Surface Dyslexia in Semantic Dementia: A Comparison of the Influence of Consistency and Regularity

Abstract

This study addressed the question of exactly which aspects of spelling-sound consistency influence accuracy of reading aloud in surface dyslexic patients with semantic dementia. Oral reading data were obtained from twelve patients on three sets of words that varied in regularity (defined according to grapheme-phoneme correspondences) and consistency (defined according to the pronunciation of word body neighbours). The patients were less accurate for irregular/inconsistent words, which they commonly pronounced in line with sound-spelling regularities, as expected in surface dyslexia. They produced plausible but incorrect responses for some regular as well as many irregular words, suggesting that their reading performance was influenced by sound-spelling relationships not captured by grapheme-phoneme correspondences. On a set of items that varied consistency and regularity independently, the patients showed a large effect of regularity and a smaller but significant effect of consistency in reading aloud. In addition, there was a correlation between degree of semantic impairment and level of reading accuracy for inconsistent items. These findings are discussed in terms of two influential models of reading: the dual-route-cascaded model (Coltheart et al., 2001 Coltheart, M, Rastle, K, Perry, C, Langdon, R and Ziegler, J. 2001. DRC: A dual route cascaded model of visual word recognition and reading aloud. Psychological Review, 108: 204–56. [Crossref], [PubMed], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) and the triangle model (Plaut et al., 1996 Plaut, DC. 1997. Structure and function in the lexical system: Insights from distributed models of word reading and lexical decision. Language and Cognitive Processes, 12: 765–805. [Taylor & Francis Online], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]). It is argued that the triangle model provides a more straightforward account of the relationship between word comprehension and consistency effects in reading.     

Cognitive and Psychosocial Predictors of Subjective Well-Being in Urban Older Adults

Prior research indicates that physical health and social support have substantial influences on subjective well-being among older adults. However, little research has examined the influences of coping style and cognitive functioning on subjective well-being among older adults. This study investigated cognitive and psychosocial predictors of subjective well-being among 129 adults, ages 65-89 years. Canonical correlation indicated that subjective well-being was characterized by two dimensions: life satisfaction and affective balance (happiness). The use of emotion-focused coping strategies and poor perceived health were associated with diminished perceptions of life satisfaction, whereas task-oriented and avoidance-oriented coping were positively related to happiness. Cognitive functioning was positively related to life satisfaction and pleasant emotions independent of education and income.     

Elderly Norms for the Hopkins Verbal Learning Test-Revised

The present study evaluates the effects of age, education, and gender in a representative sample of older adults and provides normative data for community-dwelling elderly. Age and gender had significant effects on HVLT-R performance. We provide age- and gender-adjusted normative data. Surprisingly, education level did not affect HVLT-R performance, indicating that education-adjusted norms are not necessary for this measure within this age range. We evaluated a subsample of subjects census-matched on age, education, and gender. These subjects did not differ in overall performance from our entire sample. Therefore, the normative data provided in this paper can be considered to be census-comparable for age, education, and gender.     

Scores on the MMPI-2-RF Scales as a Function of Increasing Levels of Failure on Cognitive Symptom Validity Tests in a Military Sample

This research examined associations between the full range of Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-2-Restructured Form (MMPI-2-RF) validity and substantive scales and increasing levels of cognitive symptom validity test (SVT) failure in a sample of 501 military members who completed a neuropsychological evaluation primarily for mild traumatic brain injury resulting from a closed head injury and blast exposure or heat injury. SVT failure was associated with significant linear increases in all of the over-reporting MMPI-2-RF validity scales and most of the substantive scales. For the validity scales, all over-reporting scales had large effect sizes (ESs) when comparing a group that failed no SVTs with a group that failed three SVTs. A comparison between these two groups for the substantive scales revealed the largest ESs for scales related to somatic/cognitive complaints and emotional dysfunction. RBS (Response Bias Scale) had the largest ES of all scales (d?=?1.69), followed by FBS-r (Symptom Validity Scale; d?=?1.34), AXY (Anxiety, d?=?1.21), and COG (Cognitive Complaints, d?=?1.19). The scales related to behavioral dysfunction had the smallest ESs of all of the substantive scales, and there were no significant associations between the vast majority of these scales and SVT failure. With respect to clinically significant elevations, those who did not fail SVTs had clinically significant elevations only on COG and NUC (Neurological Complaints), and MLS (Malaise) approached clinical significance. For those who failed SVTs, RBS was the only over-reporting scale that was elevated across all failure groups. Those who failed any SVT had clinically significant elevations on COG, MLS, NUC, and AXY. Those who failed three SVTs had additional elevations on scales related to emotional dysfunction.     

Social and emotional processing in Prader-Willi syndrome: genetic subtype differences

Background

People with Prader-Willi syndrome (PWS) demonstrate social dysfunction and increased risk of autism spectrum disorder, especially those with the maternal uniparental disomy (mUPD) versus paternal deletion genetic subtype. This study compared the neural processing of social (faces) and nonsocial stimuli, varying in emotional valence, across genetic subtypes in 24 adolescents and adults with PWS.

Methods

Upright and inverted faces, and nonsocial objects with positive and negative emotional valence were presented to participants with PWS in an oddball paradigm with smiling faces serving as targets. Behavioral and event-related potential (ERP) data were recorded.

Results

There were no genetic subtype group differences in accuracy, and all participants performed above chance level. ERP responses revealed genetic subtype differences in face versus object processing. In those with deletions, the face-specific posterior N170 response varied in size for face stimuli versus inverted faces versus nonsocial objects. Persons with mUPD generated N170 of smaller amplitude and showed no stimulus differentiation. Brain responses to emotional content did not vary by subtype. All participants elicited larger posterior and anterior late positive potential responses to positive objects than to negative objects. Emotion-related differences in response to faces were limited to inverted faces only in the form of larger anterior late positive potential amplitudes to negative emotions over the right hemisphere. Detection of the target smiling faces was evident in the increased amplitude of the frontal and central P3 responses but only for inverted smiling faces.

Conclusion

Persons with the mUPD subtype of PWS may show atypical face versus object processes, yet both subtypes demonstrated potentially altered processing, attention to and/or recognition of faces and their expressions.     

The Tachykinin Peptide Neurokinin B Binds Copper Forming an Unusual [CuII(NKB)2] Complex and Inhibits Copper Uptake into 1321N1 Astrocytoma Cells

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