Calcium turns sinister in left-right asymmetry

A major challenge in deciphering the development of left-right asymmetry in vertebrates is uncovering how subtle early differences between the left and right sides are translated into robust differences in gene expression. Recently, Raya and colleagues suggested that asymmetric localization of extracellular calcium ions at the node could differentially modulate Notch signalling, resulting in asymmetric expression of the signalling molecule Nodal on the left side of the node. In this article, I examine the implications of this finding and explore their relevance to the evolution of asymmetry in vertebrates and invertebrates.

The neural processing of masked speech: evidence for different mechanisms in the left and right temporal lobes

It has been previously demonstrated that extensive activation in the dorsolateral temporal lobes associated with masking a speech target with a speech masker, consistent with the hypothesis that competition for central auditory processes is an important factor in informational masking. Here, masking from speech and two additional maskers derived from the original speech were investigated. One of these is spectrally rotated speech, which is unintelligible and has a similar (inverted) spectrotemporal profile to speech. The authors also controlled for the possibility of "glimpsing" of the target signal during modulated masking sounds by using speech-modulated noise as a masker in a baseline condition. Functional imaging results reveal that masking speech with speech leads to bilateral superior temporal gyrus (STG) activation relative to a speech-in-noise baseline, while masking speech with spectrally rotated speech leads solely to right STG activation relative to the baseline. This result is discussed in terms of hemispheric asymmetries for speech perception, and interpreted as showing that masking effects can arise through two parallel neural systems, in the left and right temporal lobes. This has implications for the competition for resources caused by speech and rotated speech maskers, and may illuminate some of the mechanisms involved in informational masking.

Right hemisphere language functions and schizophrenia: the forgotten hemisphere?

This review highlights the importance of right hemisphere language functions for successful social communication and advances the hypothesis that the core deficit in psychosis is a failure of segregation of right from left hemisphere functions. Lesion studies of stroke patients and dichotic listening and functional imaging studies of healthy people have shown that some language functions are mediated by the right hemisphere rather than the left. These functions include discourse planning/comprehension, understanding humour, sarcasm, metaphors and indirect requests, and the generation/comprehension of emotional prosody. Behavioural evidence indicates that patients with typical schizophrenic illnesses perform poorly on tests of these functions, and aspects of these functions are disturbed in schizo-affective and affective psychoses. The higher order language functions mediated by the right hemisphere are essential to an accurate understanding of someone's communicative intent, and the deficits displayed by patients with schizophrenia may make a significant contribution to their social interaction deficits. We outline a bi-hemispheric theory of the neural basis of language that emphasizes the role of the sapiens-specific cerebral torque in determining the four-chambered nature of the human brain in relation to the origins of language and the symptoms of schizophrenia. Future studies of abnormal lateralization of left hemisphere language functions need to take account of the consequences of a failure of lateralization of language functions to the right as well as the left hemisphere.

Discussion on the importance of making things right

Critical notice of 'From metaphysics to ethics' by Frank Jackson.

Electronic voting systems in undergraduate teaching

One of the major differences undergraduates experience during the transition to university is the style of teaching. In schools and colleges most students study key stage 5 subjects in relatively small informal groups where teacher–pupil interaction is encouraged and two-way feedback occurs through question and answer type delivery. On starting in HE students are amazed by the sizes of the classes. For even a relatively small chemistry department with an intake of 60-70 students, biologists, pharmacists, and other first year undergraduates requiring chemistry can boost numbers in the lecture hall to around 200 or higher. In many universities class sizes of 400 are not unusual for first year groups where efficiency is crucial. Clearly the personalised classroom-style delivery is not practical and it is a brave student who shows his ignorance by venturing to ask a question in front of such an audience. In these environments learning can be a very passive process, the lecture acts as a vehicle for the conveyance of information and our students are expected to reinforce their understanding by ‘self-study’, a term, the meaning of which, many struggle to understand. The use of electronic voting systems (EVS) in such situations can vastly change the students’ learning experience from a passive to a highly interactive process. This principle has already been demonstrated in Physics, most notably in the work of Bates and colleagues at Edinburgh.1 These small hand-held devices, similar to those which have become familiar through programmes such as ‘Who Wants to be a Millionaire’ can be used to provide instant feedback to students and teachers alike. Advances in technology now allow them to be used in a range of more sophisticated settings and comprehensive guides on use have been developed for even the most techno-phobic staff.

Specialization of right temporo-parietal junction for mentalizing and its relation to social impairments in autism

Over the last 25years, "mindblindness" (deficits in representing mental states) has been one of the primary explanations behind the hallmark social-communication difficulties in autism spectrum conditions (ASC). However, highlighting neural systems responsible for mindblindness and their relation to variation in social impairments has remained elusive. In this study we show that one of the neural systems responsible for mindblindness in ASC and its relation to social impairments is the right temporo-parietal junction (RTPJ). Twenty-nine adult males with ASC and 33 age and IQ-matched Controls were scanned with fMRI while making reflective mentalizing or physical judgments about themselves or another person. Regions of interest within mentalizing circuitry were examined for between-group differences in activation during mentalizing about self and other and correlations with social symptom severity. RTPJ was the only mentalizing region that responded atypically in ASC. In Controls, RTPJ was selectively more responsive to mentalizing than physical judgments. This selectivity for mentalizing was not apparent in ASC and generalized across both self and other. Selectivity of RTPJ for mentalizing was also associated with the degree of reciprocal social impairment in ASC. These results lend support to the idea that RTPJ is one important neural system behind mindblindness in ASC. Understanding the contribution of RTPJ in conjunction with other neural systems responsible for other component processes involved in social cognition will be illuminating in fully explaining the hallmark social-communication difficulties of autism.

The long and the short of it: negotiating the right space for Asian theatre in the university drama curriculum

This article compares two approaches to teaching Asian theatre at undergraduate level in the United Kingdom. One approach samples a variety of different traditions as a means to challenge students to produce performance for a combined audience of hearing and deaf, whereas the other focuses on the effect of exploring one geographical area intensively over the course of one academic year. The article seeks to highlight the merits and pitfalls of both approaches, and questions whether student work that actively questions ethnicity and identity, as well as the tension between innovation and tradition, might be considered diasporic in character.