Categoría: Papers con abstracts

The ´interpreter advantage hypothesis´ posits that task-specific cognitive skills developed by professional interpreters (PIs) generalize to more efficient linguistic and executive abilities in non-interpreting tasks. This paper reviews relevant studies in order to establish preliminary data patterns and outline new research questions. Though not entirely consistent, the evidence suggests that interpreting expertise enhances aspects of semantic processing, working memory, and cognitive flexibility. The data also gives rise to new related queries: Are linguistic and executive enhancements in PIs independent from each other? Are all the superior skills of PIs cumulatively enhanced by the double influence of bilingualism and interpreting experience? And how soon after the onset of formal training do these advantages appear? Tentative answers to these questions are also implied in the evidence considered.

In cognitive neuroscience, the reissue of the notion of emergence and downward causation has been used as an interlevel model of mind-brain interactions from different perspectives. Within this perspective, intentionality has been interpreted as global to local determination (downward causation) on the neurophysiological level. Consciousness would act as the large-scale, global activity of the system that governs or constrains local interactions of neurons. This argument seems to solve several difficulties with regard to descriptions of consciousness on a neurophysiological and mental level. Nevertheless, the inconsistencies of this argument are shown, and a contextual and pragmatic explanation of the downward causation of consciousness is given.

Acute loss of consciousness. Autores Bekinschtein T, Gleichgerrcht E, Manes F. Año 2015 Journal Bekinschtein T, Gleichgerrcht E, Manes F. Volumen 127:195-204. Abstract Otra información  

Disentangling interoception: insights from focal strokes affecting the perception of external and internal milieus. Autores Couto B, Adolfi F, Sedeño L, Salles A, Canales-Johnson A, Alvarez-Abut P, Garcia-Cordero I, Pietto M, Bekinschtein T, Sigman M, Manes F, Ibanez A. Año 2015 Journal  Couto B, Adolfi F, Sedeño L, Salles A, Canales-Johnson A, Alvarez-Abut P, Garcia-Cordero I, … Leer más

Impairments in negative emotion recognition and empathy for pain in Huntington’s disease families. Autores Báez S, Herrera E, Gershanik O, García A, Bocanegra Y, Kargieman L, Manes F, Ibanez A. Año 2015 Journal  Báez S, Herrera E, Gershanik O, García A, Bocanegra Y, Kargieman L, Manes F, Ibanez A. Volumen Abstract   Otra información    

The roles of interoceptive sensitivity and metacognitive interoception in panic. Autores Yoris A, Esteves S, Couto B, Melloni M, Kichic R, Cetkovich M, Favaloro R, Moser J, Manes F, Ibanez A, Sedeño L. Año 2015 Journal  Yoris A, Esteves S, Couto B, Melloni M, Kichic R, Cetkovich M, Favaloro R, Moser J, Manes F, Ibanez A, Sedeño … Leer más

Social cognition impairments are pervasive in the frontotemporal dementias (FTD). These deficits would be triggered by (a) basic emotion and face recognition processes as well as by (b) higher level social cognition (e.g., theory of mind, ToM). Both emotional processing and social cognition impairments have been previously reported in the behavioral variant of FTD (bvFTD) and also in other versions of FTDs, including primary progressive aphasia. However, no neuroanatomic comparison between different FTD variants has been performed. We report selective behavioral impairments of face recognition, emotion recognition, and ToM in patients with bvFTD and progressive non-fluent aphasia (PNFA) when compared to controls. Voxel-based morphometry (VBM) shows a classical impairment of mainly orbitofrontal (OFC), anterior cingulate (ACC), insula and lateral temporal cortices in patients. Comparative analysis of regional gray matter related to social cognition deficits (VBM) reveals a differential pattern of fronto-insulo-temporal atrophy in bvFTD and an insulo-temporal involvement in PNFA group. Results suggest that in spite of similar social cognition impairments reported in bvFTD and PNFA, the former represents an inherent ToM affectation whereas in the PNFA these deficits could be related to more basic processes of face and emotion recognition. These results are interpreted in the frame of the fronto-insulo-temporal social context network model (SCNM).

Predictive theories of action observation propose that we use our own motor system as a guide for anticipating and understanding other people‟s actions through the generation of context-based expectations. According to this view, people should be better in predicting and interpreting those actions that are present in their own motor repertoire compared to those that are not. We recorded high-density event-related potentials (ERPs: P300, N400 and Slow Wave, SW) and source estimation in 80 subjects separated by their level of expertise (experts, beginners and naïves) as they observed realistic videos of Tango steps with different degrees of execution correctness. We also performed path analysis to infer causal relationships between ongoing anticipatory brain activity, evoked semantic responses, expertise measures and behavioral performance. We found that anticipatory justify activity, with sources in a fronto-parieto-occipital network, early discriminated between groups according to their level of expertise. Furthermore, this early activity significantly predicted subsequent semantic integration indexed by semantic responses (N400 and SW, sourced in temporal and motor regions) which also predicted motor expertise. In addition, motor expertise was a good predictor of behavioral performance. Our results show that neural and temporal dynamics underlying contextual action anticipation and comprehension can be interpreted in terms of successive levels of contextual prediction that are significantly modulated by subject‟s prior experience.

Objective: We studied theory of mind (ToM) in patients withmild relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis (MS), seeking possibledissociations between its 2 components: cognitive ToM (theability to infer others intentions) and affective ToM (the abilityto infer others emotional states). We analyzed the relationshipof ToM to executive function, depression, and fatigue. Background: Dissociations between cognitive and affective ToMhave been found in several neurologic and neuropsychiatricdiseases. Most ToM studies in patients with MS have showngeneral ToM deficits but have not analyzed the cognitive andaffective aspects individually. Methods: We used the Faux Pas test of ToM and tests of executivefunction to assess 18 patients with mild relapsing-remittingMS and 16 control participants. Results: Our patients showed deficits in cognitive ToM, but theiraffective ToM seemed to be spared. Their cognitive ToM deficitswere not related to executive dysfunction, depression, or fatigue. Conclusions: Our study is the first differential analysis showingcognitive but not affective ToM deficits in mild relapsing-remittingMS. Further research is needed to determine the exactnature and the real impact of these deficits, and to establish theirrelationship with the neuropathology and progression of MS.

Previous single-case reports in Posterior Cortical Atrophy (PCA) have shown preserved non-conscious visual recognition despite the absence of explicit recognition. In this study we investigated three levels of visual recognition in both a female patient with PCA and a control group during the presentation of neutral, positive, and negative affective stimuli. Our results confirmed the profile of impaired explicit recognition and intact psychophysiological responses in the patient. In addition, she was able to implicitly recognize the valence and intensity of arousal of these stimuli. We suggest that implicit emotional awareness may mediates explicit and psychophysiological recognition in PCA.