Comprehending adverbs of doubt and certainty in health communication: A multidimensional scaling approach

This research explored the feasibility of using multidimensional scaling (MDS) analysis in novel combination with other techniques to study comprehension of epistemic adverbs expressing doubt and certainty (e.g., evidently, obviously, probably) as they relate to health communication in clinical settings. In Study 1, Australian English speakers performed a dissimilarity-rating task with sentence pairs containing the target stimuli, presented as "doctors' opinions". Ratings were analyzed using a combination of cultural consensus analysis (factor analysis across participants), weighted-data classical-MDS, and cluster analysis. Analyses revealed strong within-community consistency for a 3-dimensional semantic space solution that took into account individual differences, strong statistical acceptability of the MDS results in terms of stress and explained variance, and semantic configurations that were interpretable in terms of linguistic analyses of the target adverbs. The results confirmed the feasibility of using MDS in this context. Study 2 replicated the results with Canadian English speakers on the same task. Semantic analyses and stress decomposition analysis were performed on the Australian and Canadian data sets, revealing similarities and differences between the two groups. Overall, the results support using MDS to study comprehension of words critical for health communication, including in future studies, for example, second language speaking patients and/or practitioners. More broadly, the results indicate that the techniques described should be promising for comprehension studies in many communicative domains, in both clinical settings and beyond, and including those targeting other aspects of language and focusing on comparisons across different speech communities.

Cognitive Functioning in Alcohol and Other Substance Use Disorders in Young Adulthood : A Genetic Epidemiological Study

Alcohol and other substance use disorders (SUDs) result in great costs and suffering for individuals and families and constitute a notable public health burden. A multitude of factors, ranging from biological to societal, are associated with elevated risk of SUDs, but at the level of individuals, one of the best predictors is a family history of SUDs. Genetically informative twin and family studies have consistently indicated this familial risk to be mainly genetic. In addition, behavioral and temperamental factors such as early initiation of substance use and aggressiveness are associated with the development of SUDs. These familial, behavioral and temperamental risk factors often co-occur, but their relative importance is not well known. People with SUDs have also been found to differ from healthy controls in various domains of cognitive functioning, with poorer verbal ability being among the most consistent findings. However, representative population-based samples have rarely been used in neuropsychological studies of SUDs. In addition, both SUDs and cognitive abilities are influenced by genetic factors, but whether the co-variation of these traits might be partly explained by overlapping genetic influences has not been studied. Problematic substance use also often co-occurs with low educational level, but it is not known whether these outcomes share part of their underlying genetic influences. In addition, educational level may moderate the genetic etiology of alcohol problems, but gene-environment interactions between these phenomena have also not been widely studied. The incidence of SUDs peaks in young adulthood rendering epidemiological studies in this age group informative. This thesis investigated cognitive functioning and other correlates of SUDs in young adulthood in two representative population-based samples of young Finnish adults, one of which consisted of monozygotic and dizygotic twin pairs enabling genetically informative analyses. Using data from the population-based Mental Health in Early Adulthood in Finland (MEAF) study (n=605), the lifetime prevalence of DSM-IV any substance dependence or abuse among persons aged 21—35 years was found to be approximately 14%, with a majority of the diagnoses being alcohol use disorders. Several correlates representing the domains of behavioral and affective factors, parental factors, early initiation of substance use, and educational factors were individually associated with SUDs. The associations between behavioral and affective factors (attention or behavior problems at school, aggression, anxiousness) and SUDs were found to be largely independent of factors from other domains, whereas daily smoking and low education were still associated with SUDs after adjustment for behavioral and affective factors. Using a wide array of neuropsychological tests in the MEAF sample and in a subsample (n=602) of the population-based FinnTwin16 (FT16) study, consistent evidence of poorer verbal cognitive ability related to SUDs was found. In addition, participants with SUDs performed worse than those without disorders in a task assessing psychomotor processing speed in the MEAF sample, whereas no evidence of more specific cognitive deficits was found in either sample. Biometrical structural equation models of the twin data suggested that both alcohol problems and verbal ability had moderate heritabilities (0.54—0.72), and that their covariation could be explained by correlated genetic influences (genetic correlations -0.20 to -0.31). The relationship between educational level and alcohol problems, studied in the full epidemiological FT16 sample (n=4,858), was found to reflect both genetic correlation and gene-environment interaction. The co-occurrence of low education and alcohol problems was influenced by overlapping genetic factors. In addition, higher educational level was associated with increased relative importance of genetic influences on alcohol problems, whereas environmental influences played a more important role in young adults with lower education. In conclusion, SUDs, especially alcohol abuse and dependence, are common among young Finnish adults. Behavioral and affective factors are robustly related to SUDs independently of many other factors, and compared to healthy peers, young adults who have had SUDs during their life exhibit significantly poorer verbal cognitive ability, and possibly less efficient psychomotor processing. Genetic differences between individuals explain a notable proportion of individual differences in risk of alcohol dependence, verbal ability, and educational level, and the co-occurrence of alcohol problems with poorer verbal cognition and low education is influenced by shared genetic backgrounds. Finally, various environmental factors related to educational level in young adulthood moderate the relative importance of genetic factors influencing the risk of alcohol problems, possibly reflecting differences in social control mechanisms related to educational level.

Smoking patterns and lung function : A longitudinal twin study

In many countries, the prevalence of smoking and smokers average cigarette consumption have decreased, with occasional smoking and daily light smoking (1-4 cigarettes per day, CPD) becoming more common. Despite these changes in smoking patterns, the prevalence of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), a disorder characterized by a progressive decline in lung function, continues to rise globally. Smoking is the most important factor causing COPD, however, not all smokers develop the disease. Genetic factors partly explain the inter-individual differences in lung function and susceptibility of some smokers to COPD. No earlier research on the genetic and environmental determinants of lung function or on the phenomenon of light smoking exists in the Finnish population. Further, the association between low-rate smoking patterns and COPD remains partly unknown. This thesis aimed to study the prevalence and consistency of light smoking longitudinally in the Finnish population, to assess the characteristics of light smokers, and to examine the risks of chronic bronchitis and COPD associated with changing smoking patterns over time. A further aim was to estimate longitudinally the proportions of genetic and environmental factors that explain the inter-individual variances in lung function. Data from the Older Finnish Twin Cohort, including same-sex twin pairs born in Finland before 1958, were used. Smoking patterns and chronic bronchitis symptoms were consistently assessed in surveys conducted in 1975, 1981, and 1990. National registry data on reimbursement eligibilities and medication purchases were used to define COPD. Lung function data were obtained from a subsample of the cohort, 217 female twin pairs, who attended spirometry in 2000 and 2003 as part of the Finnish Twin Study on Ageing. The genetic and environmental influences on lung function were estimated by using genetic modeling. This thesis found that light smokers are more often female, well-educated, and exhibit a healthier lifestyle than heavy smokers. At individual level, light smoking is rarely a constant pattern. Light smoking, reducing from heavier smoking to light smoking, and relapsing to light smoking after quitting, are among patterns associated with an increased risk of chronic bronchitis and COPD. Constant light smoking is associated with an increased use of inhaled anticholinergics, a medication for CODP. In addition to smoking, other environmental factors influence lung function in the older age. During a three-year follow-up, new environmental effects influencing spirometry values were observed, whereas the genes affecting lung function remained mostly the same. In conclusion, no safe level of daily smoking exists with regard to pulmonary diseases. Even daily light smoking in middle-age is associated with increased respiratory morbidity later in life. Smoking reduction does not decrease the risk of COPD, and should not be recommended as an alternative to quitting smoking. In elderly people, attention should also be drawn to other factors that can prevent poor lung function.

Simultaneously Uncovering the Patterns of Brain Regions Involved in Different Story Reading Subprocesses

Story understanding involves many perceptual and cognitive subprocesses, from perceiving individual words, to parsing sentences, to understanding the relationships among the story characters. We present an integrated computational model of reading that incorporates these and additional subprocesses, simultaneously discovering their fMRI signatures. Our model predicts the fMRI activity associated with reading arbitrary text passages, well enough to distinguish which of two story segments is being read with 74% accuracy. This approach is the first to simultaneously track diverse reading subprocesses during complex story processing and predict the detailed neural representation of diverse story features, ranging from visual word properties to the mention of different story characters and different actions they perform. We construct brain representation maps that replicate many results from a wide range of classical studies that focus each on one aspect of language processing and offer new insights on which type of information is processed by different areas involved in language processing. Additionally, this approach is promising for studying individual differences: it can be used to create single subject maps that may potentially be used to measure reading comprehension and diagnose reading disorders.

Deficits in sensory prediction are related to delusional ideation in healthy individuals.

Motor control strongly relies on neural processes that predict the sensory consequences of self-generated actions. Previous research has demonstrated deficits in such sensory-predictive processes in schizophrenic patients and these low-level deficits are thought to contribute to the emergence of delusions of control. Here, we examined the extent to which individual differences in sensory prediction are associated with a tendency towards delusional ideation in healthy participants. We used a force-matching task to quantify sensory-predictive processes, and administered questionnaires to assess schizotypy and delusion-like thinking. Individuals with higher levels of delusional ideation showed more accurate force matching suggesting that such thinking is associated with a reduced tendency to predict and attenuate the sensory consequences of self-generated actions. These results suggest that deficits in sensory prediction in schizophrenia are not simply consequences of the deluded state and are not related to neuroleptic medication. Rather they appear to be stable, trait-like characteristics of an individual, a finding that has important implications for our understanding of the neurocognitive basis of delusions.

KE Workshop Report - Main Drivers for Successful re-use of Research Data

On 23-24 September 2009 an international discussion workshop on “Main Drivers for Successful Re-Use of Research Data” was held in Berlin, prepared and organised by the Knowledge Exchange working group on Primary Research Data. The main focus of the workshop was on the benefits, challenges and obstacles of re-using data from a researcher’s perspective. The use cases presented by researchers from a variety of disciplines were supplemented by two key notes and selected presentations by specialists from infrastructure institutions, publishers, and funding bodies on national and European level. Researchers' perspectives The workshop provided a critical evaluation of what lessons have been learned on sharing and re-using research data from a researcher’s perspective and what actions might be taken on to still improve the successful re-use. Despite the individual differences characterising the diverse disciplines it became clear that important issues are comparable. Combine forces to support re-use and sharing of data Apart from several technical challenges such as metadata exchange standards and quality assurance it was obvious that the most important obstacles to re-using research data more efficiently are socially determined. It was agreed that in order to overcome this problem more efforts should be made to rise awareness and combine forces to support re-using and sharing of research data on all levels (researchers, institutions, publishers, funders, governments).

Characterization of the neural mechanisms supporting the implementation of cognitive control in human decision making

Humans are particularly adept at modifying their behavior in accordance with changing environmental demands. Through various mechanisms of cognitive control, individuals are able to tailor actions to fit complex short- and long-term goals. The research described in this thesis uses functional magnetic resonance imaging to characterize the neural correlates of cognitive control at two levels of complexity: response inhibition and self-control in intertemporal choice. First, we examined changes in neural response associated with increased experience and skill in response inhibition; successful response inhibition was associated with decreased neural response over time in the right ventrolateral prefrontal cortex, a region widely implicated in cognitive control, providing evidence for increased neural efficiency with learned automaticity. We also examined a more abstract form of cognitive control using intertemporal choice. In two experiments, we identified putative neural substrates for individual differences in temporal discounting, or the tendency to prefer immediate to delayed rewards. Using dynamic causal models, we characterized the neural circuit between ventromedial prefrontal cortex, an area involved in valuation, and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, a region implicated in self-control in intertemporal and dietary choice, and found that connectivity from dorsolateral prefrontal cortex to ventromedial prefrontal cortex increases at the time of choice, particularly when delayed rewards are chosen. Moreover, estimates of the strength of connectivity predicted out-of-sample individual rates of temporal discounting, suggesting a neurocomputational mechanism for variation in the ability to delay gratification. Next, we interrogated the hypothesis that individual differences in temporal discounting are in part explained by the ability to imagine future reward outcomes. Using a novel paradigm, we imaged neural response during the imagining of primary rewards, and identified negative correlations between activity in regions associated the processing of both real and imagined rewards (lateral orbitofrontal cortex and ventromedial prefrontal cortex, respectively) and the individual temporal discounting parameters estimated in the previous experiment. These data suggest that individuals who are better able to represent reward outcomes neurally are less susceptible to temporal discounting. Together, these findings provide further insight into role of the prefrontal cortex in implementing cognitive control, and propose neurobiological substrates for individual variation.

A escrita alfabética, sua natureza e representação: contribuições à Fonoaudiologia aplicada à Educação

Introdução: Essa pesquisa situa-se no campo epistemológico da Fonoaudiologia Educacional. A prática fonoaudiológica no Brasil tem sua gênese vinculada a medidas de uniformização e normatização da língua. As ações fonoaudiológicas foram, desde a sua origem, influenciadas pelo positivismo e pelo pensamento naturalista, o que se traduziu em uma atuação, marcadamente, clínico-médica e numa concepção normativa de desenvolvimento e aprendizagem da escrita. Esforços têm sido empreendidos para se instituir no campo educacional uma atuação fonoaudiológica diferenciada, que se destitua do caráter curativo e normativo e se volte para a promoção do processo de ensino-aprendizagem. No entanto, apesar dos esforços em busca da modificação e ampliação da atuação fonoaudiológica educacional, esse caráter clínico-médico persiste. Entende-se que tal perpetuação é sustentada por paradigmas enraizados e mantidos até hoje na formação do fonoaudiólogo e do educador. Trata-se de visões que universalizam questões relativas à linguagem e ao processo de aprendizagem da escrita e medicalizam padrões que se apresentam fora do esperado como normalidade. Objetivo: Caracterizar a natureza e a representação da escrita alfabética, visando a contribuir para a superação da cultura naturalística e biologizante na abordagem das questões sobre a aprendizagem e o domínio da língua escrita no campo da Fonoaudiologia Educacional. Metodologia: Pesquisa científica de base teórico-conceitual. Resultados: Essa pesquisa revela que o sistema estrutural da escrita constitui um fenômeno com propriedades gramaticais e representacionais que se distinguem da fala. Evidencia-se que a relação entre a língua escrita e a língua oral não é direta, de tal modo que a escrita alfabética não é uma transcodificação da fala. Além disso, essa tese sustenta que a natureza da escrita não é biológica, mas eminentemente cultural, de tal maneira que sua apropriação e domínio constituem um processo conceitual singular. Tal concepção implica o entendimento de que diferentes sujeitos socioculturais interagem e conceituam a escrita de modos diversos. Essa diversidade ocorre porque sujeitos sociais plurais apresentam modos diferenciados de organização e operação mental que, por sua vez, implicam diferentes formas de interação com o mundo, com o outro e com a escrita, resultando em diferenças individuais na estruturação e no uso da fala e da escrita. A partir desses conceitos, sistematizam-se princípios norteadores para a constituição de uma atuação fonoaudiológica educacional, no campo da escrita, destituída de qualquer caráter clínicomédico. Conclusões: O entendimento de que a apropriação da escrita não tem natureza biológica permite a compreensão de que os diferentes modos de escrita não podem ser validados por regras universais baseadas em um sistema mental apriorístico, nem, tampouco, considerados produtos de uma condição de anormalidade intrínseca ao sujeito. Essa tese demonstrou que a manutenção de uma concepção de um determinismo biológico para as dificuldades na aprendizagem ou domínio da escrita, na verdade, envolve uma questão paradigmática. Enfim, os parâmetros que definem as categorias do que é normal e do que é anormal na estruturação e no uso da escrita não são regidos por princípios biológicos, mas por categorias paradigmáticas. Assim, a ideia de um distúrbio de aprendizagem da escrita se sustenta somente sob determinado paradigma.

Neurolinguistic measure of typological effects in multilingual transfer: introducing an ERP methodology

This article has two main objectives. First, we offer an introduction to the subfield of generative third language (L3) acquisition. Concerned primarily with modeling initial stages transfer of morphosyntax, one goal of this program is to show how initial stages L3 data make significant contributions toward a better understanding of how the mind represents language and how (cognitive) economy constrains acquisition processes more generally. Our second objective is to argue for and demonstrate how this subfield will benefit from a neuro/psycholinguistic methodological approach, such as event-related potential experiments, to complement the claims currently made on the basis of exclusively behavioral experiments. Palabras clave

Exploring Game Performance in the National Basketball Association Using Player Tracking Data

Recent player tracking technology provides new information about basketball game performance. The aim of this study was to (i) compare the game performances of all-star and non all-star basketball players from the National Basketball Association (NBA), and (ii) describe the different basketball game performance profiles based on the different game roles. Archival data were obtained from all 2013-2014 regular season games (n = 1230). The variables analyzed included the points per game, minutes played and the game actions recorded by the player tracking system. To accomplish the first aim, the performance per minute of play was analyzed using a descriptive discriminant analysis to identify which variables best predict the all-star and non all-star playing categories. The all-star players showed slower velocities in defense and performed better in elbow touches, defensive rebounds, close touches, close points and pull-up points, possibly due to optimized attention processes that are key for perceiving the required appropriate environmental information. The second aim was addressed using a k-means cluster analysis, with the aim of creating maximal different performance profile groupings. Afterwards, a descriptive discriminant analysis identified which variables best predict the different playing clusters. The results identified different playing profile of performers, particularly related to the game roles of scoring, passing, defensive and all-round game behavior. Coaching staffs may apply this information to different players, while accounting for individual differences and functional variability, to optimize practice planning and, consequently, the game performances of individuals and teams.

学习不良儿童的元认知偏差及矫正

Metacognitive illusions or metacognitive bias is a concept that is a homologous with metacognitve monitor accuracy. In the dissertation, metacognitive illusions mainly refers to the absolute differences between judgment of learning (JOL) and recall because individuals are misguided by some invalid cues or information. JOL is one kind of metacognitive judgments, which is the prediction about the future performance of learned materials. Its mechanism and accuracy are the key issues in the study of JOL. Cue-utilization framework proposed by Koriat (1997) summarized the previous findings and provided a significant advance in understanding how people make JOL. However, the model is not able to explain individual differences in the accuracy of JOL. From the perspective of people’s cognitive bound, our study use posterior associative word pairs easy to produce metacognitive bias to explore the deeper psychological mechanism of metacontive bias. Moreover, we plan to investigate the cause to result in higher metacognitive illusions of children with LD. Based on these, the study tries to look for the method of mending metacognitive illusions. At the same time, we will summarize the findings of this study and previous literatures, and propose a revesied theory for explaining children’s with LD cue selection and utilization according to Koriat’s cue-utilization model. The results of the present study indicated that: (1) Children showed stable metacognitive illusions for the weak associative and posterior associative word pairs, it was not true for strong associative word pairs. It was higher metacognitive illusions for children with LD than normal children. And it was significant grade differences for metacognitive illusions. A priori associative strength exerted a weaker effect on JOL than it did on recall. (2) Children with LD mainly utilized retrieval fluency to make JOL across immediate and delay conditions. However, for normal children, it showed some distinction between encoding fluency and retrieval fluency as potential cues for JOL across immediate and delay conditions. Obviously, children with LD lacked certain flexibility for cue selection and utilization. (3)When word pairs were new list, it showed higher metacognitve transfer effects for analytic inferential group than heuristic inferential group for normal children in the second block. And metacognitive relative accuracy got increased for both children with and without LD across the experimental conditions. However, it was significantly improved only for normal children in analytic inferential group.

抑郁行为及不同抑郁亚型的多巴胺机制研究

The conceptualization of “depression” as a heterogenous disease has been widely accepted by most researchers. However, controlled experiments are rather sparse. To date, most studies demonstrated that animals with helplessness, a widely recognized behavioral index of “depression” also show varied comobidity expressions of other emotional behaviors, such as hightened or lightened anxiety level compared with controls. This means that distinct subtypes of “depression” may exist, in which different neural mechanisms may play roles. The present study aims to explore the possibility of behaviorally categorizing two depressive subtypes, referred as anxious helplessness and non-anxious helplessness, respectively. Then, by using RT-PCR, the dopamine D1, D2, D3 receptors mRNA expressions in medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) and nucleus accubems (NAc) were quantified. The main findings are described as belows: 1. Uncontrollable shock could readily induce helpless behavior in shocked animals as a whole but with salient individual differences. Prior inescaoable shock induces subsuquent helplessness in approximately 40% shocked animals, while the other animals showed no sign of helpless expression, and were classified as non-helplessness. 2. Among helpless animals, the “subtype” of anxious helpless and non-anxious helpless could be identified according to the anxiety level evaluated by elevated plus maze. 3. D3 receptors mRNA expressions in the mPFC and NAc were increased in stressed animals after uncontrollable shock treatment. At the meanwhile, significant lower expressions of D2 receptors in the mPFC and NAc, and much lower expressions of D1 receptors in the mPFC were found in rats that did not become helpless after stress. In contrast, no significant difference between helpless and control animals was found in D1/D2 receptors mRNA expressions. 4. Based on above mentioned results, the up-regulation of D3 receptors in the mPFC and NAc may reflect a generalized effect of exposure to uncontrollalbe shock. While the down-regulation of D1\D2 receptors in the mPFC and decreased expression of D2 receptors in the NAc may be associated with adaptive or protective mechnisms which protecting animals from helplessness after uncontrollable shock treatment. 5. Futhermore, a significant negative relationship was found between anxiety level and D1 receptors expressions in the mPFC in helpless animals. Compared to the non-anxious helpless and control rats, the D1 receptors mRNA of anxious helpless rats were down-regulation in the mPFC. The present study indicated that the D1 dopamine receptor gene is associated with co-morbid depression and anxiety.

7-12岁儿童执行功能与智力的关系

The nature of individual differences among children is an important issue in the study of human intelligence. There are close relation between intelligence and executive functions. Traditional theories, which are based mainly on the factor analysis, approach the problem only from the perspective of psychometrics. However, they do not study the relation of cognition and neurobiology. Some researchers try to explore the essential differences in intelligence from the basic cognitive level, by studying the relationship between executive function and intelligence. The aim of this study was to do the followings 1) to delineate and separate the executive function in children into measurable constructs; 2) to establish the relationship between executive function and intelligence in children; 3) to find out the difference and its neural mechanism between intellectually-gifted and normal children’s executive function. The participants were 188 children aged 7-12 year old. There were 6 executive function tasks. The results were follows: 1) The latent variables analyses showed that there was no stable construct of executive function in 7-10 year old children. The executive function construct of 11-12 year old children could be separated into updating, inhibition and shifting. And they had grown to be more or less the same as adults in the executive function. There were only moderate correlations between the three types of executive function, but they were largely independent of each other. 2) The correlations between the indices of updating, inhibition, shifting and intelligence were different in 7-12 year old children. The older the age, the more the indices were related to intelligence. The updating and shifting were related to intelligence in 7-10 year old children. There were significant correlations between the updating, inhibition, shifting and intelligence in 11-12 year old children. The correlation between updating and intelligence was higher than the correlation between shifting and intelligence. Furthermore, in structural equation models controlling for the three executive functions correlations, updating was highly related to intelligence, but the relations of inhibition and shifting to intelligence were not significant. 3) Intellectually-gifted children performed better than normal children in executive function tasks. The neural mechanism differences between intellectually gifted and average children were indicated by ERP component P3. The present study helps us to understand the relationship between intelligence and executive function; and throws light on the issue of individual differences in intelligence. The present results can provide theoretical support for the development a culture-free intelligence test and a method to promote the development of intelligence. Our present study lends support to the neural efficient hypothesis.

不同智力水平儿童的自我调控特点

Self-regulation has recently become an important topic in cognitive and developmental domain. According to previous theories and experimental studies, it is shown that self-regulation consist of both a personality (or social) aspect and a behavioral cognitive aspect of psychology. Self-regulation can be divided into self-regulation personality and self-regulation ability. In the present study researches have been carried out from two perspectives: child development and individual differences. We are eager to explore the characteristics of self-regulation in terms of human cognitive development. In the present study, we chose two groups of early adolescences one with high intelligence and the other with normal intelligence. In Study One Questionnaires were used to compare whether the highly intelligent group had had better self-regulation personality than the normal group. In Study Two experimental psychology tasks were used to compare whether highly intelligent children had had better self-regulation cognitive abilities than their normal peers. Finally, in Study Three we combined the results of Study One and Study Two to further explore the neural mechanisms for highly intelligent children with respect to their good self-regulation abilities. Some main results and conclusions are as follows: (1) Questionnaire results showed that highly intelligent children had better self-regulation personalities, and they got higher scores on the personalities related to self-regulation such as, self-reliance, stability, rule-consciousness. They also got higher scores on self-consciousness which meant that they could know their own self better than the normal children. (2) Among the three levels of cognitive difficulties in self-regulation abilities, the highly intelligent children had faster reaction speed than normal children in the primary self-regulation tasks. In the intermediate self-regulation tasks, highly intelligent children’s inhibition processing and executive processing were both better than their normal peers. In the advanced self-regulation tasks, highly intelligent children again had faster reaction speed and more reaction accuracy than their normal peers when facing with conflict and inconsistency experimental conditions,. Regression model’s results showed that primary and advanced self-regulation abilites had larger predictive power than intermediate self-regualation ability. (3) Our neural experiments showed that highly intelligent children had more efficient neural automatic processing ability than normal children. They also had better, faster and larger neural reaction to novel stimuli under pre-attentional condition which made good and firm neural basis for self-regualation. Highly intelligent children had more mature frontal lobe and pariental functions for inhibition processing and executive processing. P3 component in ERP was closely related to executive processing which mainly activated pariental function. There were two time-periods for inhibition processing—first it was the pariental function and later it was the coordination function of frontal and pariental lobes. While conflict control task had pariental N2 and frontal-pariental P3 neural sources, highly intelligent children had much smaller N2 and shorter P3 latency than normal children. Inconsistency conditions induced larger N2 than conditions without inconsistency, and conditions without inconsistency (or Conflict) induced higher P3 amplitudes than with Inconsistency (or Conflict) conditions. In conclusion, the healthy development of self-regulation was very important for children’s personality and cognition maturity, and self-regulation had its own specific characteristics in ways of presentation and ways of development. Better understanding of self-regulation can further help the exploration of the nature of human intelligence and consciousness.