Psychology Commons^™

Lateralized Difference In Tympanic Membrane Temperature: Emotion And Hemispheric Activity, Ruth E. Propper, Tad T. Brunyé

Ruth Propper

We review literature examining relationships between tympanic membrane temperature (TMT), affective/motivational orientation, and hemispheric activity. Lateralized differences in TMT might enable real-time monitoring of hemispheric activity in real-world conditions, and could serve as a corroborating marker of mental illnesses associated with specific affective dysregulation. We support the proposal that TMT holds potential for broadly indexing lateralized brain physiology during tasks demanding the processing and representation of emotional and/or motivational states, and for predicting trait-related affective/motivational orientations. The precise nature of the relationship between TMT and brain physiology, however, remains elusive. Indeed the limited extant research has sampled different participant populations …

Cetaceans And Primates: Convergence In Intelligence And Self-Awareness, Lori Marino

Lori Marino, PhD

Cetaceans (dolphins, porpoises and whales) have been of greatest interest to the astrobiology community and to those interested in consciousness and selfawareness in animals. This interest has grown primarily from knowledge of the intelligence, language and large complex brains that many cetaceans possess. The study of cetacean and primate brain evolution and cognition can inform us about the contingencies and parameters associated with the evolution of complex intelligence in general, and, the evolution of consciousness. Striking differences in cortical organization in the brains of cetaceans and primates along with shared cognitive capacities such as self-awareness, culture, and symbolic concept comprehension, …

An Event-Related Examination Of Neural Activity During Social Interactions, Jason R. Themanson, Stephanie M. Khatcherian, Aaron B. Ball, Peter J. Rosen

Jason R. Themanson, Ph.D

Social exclusion is known to cause alterations in neural activity and perceptions of social distress. However, previous research is largely limited to examining social interactions as a unitary phenomenon without investigating adjustments in neural and attentional processes that occur during social interactions. To address this limitation, we examined neural activity on a trial-by-trial basis during different social interactions. Our results show conflict monitoring neural alarm activation, indexed by the N2, in response to specific exclusionary events; even during interactions that are inclusionary overall and in the absence of self-reported feelings of social pain. Furthermore, we show enhanced attentional activation to …

Selective Breeding For 50 Khz Ultrasonic Vocalization Emission Produces, Howard Cromwell

Howard Casey Cromwell

Ultrasonic vocalizations (USVs) are emitted by rodents and can signal either negative or positive affective states in social and nonsocial contexts. Our recent work has utilized selective breeding based upon the emission of 50 kHz USVs in response to standard cross species hand play—namely experimenters ‘tickling’ rats. Previous work has shown that high-tickle responsive animals (i.e., rats emitting abundant 50 kHz USVs) are gregarious and express enhanced positive emotional behaviors relative to animals exhibiting low 50 kHz USVs. The present study extends this work by examining the developmental profile of play behavior and the suppression of play behavior by predator …

Alterations In Error-Related Brain Activity And Post-Error Behavior Over Time, Jason R. Themanson, Matthew B. Pontifex, Charles H. Hillman, Peter J. Rosen, Edward Mcauley

Jason R. Themanson, Ph.D

This study examines the relation between the error-related negativity (ERN) and post-error behavior over time in healthy young adults (N = 61). Event-related brain potentials were collected during two sessions of an identical flanker task. Results indicated changes in ERN and post-error accuracy were related across task sessions, with more negative ERN associated with greater improvements in post-error Accuracy. This relationship was independent of any cross-sectional relationships between overall task performance, individual difference factors, including personality and self-efficacy, and indices of self-regulatory action monitoring. These results indicate that the relation between ERN and post-error accuracy remains intact and consistent regardless …

Neural Correlates Of The Implicit Association Test: Evidence For Semantic And Emotional Processing, Jason R. Themanson, John K. Williams

Jason R. Themanson, Ph.D

Rethinking Thecognitiverevolutionfromaneuralperspective:How, Howard Cromwell

Howard Casey Cromwell

Words such as cognition, motivation and emotion powerfully guide theory development and the overall aims and goals of behavioral neuroscience research. Once such concepts are accepted generally as natural aspects of the brain, their influence can be pervasive and long lasting. Importantly, the choice of conceptual terms used to describe and study mental/neural functions can also constrain research by forcing the results into seemingly useful ‘conceptual’ categories that have no discrete reality in the brain. Since the popularly named ‘cognitive revolution’ in psychological science came to fruition in the early 1970s, the term cognitive or cognition has been perhaps the …

The Faculty For Undergraduate Neuroscience: Learning Lessons Since 1991, Eric P. Wiertelak, Julio J. Ramirez, Jennifer R. Yates

Eric Wiertelak

No abstract provided.

The Biology Of Reality Testing - Implications For Cognitive Education, Neil Greenberg

Neil Greenberg

• This report explores the proposition that teaching effectiveness can be enhanced by accommodating the key differences between two complementary and deeply engrained modes of reality testing, each predominantly centered in different hemispheres of the brain. • (1) Correspondence involves “reality-testing” of a percept, the cerebral representation of an experience in the world. • (2) Coherence involves “textualizing”, that is, reality-testing of a percept by how easily it relates to previous and ongoing parallel and collateral experiences. • Confidence in the validity of any percept throughout development is related to the interplay of these key processes. • As organisms develop, …

Aerobic Fitness And Cognitive Development: Event-Related Brain Potential And Task Performance Indices Of Executive Control In Preadolescent Children, Jason R. Themanson, Charles H. Hillman, Sarah M. Buck, Matthew B. Pontifex, Darla M. Castelli

Jason R. Themanson, Ph.D

The relationship between aerobic fitness and executive control was assessed in 38 higher- and lower-fit children (M_age = 9.4 years), grouped according to their performance on a field test of aerobic capacity. Participants performed a flanker task requiring variable amounts of executive control while event-related brain potential responses and task performance were assessed. Results indicated that higher-fit children performed more accurately across conditions of the flanker task and following commission errors when compared to lower-fit children, whereas no group differences were observed for reaction time. Neuroelectric data indicated that P3 amplitude was larger for higher- compared to lower-fit children …

Bimanual Coupling In Left And Right Space: Which Hand Is Yoked To Which?, Gavin Buckingham, Gordon Binsted, David Carey

Gavin Buckingham

• Reaching across the body into contralateral space with one hand incurs a substantial cost on various measures of performance, compared to ipsilateral reaches of a similar amplitude (Carey, Hargreaves, & Goodale, 1996).

• When reaching with both hands, unimanual asymmetries disappear.

-The hands take off and land concurrently (Kelso, Southard, & Goodman, 1979).

• To test if this ‘yoking’ is driven by the left or the right hand, participants performed reaches of different amplitudes.

• These reaches were made to the left or right side of space.

-Further increasing the unimanual (baseline) asymmetries that get wiped out by the …

Input Vs. Output Level Coupling Demonstrates Asymmetrical Attentional Biases, Gavin Buckingham, David Carey

Gavin Buckingham

The current study examined the performance of each limb as it reached across the body (the hard task), while yoked to it’s ipsilateral reaching counterpart (the easy task).

Asymmetries In Attention Toward The Dominant Hand: Input Or Output?, Gavin Buckingham, Julie Main, David Carey

Gavin Buckingham

Peters (1981) suggested that an asymmetrical bias in attention (toward the right hand of right handers) could account for many manual asymmetries in bimanual task performance. Support for this notion comes from Honda (1982), who demonstrated preferential monitoring of the dominant hand during a bimanual reaching task, while Buckingham and Carey (2007) observed shorter refractory periods (dwell time in a bimanual discontinuous double-step reaching task) for the right hand.

Recent evidence may indicate an intentional (i.e. selection related behaviour – motor attention) bias toward the dominant hand (Bestelmeyer & Carey, 2004). The current study tests the hypothesis that the right …

Attentional Vs. Intentional Biases In Hand Movements; Hand-Specific Coupling & Bimanual Reaching, Gavin Buckingham, David Carey

Gavin Buckingham

Most of the population is dextral, showing a clear preference for performing the vast majority of tasks with their right hand. Peters (1981) suggested that an asymmetrical bias in attention (toward the right hand in right handers) could account for many manual asymmetries in bimanual task performance, with the left hand unable to perform the attentionally demanding portion of the task. Likewise, Honda (1982) demonstrated preferential monitoring of the dominant hand during a bimanual reaching task. Recent evidence has also shown an intentional (i.e. output related motor attention) bias toward the dominant hand (Bestelmeyer & Carey, 2004), another possible factor …

Homeland Security: Engaging The Frontlines - Symposium Proceedings, George H. Baker, Cheryl J. Elliott

George H Baker

The rise of the American homeland security endeavor under the leadership of the new Department of Homeland Security has been heralded by several major national strategy documents. These documents have served to organize efforts at top levels within the government and industry. However, the national strategy guidance is not getting to many organizations and people at the grass-roots level who can make the most difference in preventing attacks, protecting systems, and recovering from catastrophic events, viz. the general citizenry, private infrastructure owners, and local governments. To better understand grass-roots issues and solutions, James Madison University, in cooperation with the Federal …

Identifying Placebo Effects With Data From Clinical Trials, Anup Malani

Anup Malani

A medical treatment is said to have placebo effects if patients who are optimistic about the treatment respond better to the treatment. This paper proposes a simple test for placebo effects. Instead of comparing the treatment and control arms of a single trial, one should compare the treatment arms of two trials with different probabilities of assignment to treatment. If there are placebo effects, patients in the higher-probability trial will experience better outcomes simply because they believe that there is a greater chance of receiving treatment. This paper finds evidence of placebo effects in trials of antiulcer and cholesterol-lowering drugs.

From Faculty For Undergraduate Neuroscience: Encouraging Innovation In Undergraduate Neuroscience Education By Supporting Student Research And Faculty Development, Eric Wiertelak, J. C. Hardwick, M. Kerchner, B. Lom, J. J. Ramirez

Eric Wiertelak

No abstract provided.

Reflections On… Phase Shifting Under Different Visual Conditions, Gavin Buckingham, David Carey, Arash Sahraie

Gavin Buckingham

When two limbs are moved out of time (i.e. opposing muscle activation at each limb) in rhythmic oscillatory movements, there is a tendency at high frequencies for the movements to synchronise in the temporal domain, resulting in bilateral homologous muscle activation known as a ‘phase shift’ (Kelso, 1984). In an effort to determine the degree with which perception influences this phase shifting behaviour (Mechsner et al., 2001), a mirror can be placed between the hands of participants, parallel to their mid-saggital plane such that the reflected hand appeared in the place of the occluded hand. This paradigm can be used …

Visual Adaptation To Masculine And Feminine Faces Influences Generalized Preferences And Perceptions Of Trustworthiness, Gavin Buckingham, L. Debruine, A. Little, L. Welling, C. Conway, B. Tiddeman, B. Jones

Gavin Buckingham

We compared the effects of adaptation to faces varying in sexual dimorphism of shape on perceptions of the trustworthiness and attractiveness of masculine faces.

Ethological Aspects Of Stress In A Model Lizard, Anolis Carolinensis, Neil Greenberg

Neil Greenberg

Research on the stress response in reptiles can provide a useful comparative perspective for understanding how the constituent elements of the response can be put into service of diverse behavioral adaptations. A summary of the neural and endocrine causes and consequences of specific behavioral patterns seen in the small diurnal lizard, Anolis carolinensis, has provided a model for the exploration of the dynamics of autonomic and neurohormonal contributions to adaptive behavior. In this species, changes in body color provide indices of the flux of circulating stress relevant hormones, and are seen in situations from spontaneous exploration through agonistic behavior. Furthermore, …

Adaptive Functions Of The Corpus Striatum: The Past And Future Of The R-Complex, Neil Greenberg

Neil Greenberg

The basal ganglia is emerging from the shadow cast by the most conspicuous clinical expression of its dysfunction: motor disorders.What is revealed is the nexus of a widely distributed system which functions in integrating action with cognition, motivation, and affect. Prominent among non-motor functions are striatal involvement in building up of sequences of behavior into meaningful, goal-directed patterns and repertoires and the selection of appropriate learned or innate sequences in concert with their possible predictive control. Further, striatum seems involved in declarative and strategic memory (involving intentional recollection and the management of retrieved memories, respectively). Findings from reptile experiments indicate …

The Saurian Psyche Revisted: Lizards In Research, Neil Greenberg

Neil Greenberg

This essay is intended to guide researchers interested in lizards as prospective experimental models to identify an appropriate species for their research needs and to care for lizards in a manner that will not compromise their utility. Coupled with these is a concern for critical thinking about the ethical dimension of lizard research, one guide for which is to consider the intersection of human needs and lizard needs. Before proceeding further, several arbitrary premises must be made clear: 1. While wholly deserving of study because of their intrinsic interest, I will assume that the lizard research to be undertaken is …

Art, Science, Areté, Neil Greenberg

Neil Greenberg

No abstract provided.

Ethological Considerations In The Experimental Study Of Lizard Behavior, Neil Greenberg

Neil Greenberg

The importance of an ethological approach to the experimental study of an unfamiliar species is described and several of its problems discussed. The selection of units of behavior is a crucial first step in the development of a behavior inventory. The correlation of a behavioral unit with a particular context is necessary to ascribe function to that to that unit and to develop an ethogram. Methods of studying lizards under controlled conditions are described and discussed. Constraints on behavior that must be considered in an experimental study include the microclimate and its thermal qualities, food and water, shelter utilization, and …