Adolescence is a time of social and cognitive development associated with changes in brain structure and function. These developmental changes may show an altered path in individuals born before 33 weeks' gestation (very preterm; VPT). The cerebellum is affected by VPT birth, but no studies have yet assessed the adolescent development of this…

Filled-pause disfluencies such as "um" and "er" affect listeners' comprehension, possibly mediated by attentional mechanisms (J. E. Fox Tree, 2001). However, there is little direct evidence that hesitations affect attention. The current study used an acoustic manipulation of continuous speech to induce event-related potential components associated…

Memory shows age-related decline. According to the current prevailing theoretical model, encoding of memories relies on modifications in the strength of the synapses connecting the different cells within a neuronal network. The selective increases in synaptic weight are thought to be biologically implemented by long-term potentiation (LTP). Here,…

Modularity in the human brain remains a controversial issue, with disagreement over the nature of the modules that exist, and why, when, and how they emerge. It is a natural assumption that modularity offers some form of computational advantage, and hence evolution by natural selection has translated those advantages into the kind of modular…

Children become oriented to the world, in part, by coming to understand something of the experiences of others. The facial expressions that people make are an avenue for understanding something about them, as are the diverse forms of bodily responses emitted and interpreted by individuals. People with autism often find bodily communications to be…

The purpose of this study is to examine the attitudes of direct care workers (DCWs) in group homes towards PWDs. This study also investigated DCWs' demographic and other variables on their attitudes towards PWDs. The scale of attitudes towards disabled persons (SADP) questionnaire was administered to a purposive sample of 108 direct care workers…

This paper presents a novel school-based intervention programme for children with chronic and severe emotional and behavioural difficulties. The main aim of the programme is to reduce conduct problems and to increase prosocial behaviours. The ultimate aim of such a programme is to help pupils with severe and chronic conduct problems back on track…

The purpose of this study was to investigate the integration of contemplative practice into higher education. The intention of such integration would be to facilitate a students' ability to hear and follow an intuitive "call". Intuition was defined as an immediate, unmediated or tacit way of knowing; "calls" or "callings" as inner directives…

The objective of this cross-sectional study was to identify the factors associated with health-related quality of life (HRQOL) of family caregivers of Chinese stroke patients. One hundred and twenty-three stroke patients consecutively admitted to a stroke clinic and their 123 family caregivers were recruited. The caregivers' HRQOLs were assessed…

Developmental dyscalculia (DD) is a deficit in number processing and arithmetic that affects 3-6% of schoolchildren. The goal of the present study was to analyze cerebral bases of DD related to symbolic number processing. Children with DD aged 9-11 years and matched children with no learning disability history were investigated using fMRI. The two…

We present a neurocomputational model with self-organizing maps that accounts for the emergence of taxonomic responding and fast mapping in early word learning, as well as a rapid increase in the rate of acquisition of words observed in late infancy. The quality and efficiency of generalization of word-object associations is directly related to…

Conversion disorder is characterized by neurological signs and symptoms related to an underlying psychological issue. Amygdala activity to affective stimuli is well characterized in healthy volunteers with greater amygdala activity to both negative and positive stimuli relative to neutral stimuli, and greater activity to negative relative to…

The neuropsychological features of the primary progressive aphasia (PPA) syndromes continue to be defined. Here we describe a detailed neuropsychological case study of a patient with a mutation in the progranulin ("GRN") gene who presented with progressive word-finding difficulty. Key neuropsychological features in this case included gravely…

The contribution of the three core components of working memory (WM) to the development of mathematical skills in young children is poorly understood. The relation between specific WM components and Numerical Operations, which emphasize computation and fact retrieval, and Mathematical Reasoning, which emphasizes verbal problem solving abilities in…

Research has suggested that musicians process music in the same cortical regions that adolescents process algebra. An early adolescence synaptogenesis might present a window of opportunity during middle school for music to create and strengthen enduring neural connections in those regions. Six school districts across Maryland provided scores from…