Cerebral Balance, Recognition Accuracy, and Confidence when Task Performance Requires the Use of Preconsciously Acquired Information

a. This TP is an attempt to identify brain mechanisms associated with the finding that mere exposure to words, patterns, and other stimuli often leads to liking, even when the exposure is too brief to produce conscious awareness. The authors investigate recognition accuracy of very brief (subliminal) exposure to stimuli following instructions to report either which stimulus they thought was familiar (left brain) or which the liked better (right brain). Results showed that participants instructed to process stimuli using right brain were more accurate. The authors interpreted the data as showing that right brain processing, which occurs outside of conscious awareness, is responsible for the subliminal “familiarity leads to liking” phenomenon.This work was supported, in part, by The Office of Naval Research (SRO-OOl: N00014-79-C00796)

Indices of Hemispheric Lateralization: A Methodological Analysis

The authors describe and evaluate several indices of brain hemisphere lateralization. The methods use different data, including response accuracy, reaction times, and EEG asymmetry. They describe an index- free ranking procedure that uses two or more kinds of data and that makes few assumptions and does not impose a numerical scale. EEG asymmetry data entails measurement decisions and scaling assumptions, which the authors discuss in some detail

The Impact of Selected Social Environmental and Individual Factors on Stress Responses

a. The authors attempt to clarify some factors in the relationships between high levels of stress and poor physical and mental health. They review many possible sources of individual variation in responses to stress, including different living environments, interrelated social and individual factors, and differences across gender groups. Physiological and behavioral data collected from college students at a blood bank assessed multiple social and individual factors, self-reported stress, and levels of norepinephrine, a physiological indicator of stress. Results showed a fairly complex pattern of results, although social support was generally helpful in reducing stress, and gender differences in both social and physiological responses were found.This research was supported in part by the Office of Navel Research and in part by the gracious contributions of Edward and Marjorie Grey

Disconnection Mechanism and Regional Cortical Atrophy Contribute to Impaired Processing of Facial Expressions and Theory of Mind in Multiple Sclerosis: A Structural MRI Study

Successful socialization requires the ability of understanding of others' mental states. This ability called as mentalization (Theory of Mind) may become deficient and contribute to everyday life difficulties in multiple sclerosis. We aimed to explore the impact of brain pathology on mentalization performance in multiple sclerosis. Mentalization performance of 49 patients with multiple sclerosis was compared to 24 age- and gender matched healthy controls. T1- and T2-weighted three-dimensional brain MRI images were acquired at 3Tesla from patients with multiple sclerosis and 18 gender- and age matched healthy controls. We assessed overall brain cortical thickness in patients with multiple sclerosis and the scanned healthy controls, and measured the total and regional T1 and T2 white matter lesion volumes in patients with multiple sclerosis. Performances in tests of recognition of mental states and emotions from facial expressions and eye gazes correlated with both total T1-lesion load and regional T1-lesion load of association fiber tracts interconnecting cortical regions related to visual and emotion processing (genu and splenium of corpus callosum, right inferior longitudinal fasciculus, right inferior fronto-occipital fasciculus, uncinate fasciculus). Both of these tests showed correlations with specific cortical areas involved in emotion recognition from facial expressions (right and left fusiform face area, frontal eye filed), processing of emotions (right entorhinal cortex) and socially relevant information (left temporal pole). Thus, both disconnection mechanism due to white matter lesions and cortical thinning of specific brain areas may result in cognitive deficit in multiple sclerosis affecting emotion and mental state processing from facial expressions and contributing to everyday and social life difficulties of these patients

Relationship of colour and other quality parameters of sweet cherry during development and ripening

Sweet cherry fruits ( Prunus avium cv. Vera, Carmen, Linda and Krupnoplodnaja) were harvested in different ripeness stages after anthesis 39, 42, 49, 56 days (Carmen); 37, 40, 47, 52, 59 days (Krupnoplodnaja); 32, 36, 44, 53, 58 days (Linda); 38, 42, 50, 52, 57 days (Vera). The colour, total soluble solids, dry matter content, β-galactosidase and polygalacturonase activity were determined. The dry matter content and total soluble solids content (Brixo) increased during development. The L* values significantly decreased as a function of ripening while a* values increased up to 3 rd harvest, then they decreased, b* values continuously decreased as a function of development. The a*/b* values linearly increased as a function of development, indicating reddening of fruits. Hue angle (ho) increased rapidly between harvest one and two. The measured (a*, b*, L*) and calculated parameters (ho, a*/b*, chroma) well represented the colour development of sweet cherries. Linear and strong correlation was found between a*/b*, L* values and the Brixo, exponential correlation was found between ho, chroma and Brixo. Activity of β-galactosidase was different among cultivars and as a function of development. The two maximums might β-galactosidase isoenzymes. The role of PG (polygalacturonase) could not be explained clearly enough, further investigations are needed to find the exact role of the enzyme in the cell wall metabolism of sweet cherry