Dynamics of formation of internal lexicon in junior school children

Study of lexicon has shown that the verbal-thinking activity did not yet acquired the automatic character in school-children of 1–2 grades; predominant are nouns that reflect the graphic-sensory world picture. Such world picture represents the near space of the child with emphasis of interior of the class and apartment. This period is suggested to be due to predominance of activity of the right hemisphere. In the 9–10-year-old children, as compared with the 7–8-year-old children, the lexicon is distinguished by automatic character of the speech flow, an increase of the number of verbs, adjectives, and proper nouns, by the appearance of the wide circle of associations, by the presence of conceptual lexicon, and by the appearance of the word-substituting and word-forming associates and dual oppositions indicating development of abstract thinking. This is suggested to be the beginning of the ontogenetically late stage of the verbal-thinking activity associated with an increase of activity of the left hemisphere.Translated from Zhurnal Evolyutsionnoi Biokhimii i Fiziologii, Vol. 40, No. 5, 2004, pp. 436–440.Original Russian Text Copyright © 2004 by Nikolaenko.To the 100-Anniversary of N. N. Traugott     

Metaphorical and Associative Thinking in Healthy Children and in Children with Asperger's Syndrome at Different Ages

The study of healthy children and patients with childhood autism (Asperger's syndrome) showed that metaphorical thinking is normally efficient at the age of 7–8 years and that autistic children have an impaired ability to understand metaphors and idioms widely used in verbal communication. The deficit of metaphorical thinking in autism is thought to be due to a decreased activity of the right hemisphere. In a study of associative thinking, healthy schoolchildren displayed a high degree of association between words describing sensual objects and autistic patients displayed an impairment of objective associations and a predominance of proper names, which is indicative of the left-hemispheric type of association. The impairment of the speech and mental activity (metaphorical and associative thinking) testified to changes in the interhemispheric interaction in autistic children, which is likely to show up in a decreased functional activity of the right hemisphere and an increased activity of the left hemisphere.     

Study of Metaphoric and Associative Thinking in Children of Different Age Groups and in Patients with Childhood Autism

The study was performed on 35 healthy children and 9 patients with childhood autism (Asperger's syndrome). It was shown that formation of metaphoric thinking in norm begins as early as at the age of 7–8 years, the ability to understand metaphors decreasing suddenly at the age of 13–15 years. In the patients with childhood autism the inability was revealed of understanding metaphors and idioms widely used in the verbal communication. It is suggested that the deficit of the metaphoric thinking is due to introduction of the logic, theoretical thinking and, hence, to the underlying increased activity of the left hemisphere, as well as to the deficit of the imaginative-metaphoric thinking and to the underlying decreased activity of the right hemisphere. The study of the associative process has shown that the healthy school children have a high degree of association between the words meaning the sensory world of objects. In the patients with autism there were revealed an attenuation of the object association and the predominance of the first names, which indicates the left-hemispheric type of the association process.     

Sex Differences and Activity of the Left and Right Brain Hemispheres

The problem is reviewed of sex differences and the brain organization of the visual-spatial and verbal-cognitive functions both in adults and in the 5–15-year old children. Characteristic of men are the integral strategy of the face image recognition, specialization of the right hemisphere for visual-spatial functions, and the tonic inhibitory effect of the right hemisphere on the left one. Typical of women are the fragmented type of the image recognition, the equality of the brain hemispheres functions at the unfamiliar face recognition, and predominance of the left hemisphere by accuracy of the object localization in the visual field. It is possible that the general strategy of the recognition in women is not realized due to the right hemisphere submitted to the interfering effect of the left hemisphere. Analysis of sex differences in distribution of verbal functions shows that the capability for the verbal learning at the age of 5 years and older is higher in girls than in boys. Such capability seems to be accounted for by the superiority of the left hemisphere in girls in this type of its activity and by its earlier development and maturation. The phenomenon of semantic paralexia appearing more often in boys is accounted for by inclusion of lexical-semantic fields of the right hemisphere symmetric areas in the verbal-cognitive activity There are reasons to believe that the higher capability in girls for the verbal learning is mainly due to processes of the auditory-verbal integration within the limits of the left hemisphere, whereas this verbal ability in boys depends on the relative predominance of the interhemispheric connections.     

Mismatch negativity to changes in a continuous tone with regularly varying frequencies

By using the mismatch negativity (MMN) component of the event-related potential, it was demonstrated that changes within a repetitively presented tone pattern can be automatically (i.e., involuntarily and attention-independently) detected by the human brain. Patterns consisting of 5 tones, immediately succeeding one another and differing in frequency, were delivered to subjects reading a self-selected book. There was a frequent , “standard” (P = 0.90) and an infrequent, “deviant” (P = 0.10) pattern presented in random order. The deviant pattern elicited the MMN even when the auditory stimulation was continuous, that is, no empty between-pattern interval indicated the beginning of a tone pattern. It may be concluded that the MMN mechanism is not necessarily timed by an “external” reference but is able to use “internal” units extracted from the repetitive structure inherent in the incessant flow of acoustic signals. The MMN paradigm seems to provide a tool to illuminate the organization of acoustic signals into auditory units.     

Logical-Semantic Analysis and the Development of L.S. Vygotsky's Ideas About “Units” and “Elements” of Psychological Systems

Based on an analysis of L.S. Vygotsky's concepts of “units” and “elements” of psychological systems, this article highlights five of their attributes. It shows that these attributes are logically symmetrical, since in their wording they can be converted into one another by negation or by replacing some words with their opposites. This suggests that the concepts of the “unit” and “element” of a system are different poles of one theoretical construct of the activity of human psychology. Thus methods for the study of psychological systems by breaking them down into elements or by separating them into units can be seen as complementary. The article describes differences among the concepts of “unit,” “minimal unit,” and “cell” of a psychological system. It reviews several problems that are solvable using the “method of units,” as well as some concepts of the theory of psychological systems that are understood as holistic, conceptual, and active processes and/or results of human interaction with the world. Among the examples of such systems are “systems of psychological functions” (according to Vygotsky), as well as separate activities (according to A.N. Leontiev), human actions and operations (interactions with the world on the level of objects and mental or physical means). The “component” of a psychological system is defined as any “something” that in some sense belongs to or is included in human interaction with the world. A component that belongs to the system is called an “element” of it, but a component that is included in the functioning and development of the system is called a “part” of it. The article presents the mathematical and psychological foundation of these definitions. It identifies and discusses the substantial (independently existing) components of psychological systems and their attributes (properties and conditions). It describes the relationships between them using the bipolar theoretical constructs “part-element” and “substantial-attributive” component of a system.     

Social rejection,exclusion, and shunning among the Gombe chimpanzees

From the observations at Gombe over the past 23 years it appears that group punishment of deviant behavior through ostracism, as practiced in human groups, has not yet evolved in a truly sophisticated way in chimpanzee society. However, cases of “social rejection or exclusion” have been observed in three different behavioral contexts. Most frequently, a chimpanzee is the target of hostility as the result of competitive interaction within the community; in such cases, social cohesion counterbalances rejection, typically leading to integration within a relatively stable pattern of dominance and social interaction. The occasional departure of an individual who has been the target of aggression —like the withdrawal of Evered after repeated attacks by Figan and Faban—seems due to persistent hostility by a few males rather than general “ostracism” by the group as a whole. A second form of exclusion concerns outsiders found in the home range of the group: in these cases, hostility is more generalized, particularly in response to the attempt of an adult female with offspring to join the community. Finally, there are the rarely observed instances of shunning a group member whose behavior seems abnormal the social rejection of Pepe and Old Mr. McGregor after they suffered from polio.     

Mechanisms of Reading in Persons with Different Levels of Written Text Comprehension

The aim of the present study was to investigate the reading mechanisms in adults (27 subjects; mean age, 19.5 ± 0.8 [SD] years) with different levels of written text comprehension using fMRI. The main objective was to analyze the basic brain mechanisms of verbal stimuli perception with and without semantic component during reading discrimination tasks. The BOLD signal changes during WORD and PSEUDOWORD reading comparing to GAZE FIXATION state were estimated using both analysis of whole brain activation and ROIs (structures connected with the brain system providing reading) in two groups of subjects, “good” and “poor” readers. It was revealed that activations were higher in “poor” readers in lingual gyrus, SMG, STG compared to “good” readers during PSEUDOWORD reading. It was supposed, that the strategies of words and pseudowords recognition differed in two groups of readers: “good” readers identified words or pseudowords already at the stage of visual analysis of “word” structure and demonstrated attempts to decode pseudowords (i.e., language lexical zones were not activated); “poor” readers, apparently, tried to read pseudowords using the same strategy as for the words reading referring to the lexicon, and after failure identified pseudowords as meaningless concepts. In that case, activations of both lexical “language” zones and visual word form area (VWFA) were observed.     

Deviations in skeletons of radiolarians

Deviations in the skeleton structure of radiolarians are extremely rare in the fossil record. They are known from the Devonian to Recent. This is a very ancient and periodically repeated phenomenon, which should be regarded as a regularity or “lost chance” rather than exotic or accident. Emergence of deviant “mutants” in radiolarians is probably connected with two main causes, i.e., disturbance during reproduction and mutations in particular modules. From the point of view of the morphogenesis of skeletal structures, deviancy facilitates the recognition of relatively “weak” modules–blocks in the general skeleton pattern, which are subject to structural changes. Nonheritable deviant variants have been revealed in skeletons of 61 radiolarian in all of three subphyla of the phylum Radiolaria: Polycystina, Phaeodaria, and Collodaria. Three deviant types are recognized: multiplicative, posterioric and supplemental.     

Organization of Regional Interactions of the Brain Cortical Activity during the Common-root Word Derivation Task

This study analyzed specificities in the activity of the neurophysiological mechanisms underlying the organization of active word-derivation processes. The regularities in the reorganization of the spatial structure for the systemic interaction of bioelectrical activity between different cortical areas of the cerebral hemispheres were studied in adult subjects during the test for mental derivation of common root words (i.е., using the modern methods of the so-called “functional connectome” investigations). Сross-correlation and coherent analysis of EEG has shown that the ipsilateral statistical EEG interactions in the left hemisphere, including Broca’s and Wernicke’s areas, were significantly increased in adults during mental derivation of common root words and, simultaneously, the interhemispheric connectivity and the EEG interactions in the right hemisphere were reduced. Comparison of our results with the previous data of verbal activity associated with speech perception and production has revealed significant differences in the degree of involvement of the left and right hemisphere cortical activity in verbal processing. For example, unlike the data of current study, an equal involvement of both hemispheres cortical activity was recorded during the phoneme recognition in auditory perceived words, grammatical and semantic errors in sentences, as well as during mental formation of words from a set of phonemes and sentences from a set of words, which was particularly manifested in the increased of hemispheric interactions, predominantly, in the inferior frontal and temporal areas and the overlapped areas of the temporal, parietal, and occipital cortical zones (TPO) of both hemispheres. Thus, the data obtained in this study indicate the presence of expressed specificities in the lateralization of activity in the neurophysiological mechanisms underlying the processes of active word derivation and inflexion.     

Evaluating the nucleus effect on the dynamic indentation behavior of cells

The effect of the nucleus on the cell mechanical behavior was investigated based on the dynamic indentation response of cells under a spherical tip. A “two-component” cell model (including cytoplasm and nucleus) is used, and the dynamic indentation behavior is studied by a semiempirical method, which is established based on fitting the numerical simulation results of the quasi-static indentation response of cells. We found that the “routine analysis” (based on the Hertz’s contact solution of homogeneous model) significantly overestimated the nucleus effect on the overall cell indentation response due to the effects of the Hertz contact radius and the substrate stiffening. These effects are significantly stronger in the “two-component” cell model than in the homogeneous model. The inaccuracy created by the “routine analysis” slightly increases with the modulus ratio of nucleus to cytoplasm and the volume fraction of nucleus. Finally, the error sensitivity to the geometrical parameters used in the model is discussed, which shows the indentation analysis is not very sensitive to these parameters, and the reasonable assumptions for these parameters are effective. This systematic analysis can provide a useful guideline to understanding the mechanical behavior of cells and nuclei.     

Exclusion and shunning as legal and social sanctions

It seems difficult to determine which behavioral propensities are part of human biology and which are the results of cultural influences. If specific behavior patterns occur (perhaps with some variations) in all or most cultures, one might assume that they are based on innate behavioral tendencies. Exclusion and shunning are part of behavior patterns that have occurred again and again in various cultures throughout all recorded history as a response to deviant or abnormal behavior. This article examines the particular origins of the practice of “Ostrakismos” in ancient Athens, and its relationship to exile or exclusion from the legal community in various human cultures. With primitive peoples, and as evidenced in the laws of ancient Rome and medieval European kingdoms, outlawry was long a formalized sanction; also both Catholic and Lutheran religious laws provided explicitly for excommunication. In contrast, modern legal communities are less likely to exercise such formal expulsion of a member except under relatively extreme circumstances. The various data examined here may contribute to a comparative analysis of the behavior pattern “Exclusion and Shunning.”     

Influence of individual psychological features on the EEG spatial organization in nonverbal divergent thinking

Effects of different psychophysiological characteristics on the speed of associative processes during the performance of a nonverbal-divergent (NVD) test (formation of the maximal possible number of visual images on the basis of two simple geometrical figures within 5 min) and on the spatial organization of bioelectric potentials (SOBP) were studied. Changes in the indices of spatial synchronization (SS) and spatial disorder (SD) of bioelectric potentials, which characterize, respectively, simple linear and more intricate nonlinear interrelations, were analyzed. A significant correlation was shown between 8 out of 35 psychophysiological indices analyzed (reflecting the emotional, motivational-behavioral, and cognitive styles; the total working capacity; and the autonomic tone) and the productivity index of the NVD test (fluency). Psychological features such as “stress susceptibility,” “disposition to nonstandard decisions and behavior,” “eccentricity,” “reflectivity,” and high “general and autonomic tone” facilitate activation (an increase in the SS and SD) in the frontotemporal areas of the right hemisphere, which is probably a neurophysiological correlate of success in performance of the test. Moreover, psychological features such as “field independence” and “autonomy” contribute to an increase in the activity of the occipital areas of the left hemisphere. In aggregate, the direction “frontal right-occipital left” areas becomes accentuated in the SOBP (the “creative axis”). According to our concept, this axis is of special importance in search operations and creative processes.     

Evidence for an acetyl-enzyme intermediate in the action of acetyl-CoA synthetase

Acetyl-CoA synthetase (EC 6.2.1.1) from yeast is a ligase which catalyzes the synthesis of ATP from ADP and acetyl-CoA or acetyl-dephosphoCoA. The enzyme also catalyzes the rapid and reversible transfer of an acetyl group between CoA and dephospho CoA in the absence of the other components of the total ligase reaction. Such transfer is chemically equivalent to a CoA-acetyl-CoA exchange, and points therefore to an acetyl-enzyme intermediate in the transfer (“exchange”) reaction. Since the “exchange” is an intrinsic activity of the enzyme, it seems probable that the acetyl-enzyme mediates the total ligase reaction as well.     

La crosse,point d’interrogation ? Poursuite de l’analyse d’un signe néolithique,notamment à Locmariaquer (Morbihan)

In the European corpus of the recent Prehistory, the sign “crosse” or crook is most often limited to its esoteric sense (insignia of power) or in a exoteric sense (shepherd's stick, sickle) without true explicitation of choices, otherwise by an assumption relating to the sociopolitical and economic organisation of the Neolithic society. One will set out to show the complexity of the sign within the representations of Vth and IVth millenniums, notably in Brittany and precisely at La Table des Marchands monumental site. Its synchronous functioning with the hafted axe, itself distracted from its function admitted as a woodcutter's tool translating by habit an agricultural activity, dictates on the contrary a less quiet usage, far from a productive pastoral character. The weapon seems to be a more receivable hypothesis to understand the structural coherence of engravings on steles. The origin of words used since the XIXth century will be discussed; then will be proposed a european inventory of the different true objects included as throwing sticks or boomerangs; others representations out of Brittany will be evoked to help in the resolution of Neolithic signs. So, more cryptic than the stone or metal hafted axe which shows its first usage, more ambiguous than the right stick of the walker or the flail of the farmer, the object “crook” does not end up being reactivated throughout millenniums, as pictures reach us successively.     

Perspectives of mitochondrial medicine

Mitochondrial medicine was established more than 50 years ago after discovery of the very first pathology caused by impaired mitochondria. Since then, more than 100 mitochondrial pathologies have been discovered. However, the number may be significantly higher if we interpret the term “mitochondrial medicine” more widely and include in these pathologies not only those determined by the genetic apparatus of the nucleus and mitochondria, but also acquired mitochondrial defects of non-genetic nature. Now the main problems of mitochondriology arise from methodology, this being due to studies of mitochondrial activities under different models and conditions that are far from the functioning of mitochondria in a cell, organ, or organism. Controversial behavior of mitochondria (“friends and foes”) to some extent might be explained by their bacterial origin with possible preservation of “egoistic” features peculiar to bacteria. Apparently, for normal mitochondrial functioning it is essential to maintain homeostasis of a number of mitochondrial elements such as mitochondrial DNA structure, membrane potential, and the system of mitochondrial quality control. Abrogation of these elements can cause a number of pathologies that have become subjects of mitochondrial medicine. Some approaches to therapy of mitochondrial pathologies are discussed.     

Amino-acid Sequence Invariance and Genetic Code

FROM the complete nucleotide sequence of the gene coding for the coat protein of coliphage MS2, Min Jou et al.¹ have suggested a scheme for base-pairing between certain stretches of the polynucleotide chain. Their hypothesis leads to the formation of double helices in their “flower” model and to the consequent implication that nucleic acids have a well-defined tertiary structure. Such a scheme remains to be proved by direct observation of the structure, but the indirect arguments of Min Jou et al. and others appear so convincing and the notion that the genetic material has a definite tertiary structure seems so probable, that there can be little doubt that the “flower” model is on the right lines in principle, even though it may be incorrect in detail.