Neural correlates of pride and joy recognition in early childhood

I investigated neural processing during the recognition of pride and joy in early childhood using the event-related potential (ERP) technique. Electroencephalography recording was taken of 21 children aged between 4 and 6 years. They were shown photographs of familiar peers and strangers whose facial expressions displayed the emotion of either pride or joy. ERPs were recorded for the children's judgment of the expression of these two emotions when an image was presented. The results demonstrate that the neural dynamics during children's recognition of pride and joy involve three stages: The early negative component is spontaneously responsive to familiar faces, the midlatency negative central component is responsive to expression of familiar faces, and the late positive component marks greater extended processing of an expression of pride. These findings provide new insight into the neural mechanism of pride and joy recognition in children aged 4 to 6 years.

State Space Modeling with Non-Negativity Constraints Using Quadratic Forms

State space model representation is widely used for the estimation of nonobservable (hidden) random variables when noisy observations of the associated stochastic process are available. In case the state vector is subject to constraints, the standard Kalman filtering algorithm can no longer be used in the estimation procedure, since it assumes the linearity of the model. This kind of issue is considered in what follows for the case of hidden variables that have to be non-negative. This restriction, which is common in many real applications, can be faced by describing the dynamic system of the hidden variables through non-negative definite quadratic forms. Such a model could describe any process where a positive component represents “gain”, while the negative one represents “loss”; the observation is derived from the difference between the two components, which stands for the “surplus”. Here, a thorough analysis of the conditions that have to be satisfied regarding the existence of non-negative estimations of the hidden variables is presented via the use of the Karush–Kuhn–Tucker conditions.

Eye region as a predictor of holistic facial aesthetic judgment: An eventrelated potential study

Event-related potentials (ERP) play an important role in the early detection of emotional arousal. Previous studies of aesthetics have shown that the positive component appearing around 200 ms after stimulus (P2) and the larger late positive component (LPC) are closely related to the early stage of aesthetic judgment. We investigated the temporal features of facial aesthetic judgment on the basis of facial features by using the ERP technique. Participants were instructed to predict holistic face aesthetic level based on the regions of eyes, mouth, or nose. Behavioral results show that holistic score predictions based on the eye region were no different to holistic aesthetic ratings. The ERP analysis results show that beautiful eyes and faces elicited a smaller P2 amplitude and LPC amplitude when judging the holistic aesthetic. The P2 effect of facial aesthetics may reflect automatic processing of facial aesthetics and the difference in LPC may be related to motivational attention to facial aesthetics. Because of the similar ERP effect between the holistic facial aesthetic judgment and the aesthetic judgment of eye region, this region may play a significant role in predicting holistic facial aesthetics. The implication is that the eyes are not only a window to the soul, but also a benchmark of beauty.

PENITENTIARY IDEAS IN THE SCIENTIFIC WORKS OF Z. A. ASTEMIROV

В статье анализируется ряд научных трудов профессора З. А. Астемирова, отражающих взгляды ученого на способы оценки эффективности деятельности исправительных учреждений, основные детерминанты преступности, в том числе преступности несовершеннолетних, а также трактовку им юридической ответственности. Обращается внимание на предложенную З. А. Астемировым систему оценки эффективности деятельности исправительных учреждений, которая, по мнению ученого, должна осуществляться по трем отдельным направлениям (функциям-задачам): исполнение уголовного наказания, перевоспитание осужденного, экономико-хозяйственная оценка продуктивности производственной деятельности исправительного учреждения. Каждая из функций-задач должна быть выражена формальными показателями, позволяющими судить об эффективности ее решения. Автор статьи анализирует предложенную концепцию с точки зрения ее достоинств и пробелов. Кроме того, в статье оцениваются взгляды профессора З. А. Астемирова на традиционную для отечественной юридической науки модель оценки эффективности деятельности исправительных учреждений с точки зрения уровня рецидивной преступности, общей и частной превенции, приводятся его взгляды на основные причины преступности как негативного социального явления, причины и особенности преступности несовершеннолетних, подчеркивается гуманистическая направленность взглядов З. А. Астемирова в этих сферах, что нашло отражение в общей трактовке им юридической ответственности через примат ее позитивного компонента. The article analyzes a number of scientific works of Professor Z. A. Astemirov, reflecting the views of a scientist on ways to assess the effectiveness of penal institutions, the main determinants of crime including juvenile delinquency and his interpretation of legal responsibility. Attention is drawn to the proposed by Z. A. Astemirov a system for assessing the effectiveness of penal institutions, which, according to the scientist, should be carried out in three separate areas (functions-tasks): the execution of criminal punishment, the re-education of the convict, and the economic assessment of the productivity of the penal institution. Each of the functions-tasks should be expressed by formal indicators that allow judging the effectiveness of its solution. The author of the article analyzes the proposed concept from the point of view of its merits and gaps. Also, the article evaluates the views of Professor Z. A. Astemirov on the model of assessing the effectiveness of penal institutions from the level of recidivism, general and private prevention, which is traditional for the Russian legal science, presents his views on the main causes of crime as a negative social phenomenon, the causes and characteristics of juvenile delinquency, emphasizes the humanistic orientation of the views of Z. A. Astemirov in these areas, which is reflected in his general interpretation of legal responsibility through the primacy of its positive component.

The neural and cognitive time course of intention reasoning: Electrophysiological evidence from ERPs

Intention is a typical mental state in the theory of mind. However, to date, there have been theoretical debates on the conceptual structure of intention. The neural and cognitive time course of intention reasoning remains unclear. The present event-related potential (ERP) study had two purposes: first, to investigate the neural correlates of intention reasoning based on a differentiated conceptual structure distinguishing desire and intention; second, to investigate the neural basis of intention reasoning for different agents. Thus, we compared the neural activity elicited by intention reasoning for self and for others when the intention matched or mismatched the desire of the agent. The results revealed that three ERP components distinguished among different types of intention reasoning. A negative-going ERP deflection with right frontal distribution between 400 and 500 ms might reflect the cognitive conflict involved in intention reasoning, a right frontal late positive component might be associated with the categorisation of agents, and a centro-parietal late slow wave might indicate the conceptual mental operations associated with decoupling mechanisms in intention processing. These findings implied the neural and cognitive time course of intention reasoning and provided neural evidence for the differentiated conception of intention.

Flutter Wave Morphology of Peri-Mitral Atrial Flutters Is Mainly Determined by Right Atrial Activation

Background: Peri-mitral atrial flutters frequently develop post-atrial fibrillation ablation or postcardiac surgery. The determinants of the flutter wave morphology on surface ECG have been less studied. Methods: We retrospectively reviewed 24 patients with peri-mitral atrial flutters who underwent biatrial high-resolution mapping at 3 institutions with LUMIPOINT software. We analyzed the overlap between the right atrial (RA) activation time and flutter wave duration and compared the proportion of the endocardial area that was activated in both atria during the flutter wave duration. Biatrial activation patterns and interatrial conductions were also identified. Results: The mean tachycardia cycle length was 264±60 ms, with RA activation time 155±45 ms (60.8±20.6% of the tachycardia cycle length), and the flutter wave duration 107±31 ms (41.6±11.7% of the tachycardia cycle length). The overlap between the RA activation time and the flutter wave duration was 102±29 ms, which takes 68.5±17.2% of the RA activation time and 95.7±9.1% of the flutter wave duration, respectively. Quantitative analysis also showed that during the flutter wave duration, more percentage of the endocardial area was activated in the RA than in the left atrium (73.0±12.7% versus 45.2±13.0%, P <0.001). We consistently observed that the RA anterior wall rightward activation corresponded to the positive component in V1 in both flutter patterns, and the RA downward activation corresponded to the positive component in the counterclockwise group or the upward activation corresponded to the negative component in the clockwise group in the inferior leads. The passive RA activation patterns were varied with spontaneous atrial scarring or previous linear ablation. Conclusions: ECG flutter wave morphology of peri-mitral atrial flutters is mainly dependent on RA activation patterns.

Electrophysiological correlates of emotion word processing in Spanish–English bilinguals

We examined how proficiency influences the processing of emotion words in Spanish–English bilinguals (22 balanced and 20 unbalanced). All unbalanced bilinguals were more proficient in English than Spanish. Participants rated the valence of negative, neutral, and positive words in both languages while EEG was being recorded. ERP latencies and amplitudes were analyzed for two components. The language effect was significant on the late positive component (LPC) amplitude, which was larger for emotion than for neutral words for both groups in English. The unbalanced group presented larger LPC amplitudes for positive than for neutral and for neutral than for negative words in Spanish, suggesting emotion processing differences in these participants’ less proficient language. Valence effects were consistent across languages for the balanced group, but not for the unbalanced group, perhaps reflecting differences in reactivity to emotion words in the less proficient language.

Electrophysiological and behavioral indices of cognitive conflict processing across adolescence

ABSTRACTCognitive control enables goal-oriented adaptation to a fast-changing environment and has a slow developmental trajectory that spans into young adulthood. The specifics of this development are still poorly understood, as are the neurodevelopmental mechanisms that drive it. In a cross-sectional sample of participants 8-19 years old (n = 108), we used blind source separation of EEG data recorded in a Flanker task to derive electrophysiological measures of attention and the processing of cognitive conflict, including a frontal negative component corresponding to the N2 and a parietal positive component corresponding to the P3. Additionally, we examined multiple behavioral measures of interference control derived from the Flanker, Stroop, and Anti-saccade tasks. We found a positive association between age and the amplitude of the parietal positive component, while there was no relationship between age and the amplitude of the frontal negative component. A stronger frontal negative amplitude was, however, age-independently related to better performance on both Stroop and Anti-saccade measures of interference control. Finally, we examined post-conflict behavioral adjustment on the Flanker task. A Gratton effect was found with slower reaction times on current congruent and better accuracy on current incongruent trials when preceded by incongruent as opposed to congruent trials. The Gratton effect on accuracy was positively associated with age. Together, the findings suggest a multifaceted developmental pattern in neurocognitive mechanisms for conflict processing across adolescence, with a more protracted development of the parietal positive compared to the frontal negative component.