early childhood onset of RFVT2 related disorder due to compound heterozygous mutation p.S52F and p.L339P in the SLC52A2 gene presenting as a pure sensory ataxia associated with sensorineural hearing loss, respiratory dysfunction, optic atrophy and retinitis pigmentosa. The patient is a 2-year-old girl at the onset of her condition. Initial presentation consisted of isolated sensory ataxia. Lack of clinically evident muscle weakness and electrodiagnostic studies ruled out motor neuronopathy. 3T high resolution MRI of the brain showed abnormal T2 signal in the reticulospinal tracts. There was biochemical evidence for abnormal acylcarnitine profile. A year later patient developed hearing loss, optic nerve atrophy and retinitis pigmentosa. Polysomnogram revealed central apnea with reduced O2 concentration. We followed prospectively clinical, neurophysiological and biochemical parameters starting at baseline and after initiation of therapy with high doses of riboflavin. We report overt response to high-dose of oral riboflavin therapy in our patient. The clinical and biochemical responses in our patient consistent with reports in the literature that riboflavin supplementation can ameliorate the progression of this neurodegenerative condition, particularly when initiated early in the course and can be lifesaving. In addition, this case further broadened knowledge of this rare disorder including never reported before findings of abnormal MRI, retinitis pigmentosa and detailed characterization of respiratory dysfunction.

Observing painful events in others leads to a temporally extended general response facilitation in the self.

Excitability in the motor cortex is modulated when we observe other people receiving a painful stimulus (Avenanti et al., Nat Neurosci 8(7):955-960, 2005). However, the task dependency of this modulation is not well understood, as different paradigms have yielded seemingly different results. Previous neurophysiological work employing transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) suggests that watching another person's hand being pierced by a needle leads to a muscle specific inhibition, assessed via motor evoked potentials. Results from previous behavioural studies suggest that overt behavioural responses are facilitated due to pain observation (Morrison et al., Cereb Cortex 17:2214-2222, 2007b; Morrison et al., Cognition 104:407-416, 2007a). There are several paradigmatic differences both between typical TMS studies and behavioural studies, and within behavioural studies themselves, that limit our overall understanding of how pain observation affects the motor system. In the current study, we combine elements of typical TMS experimental designs in a behavioural assessment of how pain observation affects overt behavioural responding. Specifically, we examined the muscle specificity, timing, and direction of modulation of motor responses due to pain observation. To assess muscle specificity, we employed pain and non-pain videos from previous TMS studies in a Go/No-Go task in which participants responded by either pressing a key with their index finger or with their foot. To assess timing, we examined response times for Go signals presented at 0 or 500ms after the video. Results indicate that observation of another individual receiving a painful stimulus leads to a non-effector specific, temporally extended response facilitation (e.g., finger and foot facilitation present at 0 and 500ms delays), compared to observation of non-pain videos. This behavioural facilitation effect differs from the typical motor inhibition seen in TMS studies, and we argue that the effects of pain observation on the motor system are state-dependent, with different states induced via task instructions. We discuss our results in light of previous work on motor responses to pain observation.

Neuromodulatory circuit effects on Drosophila feeding behaviour and metabolism

Animals have evolved to maintain homeostasis in a changing external environment by adapting their internal metabolism and feeding behaviour. Metabolism and behaviour are coordinated by neuromodulation; a number of the implicated neuromodulatory systems are homologous between mammals and the vinegar fly, an important neurogenetic model. We investigated whether silencing fly neuromodulatory networks would elicit coordinated changes in feeding, behavioural activity and metabolism. We employed transgenic lines that allowed us to inhibit broad cellular sets of the dopaminergic, serotonergic, octopaminergic, tyraminergic and neuropeptide F systems. The genetically-manipulated animals were assessed for changes in their overt behavioural responses and metabolism by monitoring eleven parameters: activity; climbing ability; individual feeding; group feeding; food discovery; both fed and starved respiration; fed and starved lipid content; and fed/starved body weight. The results from these 55 experiments indicate that individual neuromodulatory system effects on feeding behaviour, motor activity and metabolism are dissociated.

Widespread functional opsin transduction in the rat cortex via convection-enhanced delivery optimized for horizontal spread

BackgroundWidespread opsin expression in the cortex of rats, where transgenic models have not been established, is not practical to achieve with the traditional diffusion-based virus transduction methods (DBD). New methodWe developed protocols for convection-enhanced delivery (CED) of virus for optogenetic transduction of the rat cortex. Targeting the motor forelimb area as an example, we performed dual-site CED (6μL of virus per site, 3mm pitch between sites) in the rat motor cortex. ResultsWe identified injection parameters optimized for horizontal spread of infusate in the agarose gel model and then demonstrated in vivo widespread opsin expression over the cortical area (7.4±1.0mm in the AP direction, 4.4±1.1mm in the ML direction, N=13 rats) using CED. The optogenetic transduction was also functionally robust, in which both optical modulation of neuronal activity and elicitation of overt motor responses was reliably observed. Comparison with existing method(s)CED led to about 24-fold increase in the volume of opsin expression, compared with the conventional DBD method. The total injection time was also reduced by at least 10 times, if similar extent of expression were to be achieved with the conventional DBD method. ConclusionsCED is a reliable and effective method of virus delivery for optogenetic transduction of planar superficial structures, such as the cortex in rats.

The effect of monetary punishment on error evaluation in a Go/No-go task

Little is known about the effects of the motivational significance of errors in Go/No-go tasks. We investigated the impact of monetary punishment on the error-related negativity (ERN) and error positivity (Pe) for both overt errors and partial errors, that is, no-go trials without overt responses but with covert muscle activities. We compared high and low punishment conditions where errors were penalized with 50 or 5 yen, respectively, and a control condition without monetary consequences for errors. Because we hypothesized that the partial-error ERN might overlap with the no-go N2, we compared ERPs between correct rejections (i.e., successful no-go trials) and partial errors in no-go trials. We also expected that Pe amplitudes should increase with the severity of the penalty for errors. Mean error rates were significantly lower in the high punishment than in the control condition. Monetary punishment did not influence the overt-error ERN and partial-error ERN in no-go trials. The ERN in no-go trials did not differ between partial errors and overt errors; in addition, ERPs for correct rejections in no-go trials without partial errors were of the same size as in go-trial. Therefore the overt-error ERN and the partial-error ERN may share similar error monitoring processes. Monetary punishment increased Pe amplitudes for overt errors, suggesting enhanced error evaluation processes. For partial errors an early Pe was observed, presumably representing inhibition processes. Interestingly, even partial errors elicited the Pe, suggesting that covert erroneous activities could be detected in Go/No-go tasks.

Assessing Boundary Conditions of the Testing Effect: On the Relative Efficacy of Covert vs. Overt Retrieval.

Repeated testing during learning often improves later memory, which is often referred to as the testing effect. To clarify its boundary conditions, we examined whether the testing effect was selectively affected by covert (retrieved but not articulated) or overt (retrieved and articulated) response format. In Experiments 1 and 2, we compared immediate (5 min) and delayed (1 week) cued recall for paired associates following study-only, covert, and overt conditions, including two types of overt articulation (typing and writing). A clear testing effect was observed in both experiments, but with no selective effects of response format. In Experiments 3 and 4, we compared covert and overt retrieval under blocked and random list orders. The effect sizes were small in both experiments, but there was a significant effect of response format, with overt retrieval showing better final recall performance than covert retrieval. There were no significant effects of blocked vs. random list orders with respect to the testing effect produced. Taken together, these findings suggest that, under specific circumstances, overt retrieval may lead to a greater testing effect than that of covert retrieval, but because of small effect sizes, it appears that the testing effect is mainly the result of retrieval processes and that articulation has fairly little to add to its magnitude in a paired-associates learning paradigm.

Microsaccades are sensitive to word structure: A novel approach to study language processing

Microsaccades are miniature eye movements that occur involuntarily during fixation. They are typically inhibited following stimulus onset and are released from inhibition about 300 ms post-stimulus. Microsaccade-inhibition is modulated by low level features of visual stimuli, but it is currently unknown whether they are sensitive to higher level, abstract linguistic properties. To address this question, we measured the timing of microsaccades while subjects were presented with written Hebrew words and pronounceable nonwords (pseudowords). We manipulated the underlying structure of pseudowords such that half of them contained real roots while the other half contained invented roots. Importantly, orthographic similarity to real words was equated between the two conditions. Microsaccade onset was significantly slower following real-root compared to invented-root stimuli. Similar results were obtained when considering post-stimulus delay of eye blinks. Moreover, microsaccade-delay was positively and significantly correlated with measures of real-word similarity. These findings demonstrate, for the first time, sensitivity of microsaccades to linguistic structure. Because microsaccades are involuntary and can be measured in the absence of overt response, our results provide initial evidence that they can be used as a novel physiological measure in the study of language processes in healthy and clinical populations.

When You're Happy and I Know It: Four-Year-Olds' Emotional Perspective Taking During Online Language Comprehension.

Using a novel emotional perspective-taking task, this study investigated 4-year-olds' (n=97) use of a speaker's emotional prosody to make inferences about the speaker's emotional state and, correspondingly, their communicative intent. Eye gaze measures indicated preschoolers used emotional perspective inferences to guide their real-time interpretation of ambiguous statements. However, these sensitivities were less apparent in overt responses, suggesting preschoolers' ability to integrate emotional perspective cues is at an emergent state. Perspective taking during online language processing was positively correlated with receptive vocabulary and an offline measure of emotional perspective taking, but not with cognitive perspective taking, conflict or delay inhibitory control, or working memory. Together, the results underscore how children's emerging communicative competence involves different kinds of perspective inferences with distinct cognitive underpinnings.