Eye movements during mental time travel follow a diagonal line

Recent research showed that past events are associated with the back and left side, whereas future events are associated with the front and right side of space. These spatial-temporal associations have an impact on our sensorimotor system: thinking about one's past and future leads to subtle body sways in the sagittal dimension of space (Miles, Nind, & Macrae, 2010). In this study we investigated whether mental time travel leads to sensorimotor correlates in the horizontal dimension of space. Participants were asked to mentally displace themselves into the past or future while measuring their spontaneous eye movements on a blank screen. Eye gaze was directed more rightward and upward when thinking about the future than when thinking about the past. Our results provide further insight into the spatial nature of temporal thoughts, and show that not only body, but also eye movements follow a (diagonal) "time line" during mental time travel.

Service Brand Relationship Quality: Hot or Cold?

Customers’ long-term brand relations are crucial drivers of a service brand’s sustainable competitive advantage. This research empirically examines the quality of customer-service brand relationships in the context of an airline’s frequent flyer program. The authors show that service brand relationship quality (BRQ) involves both a hot (based on emotions) and a cold (based on objectrelevant beliefs) component. They find that these two components have different implications for a service brand’s performance and are at least partially driven by different antecedents whose relative importance changes over time. Specifically, cold BRQ is important for word-of-mouth behavior and is strongly driven by partner quality (i.e., the generalized assessment of the brand in its role as a relationship counterpart). Hot BRQ, on the other hand, has a stronger impact on willingness to pay a price premium and consideration set size. In early stages of a customer-brand relationship hot BRQ is more strongly driven by self-congruence (i.e., consumer’s perception of the fit between his/her self and the brand’s personality), in later stages partner quality becomes more relevant. The authors discuss the implications of their findings for the development of BRQ and the implementation of alternative growth strategies in a services context.

The Influence of Pre-stimulus EEG Activity on Reaction Time During a Verbal Sternberg Task is Related to Musical Expertise

Abstract Previous work highlighted the possibility that musical training has an influence on cognitive functioning. The suggested reason for this influence is the strong recruitment of attention, planning, and working memory functions during playing a musical instrument. The purpose of the present work was twofold, namely to evaluate the general relationship between pre-stimulus electrophysiological activity and cognition, and more specifically the influence of musical expertise on working memory functions. With this purpose in mind, we used covariance mapping analyses to evaluate whether pre-stimulus electroencephalographic activity is predictive for reaction time during a visual working memory task (Sternberg paradigm) in musicians and non-musicians. In line with our hypothesis, we replicated previous findings pointing to a general predictive value of pre-stimulus activity for working memory performance. Most importantly, we also provide first evidence for an influence of musical expertise on working memory performance that could distinctively be predicted by pre-stimulus spectral power. Our results open novel perspectives for better comprehending the vast influences of musical expertise on cognition.

Working memory training in children: Effectiveness depends on temperament

Studies revealing transfer effects of working memory (WM) training on non-trained cognitive performance of children hold promising implications for scholastic learning. However, the results of existing training studies are not consistent and provoke debates about the potential and limitations of cognitive enhancement. To examine the influence of individual differences on training outcomes is a promising approach for finding causes for such inconsistencies. In this study, we implemented WM training in an elementary school setting. The aim was to investigate near and far transfer effects on cognitive abilities and academic achievement and to examine the moderating effects of a dispositional and a regulative temperament factor, neuroticism and effortful control. Ninetynine second-graders were randomly assigned to 20 sessions of computer-based adaptiveWMtraining, computer-based reading training, or a no-contact control group. For the WM training group, our analyses reveal near transfer on a visual WM task, far transfer on a vocabulary task as a proxy for crystallized intelligence, and increased academic achievement in reading and math by trend. Considering individual differences in temperament, we found that effortful control predicts larger training mean and gain scores and that there is a moderation effect of both temperament factors on post-training improvement: WM training condition predicted higher post-training gains compared to both control conditions only in children with high effortful control or low neuroticism. Our results suggest that a short but intensive WM training program can enhance cognitive abilities in children, but that sufficient selfregulative abilities and emotional stability are necessary for WM training to be effective.

Adapting a driving simulator to study pedestrians' street-crossing decisions: A feasibility study

The decision when to cross a street safely is a challenging task that poses high demands on perception and cognition. Both can be affected by normal aging, neurodegenerative disorder, and brain injury, and there is an increasing interest in studying street-crossing decisions. In this article, we describe how driving simulators can be modified to study pedestrians' street-crossing decisions. The driving simulator's projection system and the virtual driving environment were used to present street-crossing scenarios to the participants. New sensors were added to measure when the test person starts to cross the street. Outcome measures were feasibility, usability, task performance, and visual exploration behavior, and were measured in 15 younger persons, 15 older persons, and 5 post-stroke patients. The experiments showed that the test is feasible and usable, and the selected difficulty level was appropriate. Significant differences in the number of crashes between young participants and patients (p = .001) as well as between healthy older participants and patients (p = .003) were found. When the approaching vehicle's speed is high, significant differences between younger and older participants were found as well (p = .038). Overall, the new test setup was well accepted, and we demonstrated that driving simulators can be used to study pedestrians' street-crossing decisions.

The modulation of reading strategies by language opacity in early bilinguals: an eye movement study

Converging evidences from eye movement experiments indicate that linguistic contexts influence reading strategies. However, the question of whether different linguistic contexts modulate eye movements during reading in the same bilingual individuals remains unresolved. We examined reading strategies in a transparent (German) and an opaque (French) language of early, highly proficient French–German bilinguals: participants read aloud isolated French and German words and pseudo-words while the First Fixation Location (FFL), its duration and latency were measured. Since transparent linguistic contexts and pseudo-words would favour a direct grapheme/phoneme conversion, the reading strategy should be more local for German than for French words (FFL closer to the beginning) and no difference is expected in pseudo-words’ FFL between contexts. Our results confirm these hypotheses, providing the first evidence that the same individuals engage different reading strategy depending on language opacity, suggesting that a given brain process can be modulated by a given context.

Exploring the Impact of Decreased AMPK Pathway Activity on Brain Injury Outcome

Each year, 150 million people sustain a Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI). TBI results in life-long cognitive impairments for many survivors. One observed pathological alteration following TBI are changes in glucose metabolism. Altered glucose uptake occurs in the periphery as well as in the nervous system, with an acute increase in glucose uptake, followed by a prolonged metabolic suppression. Chronic, persistent suppression of brain glucose uptake occurs in TBI patients experiencing memory loss. Abberant post-injury activation of energy-sensing signaling cascades could result in perturbed cellular metabolism. AMP-activated kinase (AMPK) is a kinase that senses low ATP levels, and promotes efficient cell energy usage. AMPK promotes energy production through increasing glucose uptake via glucose transporter 4 (GLUT4). When AMPK is activated, it phosphorylates Akt Substrate of 160 kDa (AS160), a Rab GTPase activating protein that controls Glut4 translocation. Additionally, AMPK negatively regulates energy-consumption by inhibiting protein synthesis via the mechanistic Target of Rapamycin (mTOR) pathway. Given that metabolic suppression has been observed post-injury, we hypothesized that activity of the AMPK pathway is transiently decreased. As AMPK activation increases energy efficiency of the cell, we proposed that increasing AMPK activity to combat the post-injury energy crisis would improve cognitive outcome. Additionally, we expected that inhibiting AMPK targets would be detrimental. We first investigated the role of an existing state of hyperglycemia on TBI outcome, as hyperglycemia correlates with increased mortality and decreased cognitive outcome in clinical studies. Inducing hyperglycemia had no effect on outcome; however, we discovered that AMPK and AS160 phosphorylation were altered post-injury. We conducted vii work to characterize this period of AMPK suppression and found that AMPK phosphorylation was significantly decreased in the hippocampus and cortex between 24 hours and 3 days post-injury, and phosphorylation of its downstream targets was consistently altered. Based on this period of observed decreased AMPK activity, we administered an AMPK activator post-injury, and this improved cognitive outcome. Finally, to examine whether AMPK-regulated target Glut4 is involved in post-injury glucose metabolism, we applied an inhibitor and found this treatment impaired post-injury cognitive function. This work is significant, as AMPK activation may represent a new TBI therapeutic target.

Templanza y continencia en Tomás de Aquino : razones para una concepción no dualista de la virtud moral

El propósito de esta investigación es mostrar las razones que tiene Tomás de Aquino para privilegiar una moral de la templanza por sobre una de mera continencia. Pero más allá de detenerse en los pocos artículos que Santo Tomás dedica a comparar ambas disposiciones, el fin de nuestro trabajo es, a partir de los textos referidos a la naturaleza de la virtud moral, mostrar por qué sólo la templanza puede ser considerada una virtud, mientras la continencia es una “mezcla" de virtud y desorden. En segundo lugar, esta investigación pretende justificar la validez de los argumentos tomasianos, demostrando que si se prescinde de esta distinción entre virtud perfecta y continencia, necesariamente se introduce un dualismo antropológico en el plano de la acción. En esta misma línea, se buscará, a su vez, comparar la postura de Santo Tomás con la postura de Escoto, para quien los afectos y las pasiones son meros “facilitadores" de la elección, pero no elementos constitutivas de ésta.

La literatura como medio para desarrollar las habilidades sociales en jóvenes sordos

El presente trabajo es producto de la tesis doctoral titulada La generación de mundos de ficción en jóvenes sordos. La literatura como herramienta para el desarrollo del pensamiento creativo y del Proyecto de investigación: Estrategias pedagógico-didácticas para el desarrollo y aprendizaje de las habilidades sociales en escuelas públicas de enseñanza común y especial del gran Mendoza, dirigido por el Dr. Benito Parés.2 En dicho trabajo se pone en evidencia cómo a través de espacios de literatura se desarrollan las habilidades sociales de autoafirmación, entre otras, tal como la autoestima y la confianza en uno mismo a partir de la utilización de técnicas de creatividad literaria. En esta investigación nos interesó indagar respecto de las posibilidades de los jóvenes sordos para generar textos de ficción que permitieran desarrollar el pensamiento divergente, y pudimos advertir también, las habilidades sociales que se ponen en juego ante las tareas solicitadas a dichos jóvenes. A partir de las propuestas de trabajo realizadas por las Personas Sordas que participaron del proyecto, observamos por un lado el cambio de actitud frente a la tarea y por otro las manifestaciones de placer al realizar las actividades propuestas. En relación con los resultados, pudimos apreciar la presencia de habilidades sociales de autoafirmación, resolución de problemas, comunicacionales, de expresión de emociones y sentimientos entre otras, como consecuencia del trabajo con textos literarios.

Acción y cognición : Una educación física de la acción presente

Este trabajo pretende entregar una reflexión respecto a los principios biológicos fundamentales de la percepción y acción en seres vivos en general y seres humanos en particular. Su desarrollo esta guiado por la intención de concretar avances teóricos en una nueva comprensión de lo humano y en la formulación de una Educación Corporal centrada en la co-determinación de la acción y cognición superando la tesis tradicional del cuerpo mecanicista de la Educación Física moderna. En tal esfuerzo se reconocen las investigaciones de diferentes autores con especial énfasis en los trabajos de Francisco Varela identificando conceptos claves para orientar un enfoque enactivo desde la crítica al programa representacionista. Finalmente se proponen principios generales que describen una Educación corporal desde el enactivismo

Temor y compasión en los poemas homéricos

Desde la Poética aristotélica, temor y compasión han sido comprendidos como emociones o "placeres trágicos". Sin embargo, los poemas homéricos atestiguan la presencia de ambas emociones, e incluso una definición particular del temor, no sólo como conceptos que restringen la acción heroica o importan un código de comportamiento sino también como una expresión de la vulnerabilidad compartida por los personajes y la audiencia potencial. El presente artículo analiza la definición "épica" de tales conceptos y su importancia para la interpretación de Ilíada y Odisea.

Acción y cognición : Una educación física de la acción presente

Este trabajo pretende entregar una reflexión respecto a los principios biológicos fundamentales de la percepción y acción en seres vivos en general y seres humanos en particular. Su desarrollo esta guiado por la intención de concretar avances teóricos en una nueva comprensión de lo humano y en la formulación de una Educación Corporal centrada en la co-determinación de la acción y cognición superando la tesis tradicional del cuerpo mecanicista de la Educación Física moderna. En tal esfuerzo se reconocen las investigaciones de diferentes autores con especial énfasis en los trabajos de Francisco Varela identificando conceptos claves para orientar un enfoque enactivo desde la crítica al programa representacionista. Finalmente se proponen principios generales que describen una Educación corporal desde el enactivismo

Temor y compasión en los poemas homéricos

Desde la Poética aristotélica, temor y compasión han sido comprendidos como emociones o "placeres trágicos". Sin embargo, los poemas homéricos atestiguan la presencia de ambas emociones, e incluso una definición particular del temor, no sólo como conceptos que restringen la acción heroica o importan un código de comportamiento sino también como una expresión de la vulnerabilidad compartida por los personajes y la audiencia potencial. El presente artículo analiza la definición "épica" de tales conceptos y su importancia para la interpretación de Ilíada y Odisea.

Acción y cognición : Una educación física de la acción presente

Este trabajo pretende entregar una reflexión respecto a los principios biológicos fundamentales de la percepción y acción en seres vivos en general y seres humanos en particular. Su desarrollo esta guiado por la intención de concretar avances teóricos en una nueva comprensión de lo humano y en la formulación de una Educación Corporal centrada en la co-determinación de la acción y cognición superando la tesis tradicional del cuerpo mecanicista de la Educación Física moderna. En tal esfuerzo se reconocen las investigaciones de diferentes autores con especial énfasis en los trabajos de Francisco Varela identificando conceptos claves para orientar un enfoque enactivo desde la crítica al programa representacionista. Finalmente se proponen principios generales que describen una Educación corporal desde el enactivismo