Tuesday, August 31, 2010

iPost: Circadian rhythms and affective dysfunction

PsyPost: Circadian rhythms: Their role and dysfunction in affective disorder: All humans are synchronised to the rhythmic l.
.. http://bit.ly/dcMeqf

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iPost: Computer based cognitive assessment

NeuropathLrng: Computer based test to assess cognitive skills in Down syndrome adolescents developed

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Monday, August 30, 2010

iPost: PEBS Neuroethics Roundup from JHU Guest Blogger

Neuroethics & Law Blog
Last Edition's Most Popular Article: A Psychophysiological Investigation of Moral Judgment after Ventromedial Prefrontal Damage, Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience In the Popular Press: Can preschoolers be depressed? The New York Times Inside Neurosurgery's Rise, The New York Times Your Circadian...
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Friday, August 27, 2010

iPost: Temporal processing and handwriting

Neural models of temporally organized behaviors: Handwriting production and working memoryStephen Grossberg...

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iPost: New Special Issue on Alzheimer's Disease

Neuroscience News from Elsevier
Edited by Mene Pangalos and Andy Randall, for Neuropharmacology. Volume 59, Issues 4-5, Pages 219-366 (September-October 2010).
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Tuesday, August 24, 2010

iPost: Brain wiring and decision making

PsychNews: Brain Wiring Key to Quick Decisions, Finds Study

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Monday, August 23, 2010

iPost: PEBS Neuroethics Roundup from JHU Guest Blogger

Neuroethics & Law Blog
Last Edition's Most Popular Article: Diagnosis, diagnosis, diagnosis: towards DSM-5, Journal of Mental Health In the Popular Press: Looking This Way and That, and Learning to Adapt to the World, The New York Times Researchers have rallied round a promising...
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Sunday, August 22, 2010

iPost: The five dimensions of an autistic brain

Story at link below

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheMouseTrap/~3/6Kr3EGNtR0g/


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Friday, August 20, 2010

iPost: Auditory selective attention deficits found as problem for some military trainees

Interesting story on potential predictive validity of WJ III Auditory Discrimination test in the military. Story at link below.

[Conflict of interest note: I am a coauthor and have a royalty interest in the WJIII battery. ]

http://www.army.mil/-news/2010/08/13/43678-army-researchers-discover-auditory-processing-deficit-in-some-68d-students/


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iPost: Neurotech Reports News Updates



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Begin forwarded message:

From: info@neurotechreports.com
Date: August 20, 2010 7:51:51 AM CDT
To: iap@earthlink.net
Subject: Neurotech Reports News Updates

Wednesday, August 18, 2010

Research bytes 8-18-2010: IQ brain clock and sex/handedness differences and impact on aphasis

Sidiropoulos, K., Ackermann, H., Wannke, M., & Hertrich, I. (2010). Temporal processing capabilities in repetition conduction aphasia. Brain and Cognition, 73(3), 194-202.

This study investigates the temporal resolution capacities of the central-auditory system in a subject (NP) suffering from repetition conduction aphasia. More specifically, the patient was asked to detect brief gaps between two stretches of broadband noise (gap detection task) and to evaluate the duration of two biphasic (WN-3) continuous noise elements, starting with white noise (WN) followed by 3 kHz bandpass-filtered noise (duration discrimination task). During the gap detection task, the two portions of each stimulus were either identical (“intra-channel condition”) or differed (“inter-channel condition”) in the spectral characteristics of the leading and trailing acoustic segments. NP did not exhibit any deficits in the intra-channel condition of the gap detection task, indicating intact auditory temporal resolution across intervals of 1–3 ms. By contrast, the inter-channel condition yielded increased threshold values. Based upon the “multiple-looks” model of central-auditory processing, this profile points at a defective integration window operating across a few tens of milliseconds – a temporal range associated with critical features of the acoustic speech signal such as voice onset time and formant transitions. Additionally, NP was found impaired during a duration discrimination task addressing longer integration windows (ca. 150 ms). Concerning speech, this latter time domain approximately corresponds to the duration of stationary segmental units such as fricatives and long vowels. On the basis of our results we suggest, that the patient’s auditory timing deficits in non-speech tasks may account, at least partially, for his impairments in speech processing.

Article Outline

1. Introduction
2. Materials and methods

2.1. Case history
2.2. Intra-channel gap detection task
2.3. Inter-channel gap detection task
2.4. Duration discrimination task

3. Results

3.1. Intra-channel gap detection task
3.2. Inter-channel gap detection
3.3. Duration discrimination task

4. Discussion
Acknowledgements
References




Rammsayer, T. & Troche, S. (2010, in press) Sex differences in the processing of temporal information in the sub-second range.  Personality and Individual Differences

Processing of temporal information in the sub-second range appears to be controlled by an automatic timing system. The present study examined sex-related differences in this temporal domain. For this purpose, 132 male and 144 female participants ranging in age from 18 to 39 years completed five different psychophysical timing tasks. Reliably better timing performance in males compared to females could be shown for temporal discrimination of empty intervals and rhythm perception. Males’ better performance on temporal discrimination of filled intervals and temporal-order judgment just failed to reach the 5%-level of statistical significance. No indication of a sex-related difference was found for temporal generalisation. Findings are consistent with the notion of a slightly more efficient automatic timing system in males compared to females. Furthermore, with tasks requiring temporal integration across a series of sensory events, a more holistic processing strategy applied by males may also contribute to their performance advantage.

Article Outline

1. Introduction
2. Method

2.1. Participants
2.2. Intelligence test
2.3. Psychophysical timing tasks

2.3.1. Duration discrimination
2.3.2. Temporal-discrimination tasks
2.3.3. Temporal-generalisation task
2.3.4. Temporal-order judgment (TOJ)
2.3.5. Rhythm perception

3. Results
4. Discussion
Acknowledgements
References


Westfall, J., Jasper, J. & Zelmanova (2010) Differences in time perception as a function of strength of handedness.  Personality and Individual Differences, 49, 629–633

Research has established that objective measures of time rarely have a perfect correlation with subjective judgments of time. Given that proper time perception appears to depend upon access to right-hemisphere processing (e.g., Harrington, Haaland, & Knight, 1998), the present paper investigates the link between strength of handedness and subjective time judgments. In two distinctive time- associated decision-making tasks, results indicated that mixed-handers (individuals who use their non-dominant hand for at least a few activities), perceived time differently than strong-handers (individuals who use one hand predominantly). These findings signify a link between strength of handedness and different levels of interhemispheric communication, consistent with previous handedness literature, and suggest that researchers studying time perception or problems involving the perception of time should incorporate measures of handedness strength.
Article Outline

1. Introduction

1.1. Strength of handedness and interhemispheric communication

2. Method

2.1. Subjective time perception task
2.2. Delay discounting task
2.3. Edinburgh Handedness Inventory (EHI)

3. Results

3.1. Subjective time perception task
3.2. Delay discounting task

4. Discussion
Acknowledgements
References


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Tuesday, August 17, 2010

iPost: The Brain in Science Education: What Should Everyone Learn?

Story at SHARP BRAINS link below


http://www.sharpbrains.com/blog/2010/08/17/the-brain-in-science-education-what-should-everyone-learn/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=the-brain-in-science-education-what-should-everyone-learn


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iPost: Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience

Neuroscience News from Elsevier
A new journal for cognitive, affective and social developmental neuroscience. Now accepting submissions.
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Monday, August 16, 2010

Off task: Happiness is an optimized hard drive :)

PEBS NeuroethicsiiPost: Roundup from JHU Guest Blogger

Neuroethics & Law Blog
Last Edition's Most Popular Article: Deep Brain Stimulation Podcast, Journal of Neurosurgery Podcast Archive In the Popular Press: Fighting Crime by Reading Minds, Time Brain works more like internet than 'top down' company, BBC News Potential Found in a New...
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Monday, August 09, 2010

iPost: PEBS Neuroethics Roundup from JHU Guest Blogger

At link below

http://kolber.typepad.com/ethics_law_blog/2010/08/pebs-neuroethics-roundup-from-jhu-guest-blogger-1.html


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Institute for Applied Psychometrics (IAP) internet resourcs (web, blogs, etc.) updated/revised

This blog, as well as my other two professional blogs, are activities of the Institute for Applied Psychometrics (IAP).  I'm pleased to announce that this past week I finally found the time to update/revise the IAP web page. 

Aside from updating content, the major revision was the integration and cross-linking of the IAP web page with my three professional blogs.  The web page serves more as the "mother" host of major static material while the three blogs are the IAP's mechanisms (along with Facebook, LinkedIN and Twitter---page links that are now also available at the revised web page) for immediate, dynamic presentation of material.  Collectively all of these internet portals work together to meet the goals of IAP (as outlined below).  The sources are now better integrated via the latest web page revision.  Enjoy

You can access the IAP web page via three methods:

Enjoy
The Institute for Applied Psychometrics (IAP) llc is a private research organization, founded by Kevin McGrew, devoted to the application of educational, psychological, measurement and statistical procedures to issues and problems in psychology, education, and human exceptionalities/disabilities.  The goal of IAP is to provide a bridge between psychological, measurement, and statistical theory/methods and applied practice in psychology, education and law.

IAP has particular research interests in: (a) theories and measurement of human intelligence, personal competence and adaptive behavior, (b) the application of psychological and educational measurement principles and techniques to the development and interpretation of psychological and educational assessment instruments, (c) the Cattell-Horn-Carroll (CHC) Theory of Cognitive Abilities, (d) narrowing the theory-practice gap in educational and psychological assessment, (c) the influence of non-cognitive (conative) characteristics on learning and human performance, (d) psychological assessment practices in the identification and classification of individuals with intellectual and learning disabilities and other exceptionalities, (e) the application of emerging neurotechnologies to learning and cognitive performance, and (f) psychometric issues related to the identification of individuals with intellectual disabilities in Atkins MR/ID death penalty cases.  The practical application of psychometrics to educational, psychological and legal problems is a unique IAP focus.

IAP has conducted research and provided consultation and training on:

  • Human ability measurement as per the Cattell-Horn-Carroll (CHC; Gf-Gc) Theory of Cognitive Abilities.
  • Achievement and cognitive ability test development and interpretation.
  • The practical application of IRT, multivariate statistics, and structural equation modeling (SEM) methods to educational and psychological issues and problems.
  • Research, development, and validation of models of human abilities and competence, particularly in the areas of multiple intelligence's, academic and cognitive skill development, personal competence, adaptive behavior, and community adjustment.
  • The development and measurement of educational and community outcomes for individuals with disabilities.
  • Secondary analysis of large-scale national databases.
  • The development and improvement of educational assessment practices for students with disabilities.
  • The development of strong programs of construct validity for educational and psychological assessment and measurement methods.
  • Recognizing the importance on non-cognitive (e.g., self-regulated learning strategies; self- efficacy; etc) student characteristics in academic learning.
  • Psychometric issues surrounding intelligence testing in federal Atkins MR/ID death penalty cases.
  • Scientific advice to neurotechnology companies (i.e., Interactive Metronome).
  • Education regarding applied psychometric topics.

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iPost: Let's Help Brainline build its new web site dedicated to brain injury in children

http://braininjury.blogs.com/braininjury/2010/08/lets-help-brainline-build-its-new-web-site-dedicated-to-brain-injury-in-children.html


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iPost: Needed: funding for innovative research on slowing cognitive decline via cognitive training

Story at link below

http://www.sharpbrains.com/blog/2010/08/09/needed-funding-for-innovative-research-on-slowing-cognitive-decline-via-cognitive-training/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=needed-funding-for-innovative-research-on-slowing-cognitive-decline-via-cognitive-training


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Monday, August 02, 2010

iPost: PEBS Neuroethics roundup

PEBS (always full of great info) Neuroethics Roundup at link below

http://kolber.typepad.com/ethics_law_blog/2010/08/pebs-neuroethics-roundup-from-jhu-guest-blogger.html


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Sunday, August 01, 2010

Tuesday, July 27, 2010

Posit Science Brain Fitness News: July 2010



To view this email as a web page, go here.

July 2010

In This Issue
New Study Shows Posit Program Changes Brain and Improves Memory

How to Practice

Big Hips Bad for the Brain?

Vitamins D and E-Protection against Cognitive Decline

Better Diagnosis for Brain Injury

Dementia in Diabetes Is Different

Book of the Month
Useful Links
> Brain Games
> About the Brain
> Suggested Reading
> Posit Science Products
> Posit Science Blog
> Support Community

Book of the Month
Our Sites
> Posit Science
> "On the Brain" Blog

 
Dear ,

Earlier this month, The Hartford insurance company announced a new policyholder benefit: they are making our DriveSharp brain fitness software available to their nearly 2 million AARP customers at a discount. It's part of their Safe Driving for a Lifetime public awareness campaign. What's more, The Hartford will give $50 to members who complete DriveSharp in thanks for making the roads safer for everyone.

We're honored that The Hartford chose Posit Science to partner in this effort. For more information, read the press release or visit The Hartford's website. You can also check out Four Steps to Enhance Your Driving Wellness, a blog post on our site from one of The Hartford's gerontologists and driving experts.

As always, we welcome your feedback. To ask a question or share a thought with Posit Science, please visit our Support Community.



Best regards,

Steven Aldrich CEO

New Study Shows Posit Program Changes Brain and Improves Memory
We're really excited about a new study published by Adam Gazzaley and Anne S. Berry of the University of California at San Francisco. Gazzaley and Berry trained people on Sweep Seeker, one of the exercises in our InSight brain fitness program. They found that people who used Sweep Seeker improved working memory by nearly fifty years, bringing the group with the mean age of 72 equal to a group of 24-year-olds. What's more, EEG results show the training caused physical changes in the brain. Read the press release or the study abstract to learn more.

How to Practice
We've all heard that practice makes perfect, but it turns out how you practice makes a difference. Constantly practicing a single task isn't the best way to go. Instead, you should mix up the task you're trying to master with other tasks. Why? It requires you to think about the task more deeply each time—and that helps your brain remember better. Learn more.

Big Hips Bad for the Brain?
A new study finds a strong correlation between extra weight and poorer cognitive performance in women 65+. What's more: those women with a "pear" shape fared much worse than those with extra belly fat. Why does it matter where the weight is? Find the possible explanation in this BBC article.

Vitamins D and E—Protection against Cognitive Decline
Two recent large-scale studies again suggest brain benefits from vitamins E and D. In one, low blood levels of vitamin D were associated with a higher risk for cognitive decline. The other correlated a vitamin E-rich diet with a lower dementia risk. Learn more about these study results.

While vitamin D is rarely found in large quantities in food (it's the one you get from sunshine), you can increase your vitamin E intake in your diet. We have some great vitamin E-rich recipes in our ThinkFood Brain-Healthy Recipe of the Week program, like Almond Soba Noodles. To see this recipe and sign up for the program, click here! Note: You must be signed up to view the recipe.

Better Diagnosis for Brain Injury
Within a few years, a simple blood test might be all it takes to identify a brain injury. That's a great improvement over current methods of diagnosis, which can easily miss or misdiagnose a brain injury, preventing the patient from getting the treatment he or she needs. Why do researchers think blood is the answer to this brain question? Find out.

Dementia in Diabetes Is Different
Diabetes is associated with a higher risk for dementia—but a new study suggests that it's a different type of dementia than in most non-diabetics. Dementia in people with diabetes is more likely to be a result of vascular disease than Alzheimer's. This means that if diabetes is prevented in an individual, dementia might be, too. Learn more.

Book of the Month
The Other Brain: From Dementia to Schizophrenia, How New Discoveries about the Brain Are Revolutionizing Medicine and Science (2010)
By R. Douglas Fields

In The Other Brain, R. Douglas Fields turns the spotlight on glia—a group of cells that comprise about 90% of all brain cells. Less well-known than neurons—and once relegated to the role of "helper" to the neuron's dominance—glia come into their own in Fields's work. He draws attention to new research on the critical role of glia in a host of brain functions and failures—from information processing to multiple sclerosis, stroke, and migraines. An enjoyable and informative read, The Other Brain fills an important gap in the understanding of how the brain works. Learn more >>

This newsletter contains public reports of studies which our scientists found to be of interest; no other representation is made with respect to such reports. While study results are informative, Posit Science reminds people that individual results will vary. Posit Science does not recommend its products for the treatment of disease; such treatment should be under the direction of an appropriate health professional. Some or all of this newsletter may constitute an advertisement for certain purposes.
 
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Monday, July 26, 2010

Working memory and IQ brain clock training and mechanisms linked?

It is no secret that I believe that there is a significant link between contemporary working memory (and training related studies) and mental timing mechanisms (and training to improve) that can not be ignored.  I keep running across the common neurological mechanisms of the frontal (esp. the dorsolateral PFC) and parietal cortex's, the frontal-parietal loop, the basal ganglia and dopamine.  I have hypothesized about this in a variety of posts (esp. the possibility of a temporal g domain-general mechanism) and have made this link in a couple on-line PPT slide shows.  Klingberg's article below is entirely consistent with these hypotheses (click here for more info on Klingberg's strong program of working memory research).

Klingberg, T. (2010).  Training and plasticity of working memory.  Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 14 (7), 317-324. (click here to view)

Working memory (WM) capacity predicts performance in a wide range of cognitive tasks. Although WM capacity has been viewed as a constant trait, recent studies suggest that it can be improved by adaptive and extended training. This training is associated with changes in brain activity in frontal and parietal cortex and basal ganglia, as well as changes in dopamine receptor density. Transfer of the training effects to non-trained WM tasks is consistent with the notion of training-induced plasticity in a common neural network for WM. The observed training effects suggest that WM training could be used as a remediating intervention for individuals for whom low WM capacity is a limiting factor for academic performance or in everyday life.

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