Aprendizaje léxico y desarrollo de la gramática: vocabulario verbal, aceleración morfológica y complejidad sintáctica

This paper studies the initial development of certain language components. More precisely, we analyse the relation between three aspects that are closely involved in the grammar of the verb: morphological productivity, syntactic complexity, and verb vocabulary learning. The study is based on data about the relationship between lexical development and grammatical development, and also on proposals that a critical mass of vocabulary is needed in order to develop a grammatical component. The sample comprised six subjects who are monolingual or bilingual in Catalan andlor Spanish. Results show a morphological spurt some time afer the learning of a certain quantity of verbs. Moreover, syntactic complexity is only evident some months after this morphological spurt

La productividad de la morfología verbal a los años dos años de edad

Este trabajo se centra en estudiar la adquisición de la morfología verbal en una lengua con un paradigma verbal morfológicamente rico. Se predice que los niños de dos años no mostrarán productividad morfológica ante verbos desconocidos. La muestra se compone de 12 sujetos de edades comprendidas entre los 22 y los 31 meses. El procedimiento, de tipo experimental, se caracteriza por entrenar a los niños con verbos inventados. Los resultados muestran que los sujetos solamente utilizan los nuevos verbos con la forma morfológica con la que se han presentado. También se observa la omisión de determinados constituyentes de la oración. Estos resultados se discuten en relación con la asunción de discontinuidad de las competencias lingüísticas infantiles

Studying Memory Encoding to Promote Reliable Engagement of the Medial Temporal Lobe at the Single-subject Level

The medial temporal lobe (MTL)-comprising hippocampus and the surrounding neocortical regions-is a targeted brain area sensitive to several neurological diseases. Although functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) has been widely used to assess brain functional abnormalities, detecting MTL activation has been technically challenging. The aim of our study was to provide an fMRI paradigm that reliably activates MTL regions at the individual level, thus providing a useful tool for future research in clinical memory-related studies. Twenty young healthy adults underwent an event-related fMRI study consisting of three encoding conditions: word-pairs, face-name associations and complex visual scenes. A region-of-interest analysis at the individual level comparing novel and repeated stimuli independently for each task was performed. The results of this analysis yielded activations in the hippocampal and parahippocampal regions in most of the participants. Specifically, 95% and 100% of participants showed significant activations in the left hippocampus during the face-name encoding and in the right parahippocampus, respectively, during scene encoding. Additionally, a whole brain analysis, also comparing novel versus repeated stimuli at the group level, showed mainly left frontal activation during the word task. In this group analysis, the face-name association engaged the HP and fusiform gyri bilaterally, along with the left inferior frontal gyrus, and the complex visual scenes activated mainly the parahippocampus and hippocampus bilaterally. In sum, our task design represents a rapid and reliable manner to study and explore MTL activity at the individual level, thus providing a useful tool for future research in clinical memory-related fMRI studies.

Memory as acquaintance with the past: some Lessons from Russell, 1912-1914

Russell's theory of memory as acquaintance with the past seems to square uneasily with his definition of acquaintance as the converse of the relation of presentation of an object to a subject. We show how the two views can be made to cohere under a suitable construal of 'presentation', which has the additional appeal of bringing Russell's theory of memory closer to contemporary views on direct reference and object-dependent thinking than is usually acknowledged. The drawback is that memory as acquaintance with the past falls short of fulfilling Russell's requirement that knowledge by acquaintance be discriminating knowledge - a shortcoming shared by contemporary externalist accounts of knowledge from memory.

A percepção de pacientes sobre a comunicação não verbal na assistência médica

A confiança no médico e o sucesso terapêutico dependem, além de outros fatores, de uma boa comunicação entre profissional de saúde e paciente. O presente estudo buscou conhecer a percepção dos pacientes sobre aspectos da comunicação não verbal que influenciam a consolidação da confiança no médico. Trata-se de um estudo transversal, descritivo e analítico, com amostra aleatória de pacientes alocada em locais públicos da cidade. Foram realizadas 182 entrevistas com pessoas de idades entre 18 e 88 anos, registrando-se preferência pelo perfil mais tradicionalista do profissional, com roupas brancas, cabelos aparados e sem acessórios. O uso de maquiagem e acessórios (brincos, pulseiras, etc.) para mulheres é aceito com moderação. Existe restrição ao uso de piercings, tatuagens e brincos em homens, especialmente pela população idosa. Confirmando a importância da aparência na comunicação médico-paciente, o estudo destaca a necessidade da inserção do tema nos currículos médicos, uma vez que esses aspectos são pouco discutidos na formação do profissional médico, o que permitirá reflexões sobre aspectos não verbais da comunicação na relação médico-paciente e poderá influenciar positivamente as atitudes dos novos profissionais.

Cognitive Functions After Traumatic Brain Injury. A 30-year Follow-up Study

Many cognitive deficits after TBI (traumatic brain injury) are well known, such as memory and concentration problems, as well as reduced information-processing speed. What happens to patients and cognitive functioning after immediate recovery is poorly known. Cognitive functioning is flexible and may be influenced by genetic, psychological and environmental factors decades after TBI. The general aim of this thesis was to describe the long-term cognitive course after TBI, to find variables that may contribute to it, and how the cognitive functions after TBI are associated with specific medical factors and reduced survival. The original study group consisted of 192 patients with TBI who were originally assessed with the Mild Deterioration Battery (MDB) on average two years after the injury, during the years 1966 – 1972. During a 30-year follow-up, we studied the risks for reduced survival, and the mortality of the patients was compared with the general population using the Standardized Mortality Ratio (SMR). Sixty-one patients were re-assessed during 1998-2000. These patients were evaluated with the MDB, computerized testing, and with various other neuropsychological methods for attention and executive functions. Apolipoprotein-E (ApoE) genotyping and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) based on volumetric analysis of the hippocampus and lateral ventricles were performed. Depressive symptoms were evaluated with the short form of the Beck depression inventory. The cognitive performance at follow-up was compared with a control group that was similar to the study group in regard to age and education. The cognitive outcome of the patients with TBI varied after three decades. The majority of the patients showed a decline in their cognitive level, the rest either improved or stayed at the same level. Male gender and higher age at injury were significant risk factors for the decline. Whereas most cognitive domains declined during the follow-up, semantic memory behaved in the opposite way, showing recovery after TBI. In the follow-up assessment, the memory decline and impairments in the set-shifting domain of executive functions were associated with MRI-volumetric measures, whereas reduction in information-processing speed was not associated with the MRI measures. The presence of local contusions was only weakly associated with cognitive functions. Only few cognitive methods for attention were capable of discriminating TBI patients with and without depressive symptoms. On the other hand, most complex attentional tests were sensitive enough to discriminate TBI patients (non-depressive) from controls. This means that complex attention functions, mediated by the frontal lobes, are relatively independent of depressive symptoms post-TBI. The presence of ApoE4 was associated with different kinds of memory processes including verbal and visual episodic memory, semantic memory and verbal working memory, depending on the length of time since TBI. Many other cognitive processes were not affected by the presence of ApoE4. Age at injury and poor vocational outcome were independent risk factors for reduced survival in the multivariate analysis. Late mortality was higher among younger subjects (age < 40 years at death) compared with the general population which should be borne in mind when assessing the need for rehabilitation services and long-term follow-up after TBI.

Memory studies - kohti tutkimusalueen vakiintumista

Teemanumero 2/2011: Media ja menneisyys.

Mastalgias cíclicas: tratamento não-medicamentoso (orientação verbal)

Objetivos: avaliar o tratamento não-medicamentoso (orientação verbal) como primeira opção terapêutica para mulheres com mastalgia cíclica e observar se o tempo de existência da sintomatologia dolorosa altera os resultados. Métodos: conduzimos um estudo do tipo experimental não-controlado com uma amostra de 128 mulheres com história clara de mastalgia cíclica, tratadas com orientação verbal. Uma escala analógica visual da dor foi usada antes e após o tratamento, a fim de avaliar a severidade, e classificamos as mastalgias em graus I (leve), II (moderado) e III (severo), de acordo com a intensidade da dor. Usamos também o "Cardiff Breast Score" (CBS) modificado para avaliar a resposta clínica ao tratamento. A análise dos dados foi feita com o teste do chi² (Epi-Info 6.04). Resultados: verificou-se um índice de sucesso de 59,4% com a orientação verbal, mas não houve resposta com diferença estatisticamente significante entre os grupos (p = 0,16) com diferentes graus de mastalgia. A resposta menos satisfatória ao tratamento não-medicamentoso nas pacientes que apresentavam um período de tempo mais longo de sintomatologia foi apenas aparente, pois não houve diferença estatisticamente significante (p = 0.14). Conclusão: a orientação verbal deve ser tentada sempre como a primeira escolha terapêutica para mulheres com mastalgia cíclica, independentemente do grau de intensidade da dor. O curso prolongado da dor não interferiu nos resultados.

Discrepâncias entre o informe verbal e os registros no cartão da gestante, um instrumento negligenciado

OBJETIVO: Comparar o preenchimento do cartão da gestante em serviço-escola e em outros serviços, assim como verificar a concordância entre esses registros e as informações verbais das puérperas. MÉTODOS: Realizou-se estudo epidemiológico, transversal, misto, com duas etapas, adotando amostragem estratificada proporcional ao número de partos. Na primeira, os registros no cartão da gestante de um serviço-escola foram comparados aos de unidades não vinculadas ao ensino superior na área de saúde, em Recife (PE). Na segunda etapa, foram coletadas informações sobre o pré-natal de puérperas, por meio de questionário semiestruturado. Foram incluídas 262 puérperas com mais de 19 anos de idade, que portavam o cartão da gestante quando do parto, ocorrido entre maio e julho de 2008. Foram empregados testes estatísticos do χ², t de Student ou de Mann-Whitney, todos unicaudais à direita, com nível de significância de 5%. RESULTADOS: As informações mais frequentemente registradas no cartão da gestante, no serviço-escola, foram escolaridade (86,5 contra 70,3%; p=0,002), estado civil (83,7 contra 70,9%; p=0,01), peso anterior à gestação (72,1 contra 46,8%; p<0,001), estatura (62,5 contra 45,6%; p=0,007) e práticas educativas (76,9 contra 11,4%; p<0,001) e, nos outros serviços, apenas a informação de nascidos vivos com peso <2.500 g (27,2% contra 15,4% no serviço-escola; p=0,02). Houve discrepâncias significantes entre os dados obtidos por informe verbal e os registros no cartão da gestante. No serviço-escola, receberam assistência pré-natal adequada 40,3% das gestantes, contra 20,3%, nas outras unidades. CONCLUSÕES: Predominou maior percentual de registros, em todos os serviços, nas informações diretamente relacionadas ao parto, em detrimento das ações de caráter preventivo na assistência pré-natal.

Lectio praecursoria : Systems between information and knowledge : in a memory management model of an extended enterprise

VTT Jouni Meriluodon valtio-opin alaan kuuluva väitöskirja Systems between information and knowledge : in a memory management model of an extended enterprise tarkastettiin 21.6.2011 Helsingin yliopistossa.