Fibromyalgia (FM) is a disorder of unknown aetiology, characterized by chronic widespread pain, stiffness and sleep disturbances. In addition, patients frequently complain of memory and attention deficits. Accumulating evidence suggests that FM is associated with CNS dysfunction and with an altered brain morphology. However, few studies have…

Recent research in psychology and neuroscience has demonstrated that co-speech gestures are semantically integrated with speech during language comprehension and development. The present study explored whether gestures also play a role in language learning in adults. In Experiment 1, we exposed adults to a brief training session presenting novel…

Patients with lesions of the left hemisphere often suffer from oral-facial apraxia, apraxia of speech, and aphasia. In these patients, visual features often play a critical role in speech and language therapy, when pictured lip shapes or the therapist's visible mouth movements are used to facilitate speech production and articulation. This demands…

The recent neuroimaging literature gives conflicting evidence about whether the left fusiform gyrus (FG) might recognize words as unitary visual objects. The sensitivity of the left FG to word frequency might provide a neural basis for the orthographic input lexicon theorized by reading models [Patterson, K., Marshall, J. C., & Coltheart, M.…

Behavioral studies indicate deficits in phonological working memory (WM) and executive functioning in dyslexics. However, little is known about the underlying functional neuroanatomy. In the present study, neural correlates of WM in adolescents and young adults with dyslexia were investigated using event-related functional magnetic resonance…

When we attend to other people in pain, the neural circuits underpinning the processing of first-hand experience of pain are activated in the observer. This basic somatic sensorimotor resonance plays a critical role in the primitive building block of empathy and moral reasoning that relies on the sharing of others' distress. However, the…

Cognition is a general term describing the mental capacities of an animal, and often includes the ability to categorize, remember, and communicate about objects in the environment. Numerous regions of the telencephalon (cerebral cortex and limbic system) are responsible for these cognitive functions. Although many researchers have used traditional…

The increasing use of eye movement paradigms to assess the functional integrity of brain systems involved in sensorimotor and cognitive processing in clinical disorders requires greater attention to effects of pharmacological treatments on these systems. This is needed to better differentiate disease and medication effects in clinical samples, to…

Research indicates that there are physical and social, and possibly cognitive, differences between left-handers and right-handers. The three substantive sections of this colloquium paper cover brain functions, theories pertaining to the genesis of handedness, and cognitive development as related to handedness. Section 1 provides a brief…

The review examined recent research concerning cerebral specialization, especially dichotic listening studies, in Down syndrome individuals. A model of cerebral specialization is proposed that stresses the biological dissociation between speech perception and speech production or other complex movements. (Author/DB)

It is argued that creative behavior is a product of the uniquely human capacity to will and requires activation of the prefrontal lobe "cells of will" to facilitate the harmonious functioning of all parts of the brain. (DB)

A study designed to assess aviation students' (n=87) cognitive processing bias investigated whether patterns or correlations exist between the biases and such factors as class standing, age, gender, and aviation program choices. Progression from relational to bilateral processing from entry to graduation was found. (JOW)

Revealed a pattern of infant hemiface expressive asymmetry not predicted from adult-based models of emotional asymmetries. Infants' right hemiface bias resides in the actual expressive configuration of the central facial features, rather than in peripheral aspects of the face. (RH)

Discusses neocortical contributions to emotional processing. Examines parameters critical to neuropsychological study of emotion: interhemispheric and intrahemispheric factors, processing mode, and communication channel. Describes neuropsychological theories of emotion. Reviews studies of right-brain-damaged, left-brain-damaged, and normal adults,…

Auditory evoked responses (AER) of 14 infants were recorded by means of scalp electrodes positioned over frontal, temporal, and parietal regions of each hemisphere before and after training in which nonsense bisyllables were used to name novel objects. Changes in two portions of AER waveforms were found to occur when a name was correctly paired…