Greater learning transfer effect for avoidance of loss than for achievement of gain in Finnish and Russian schoolchildren.

Classification of behavior into principal categories of approach and avoidance is grounded in evolutionary considerations and multiple results of behavioral, self-report, and brain-activity analyses. Contrasted via measures of cognitive processes, avoidance is accompanied by greater cognitive engagement than approach. Considering outcome as a key constituent of behavioral underpinnings, we interpret approach/avoidance distinction in terms of structure of experience: avoidance domain provides more detailed interaction with the environment, than approach domain.

How young adults with autism spectrum disorder watch and interpret pragmatically complex scenes.

The aim of the current study was to investigate subtle characteristics of social perception and interpretation in high-functioning individuals with autism spectrum disorders (ASDs), and to study the relation between watching and interpreting. As a novelty, we used an approach that combined moment-by-moment eye tracking and verbal assessment. Sixteen young adults with ASD and 16 neurotypical control participants watched a video depicting a complex communication situation while their eye movements were tracked.

Predicting the Valence of a Scene from Observers' Eye Movements.

Multimedia analysis benefits from understanding the emotional content of a scene in a variety of tasks such as video genre classification and content-based image retrieval. Recently, there has been an increasing interest in applying human bio-signals, particularly eye movements, to recognize the emotional gist of a scene such as its valence. In order to determine the emotional category of images using eye movements, the existing methods often learn a classifier using several features that are extracted from eye movements.

Multimodal emotion recognition by combining physiological signals and facial expressions: a preliminary study.

Lately, multimodal approaches for automatic emotion recognition have gained significant scientific interest. In this paper, emotion recognition by combining physiological signals and facial expressions was studied. Heart rate variability parameters, respiration frequency, and facial expressions were used to classify person's emotions while watching pictures with emotional content.

Visual rightward spatial bias varies as a function of age.

Age-related changes in visual spatial biases in children, young adults, and older adults were studied with unilateral and bilateral stimulus conditions in fast-paced linguistic and non-linguistic attention tasks. Only rightward spatial biases were observed. The incidence of the biases changed as a function of age: in childhood and in old age the rightward spatial biases were more common than in young adulthood.

Auditory rightward spatial bias varies as a function of age.

Age-related changes in auditory spatial perception of linguistic and non-linguistic stimuli in participants between 5 and 79 years of age were studied. The results show that the strength of the rightward perceptual bias in linguistic bilateral (dichotic) stimulus condition changes as a function of age. In childhood and old age also other rightward spatial biases were observed in linguistic as well as in non-linguistic stimulus conditions.

The effect of age on attentional modulation in Dichotic listening.

The right-ear advantage (REA) in Dichotic listening (DL) reflects stimulus-driven bottom-up asymmetry in speech processing. The REA can be modified by top-down attentional control. We investigated attentional control in DL task as a function of age.

Neuron activity in the anterolateral motor cortex in operant food-acquiring and alcohol-acquiring behavior.

The interactions of the neuronal mechanisms of food-acquiring behavior and newly formed operant alcohol-acquiring behavior were studied by recording the activity of individual neurons in the anterolateral area of the motor cortex in chronically alcoholized rabbits. Adult animals learned food-acquiring behavior in a cage with two feeders and two pedals, in the comers (the food in the feeders was presented after pressing the corresponding pedal). After nine months of chronic alcoholization, the same rabbits learned an alcohol-acquiring behavior in the same experimental cage (gelatin capsules filled with 15% ethanol solution were placed in the feeders instead of food).

[Involvement of rabbit motor cortex neurons in the instrumental behavior before and after chronic ethanol consumption: a comparison with the limbic cortex].

The effect of acute administration is significantly more prominent in the limbic (cingulate) than in the motor cortex [9]. We proposed that the limbic cortex is more sensitive also to chronic ethanol treatment (CET). It was shown that morphology as well as neuronal activity of the limbic cortex changed greatly after the CET [7].

A subset of cingulate cortical neurones is specifically activated during alcohol-acquisition behaviour.

Unlabelled: A new need is associated with the formation of behaviour directed at its satisfaction. In chronically ethanol-treated rabbits a bodily need develops to acquire and consume alcohol. The present study examined the firing properties of single neurones in the cingulate (limbic) cortex of chronically ethanol-treated rabbits.

Neuronal subserving of behavior before and after chronic ethanol treatment.

We have previously shown that an acute ethanol dose (1 g/kg), sufficient to impair the performance of a healthy rabbit, also reversibly depresses the activity of those limbic-cortex neurons that are specifically activated during recently learned behavioral acts. Our new morphological and neurophysiological data suggest a death of such neurons after 9-month chronic ethanol treatment. The effect of acute ethanol administration on neurons and performance speed in alcoholic rabbits was opposite to that found in healthy animals.

Frontal midline theta related to learning in a simulated driving task.

The occurrence of frontal midline theta activity (4-7 Hz) was studied in a simulated driving task during consecutive phases of goal-directed behaviour. Electrical activity of the forebrain (Fz) was analysed in a simulated traffic situation in which the subject had to find the correct way to drive a car through a set of roads in a computer game. The occurrence of theta activity was analysed during seven consecutive sections of the game.

[Structural changes and reorganization of the activity of the cortical neurons in the behavior of chronically alcoholized rabbits].

Unit activity in the limbic cortex recorded during food acquisition behaviour was analyzed in the rabbits that were subjected to chronic (2.5-3.0 months) alcohol administration (CA).

Effect of ethanol on hippocampal neurons depends on their behavioural specialization.

Acute effect of ethanol on hippocampal neurons was studied during food acquisition behaviour in seven rabbits. The rabbits were taught to acquire food from a feeder by pressing a pedal on the same side of the cage. The behaviourally specialized units (L units related to newly learned behaviour and M units related to behaviour formed before learning, e.

Acute effects of alcohol on unit activity in the motor cortex of freely moving rabbits: comparison with the limbic cortex.

Unit activity was recorded from the motor cortex of eight freely moving rabbits in order to examine the acute effect of ethanol (1 g kg-1) on organization of unit activity and to compare it with our earlier results from the limbic cortex. The rabbits performed a food-acquisition task in the experimental cage. Unit activity was recorded during behaviour in the control experiment followed by the alcohol experiment on the next day.

Acute effect of ethanol on the pattern of behavioural specialization of neurons in the limbic cortex of the freely moving rabbit.

Single-unit activity was studied in the limbic cortex of eight freely moving rabbits in order to find out what kind of changes in the organization of unit activity correlate with behavioural disturbances following an acute administration of ethanol (1 g kg-1). The rabbits were taught to acquire food by pressing pedals in the experimental cage. Unit activity was recorded during this behaviour in a control experiment and the alcohol experiment took place the next day.