Disconnection between Rat’s Left and Right Hemisphere Impairs Short-Term Memory but Not Long-Term Memory

Split-brain experiments, which have been actively conducted since the twentieth century, have provided a great deal of insight into functional asymmetry and inter-hemispheric interactions. However, how communication between the left and right hemispheres directly contributes to memory formation is still poorly understood. To address this issue, we cut the rat commissural fibers prior to performing behavioral tests, which consisted of two short-term and two long-term memory tasks. The result showed that cutting the commissural fibers impairs short-term memory but not long-term memory. This suggests that the left-right hemispheric interaction through the commissural fibers contributes to the appropriate formation of short-term memory, but not that of long-term memory. Our findings would help to elucidate dynamic memory formation between the two hemispheres and contribute to the development of therapeutics for some neurological diseases which cause a reduction in the inter-hemispheric interaction.

Influence of cognitive load on the expression of the emotional stroop effect

The Emotional Stroop Effect (ESE) is the result of a greater delay in naming colors of written emotional words than colors of written neutral words, because of shifting attention to emotionally meaningful information. ESE is mainly used in psychopathology surveys, but its application is also promising for solving applied psychophysiological problems, from professional screening and neuromarketing to detecting lies and detecting threats from emotionally unstable individuals. Because the ESE is sensitive to testing conditions, various modifications to the Emotional Stroop Test (EST) have been investigated. Within the subtests, neutral and emotional (negatively coloured) words were presented. The inclusion of distractors in subtests (target words, names of plants and animals that were not required to be answered by keystrokes) complicates the task, which manifests itself in a considerable extension of the reaction time. When performing a task with significant cognitive load, the left hand responds to emotional stimuli longer than the right. The results obtained may indicate the formation of a special system for processing emotional information in the right hemisphere, while the left hemisphere focuses on the cognitive task. It is likely that in the case of increased cognitive load, the subsystems for processing emotional and cognitive information operate relatively autonomously, inter-hemispheric interaction is enhanced, and functional asymmetry is reduced. As cognitive pressure decreases, functional asymmetry is likely to increase inter-hemispheric interaction, and ESE is not detected. The obtained values of latent periods of reaction to emotionally significant and neutral stimuli can be used to develop scales and criteria for evaluating a person's emotional reactions when it is needed.

Understanding greater male variability in general intelligence: The role of hemispheric independence and lateralization

Deary et al. (2003) present data, further analysed by Johnson et al. (2008), showing a sex difference in general intelligence across a whole population: males were more variable than females and were over-represented at the lower and upper ends of the distribution. We propose a single-factor explanation based on hemisphericity, the degree of hemispheric independence and lateralization of function. We demonstrate this argument with a conceptual analysis and with neural network simulations of hemispheric interaction. We discuss the nature of abstraction in computational cognitive modelling. Greater male variance in general intelligence can be at least partially understood as emerging from increased hemisphericity, underlining the latter’s critical role in the evolution, development and functioning of human cognition.

Emotional Intelligence Features at a Pathology of Corpus Callosum (CC)

IntroductionDependents of human behavior on the hemispheric interaction quality is extremely interesting question. The СС impairments are observed at schizophrenia, autism, Tourette syndrome, ADHD, etc. Difficulties in the sphere of emotional intelligence are typical at not only frontal zones disorders and right hemisphere of brain.AimsAnalyze the emotional intelligence of the patients with CC pathologies.MethodsMethod for the recognition of facial expression (faces and gestures); Video test “estimation of another person emotional condition”; Survey for the estimation of emotional intelligence (EmIn); ten people with different CC pathologies participated.ResultsResults of the person with the CC pathologies were different from normative indexes of the first two methods. They did not recognize the shown emotion: the sign of emotional expression was not identified, the gestures were not distinguished and three positive characteristics out of 24 suggested for the designation of emotion modality were used. The emotions of heroes from video test were recognized mistakenly. The indexes were normative for all scales of EmIn survey. However quite noticeable negative correlation of“emotion control” and “interpersonal emotional intelligence” survey indexes with the index of emotional recognition video test was obtained.ConclusionsWeak emotional tone, leading to incorrect estimation of the emotional sign, is observed at CC pathology. This doesn’t exclude the violation of face emotional expressions analyze criteria. The situational context does not help the another person condition recognition. The answers on the EmIn test questions are based on subjective visions of the patient about themselves, those witnesses about the criticism reduction.Disclosure of interestThe authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.

Inter-analyzer Interaction (IAI) at Clinical Psychology: Possibilities and Challenges

IntroductionWhite matter is an anatomical bases of brain integration realization, it provides the connection between different cortex zones inside one hemisphere as well as other hemisphere. Hemispheric interaction research is basic aspect of brain integration activity problem. Not less important is the aspect related with the processes of IAI.AimsEvaluation of method by fixed set potential for neuropsychological research of inter-analyzer interaction.MethodsRussian neurophysiologists confirmed the presents of nervous processes irradiation and considered it as fundamental mechanisms of the higher functions realization. IAI is a particular case of the irradiation.Uznadze's fixed set method allows one to model “section of behavior”, which includes all general behavior mechanisms and provides a way to analyze complicated forms of activity. The central components of the set are related to different brain systems and analyzer's interactions. This is confirmed by the set irradiation experiments, performed by Uznadze's school and showed that the set forms in one sensory modality manifests in different.ResultsSetting experiments by formation of fixed set are done at haptic sphere: two different in volume spheres are given into both respondents’ palms. Critical experiments are done at visual sphere: two equal in diameters circles are exhibited to respondent for comparison. The amount of illusion in visual modality is an index of IAI features.ConclusionsThe fixed set method acquires a special relevant at the modern stage of clinical psychology development, since the IAI research seems to be important in psychiatric and neurological diseases, related with brain integration disorders.Disclosure of interestThe authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.

Interim results of neuropsychological analysis of the development of children with perinatal risks

This article presents a brief description of the normative mental development of the elder preschool children: features hemispheric interaction between the cerebral hemispheres, dynamic, spatial and motor praxis, memory, visual-objective, visual-spatial and acoustic-verbal gnosis and originality of speech, thought and attention. Besides, this article illuminates analysis of the interim data obtained in the course of neuropsychological investigation of cerebral organization of mental functions among preschoolers whose mothers have an anamnesis of various risk factors of perinatal pathology of the fetus. The analysis of the data illustrates that very often agenda had difficulties in carrying out tests for visual gnosis, audio-verbal memory, dynamic and spatial praxis. Also it was hard for children to compile stories for narrative paintings and series of narrative pictures. Besides, it was recorded that the majority of children have shown attention fatigue and instability of attention and the high level of exhaustion. So the interim results received on this level of experimental research illustrate the existence of tendency of defection in the process of formation of high psychic functions among children with different risk of development of perinatal pathology in their anamnesis. But in the cause of the insufficiency of experimental data it is to early to make strict conclusions concerning the concrete consequences of the different perinatal risks for brain organization of child’s psychic activity.