Individual differences in rhythm perception modulate music-related motor learning: a neurobehavioral training study with children.

Rhythm and motor function are intrinsically linked to each other and to music, but the rhythm-motor interplay during music training, and the corresponding brain mechanisms, are underexplored. In a longitudinal training study with children, we examined the role of rhythm predisposition in the fine motor improvements arising from music training, and which brain regions would be implicated. Fifty-seven 8-year-olds were assigned to either a 6-month music training (n = 21), sports training (n = 18), or a control group (n = 18).

Beat cues facilitate time estimation at longer intervals.

Introduction: Time perception in humans can be relative (beat-based) or absolute (duration-based). Although the classic view in the field points to different neural substrates underlying beat-based vs. duration-based mechanisms, recent neuroimaging evidence provided support to a unified model wherein these two systems overlap.

Psychological barriers moderate the attitude-behavior gap for climate change.

Behavioral change has been increasingly recognized as a means for combating climate change. However, being concerned about climate problems and knowing the importance of individual actions in mitigating them is not enough for greater adherence to a more sustainable lifestyle. Psychological barriers such as (1) finding change unnecessary; (2) conflicting goals; (3) interpersonal relationships; (4) lack of knowledge; and (5) tokenism have been proposed as an explanation for the gap between environmental attitudes and actions.

Corrigendum: The Mozart effect on the episodic memory of healthy adults is null, but low-functioning older adults may be an exception.

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2020.

Portuguese adaptation of the Chronic Heart Failure Knowledge Questionnaire (KQCHF).

Background: A patient's knowledge of heart failure (HF) is associated with better outcomes. The more information patients have about their illness, the less likely they are to be readmitted to the hospital. Such knowledge includes the cause, symptoms, probable duration, and expected evolution of the clinical picture.

Visual movement impairs duration discrimination at short intervals.

The classic advantage of audition over vision in time processing has been recently challenged by studies using continuously moving visual stimuli such as bouncing balls. Bouncing balls drive beat-based synchronisation better than static visual stimuli (flashes) and as efficiently as auditory ones (beeps). It is yet unknown how bouncing balls modulate performance in duration perception.

Predictors of Portuguese teachers' use of Information and Communication Technologies in literacy classes.

In the last years, the teaching and learning of literacy has changed due to the development of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT). The use of ICT in the classroom depends largely on teachers, who are the key players in its integration. However, several factors influence teachers' decisions to use ICT in their classroom, both internal (e.

A Pilot Study Testing the Effectiveness of a Mindfulness-Based Program for Portuguese School Children.

Objectives: Research into the effectiveness of mindfulness-based programs (MBPs) in school settings has grown substantially. However, studies in the field are still scarce, present methodological limitations, and fail to examine how children's characteristics influence MBPs' effects. The twofold aim of this study was to analyze the effectiveness of an MBP on children's attention and emotional regulation, writing performance, and school grades, and to evaluate the moderating role of baseline scores, age, gender, and socioeconomic status.

Rhythm but not melody processing helps reading via phonological awareness and phonological memory.

Despite abundant evidence that music skills relate to enhanced reading performance, the mechanisms subtending this relation are still under discussion. The Temporal Sampling Framework (TSF) provides a well-defined explanation for the music-reading link: musical rhythm perception would relate to reading because it helps to encode speech units, which, in turn, is fundamental to reading. However, in spite of this clear mediation-based prediction (effect of music skills mediated by the encoding of speech units), the tests made to it so far remain inconclusive, either due to the use of hybrid measures (rhythm perception and production, musical and non-musical rhythm) or to underspecified mediation results (unclear presence of partial mediation).

Does music training enhance auditory and linguistic processing? A systematic review and meta-analysis of behavioral and brain evidence.

It is often claimed that music training improves auditory and linguistic skills. Results of individual studies are mixed, however, and most evidence is correlational, precluding inferences of causation. Here, we evaluated data from 62 longitudinal studies that examined whether music training programs affect behavioral and brain measures of auditory and linguistic processing (N = 3928).

Interpersonal Synchronization Protects Against the Antisocial Outcomes of Frustration.

Prosociality improves with interpersonal synchronization-the temporal coordination of movement across individuals. We tested whether the benefits of interpersonal synchronization extend to temporary circumstances of induced frustration, where negative changes in prosociality are expected as a result. Participants performed two joint tasks-synchronization versus non-synchronization.

Exploring the Effects of Meditation Techniques Used by Mindfulness-Based Programs on the Cognitive, Social-Emotional, and Academic Skills of Children: A Systematic Review.

There is evidence for the positive impact of mindfulness in children. However, little is known about the techniques through which mindfulness practice results in differential outcomes. Therefore, this study intended to systematically review the available evidence about the efficacy of meditation techniques used by mindfulness-based programs on cognitive, socio-emotional, and academic skills of children from 6 to 12 years of age.

Associations between vocal emotion recognition and socio-emotional adjustment in children.

The human voice is a primary channel for emotional communication. It is often presumed that being able to recognize vocal emotions is important for everyday socio-emotional functioning, but evidence for this assumption remains scarce. Here, we examined relationships between vocal emotion recognition and socio-emotional adjustment in children.

Gray matter correlates of reading fluency deficits: SES matters, IQ does not.

Brain correlates of reading ability have been intensely investigated. Most studies have focused on single-word reading and phonological processing, but the brain basis of reading fluency remains poorly explored to date. Here, in a voxel-based morphometry study with 8-year-old children, we compared fluent readers (n = 18; seven boys) with dysfluent readers with normal IQ (n = 18; six boys) and with low IQ (n = 18; ten boys).

Promoting Third Graders' Executive Functions and Literacy: A Pilot Study Examining the Benefits of Mindfulness vs. Relaxation Training.

Research suggested that developing mindfulness skills in children improves proximal outcomes, such as attention and executive functions, as well as distal outcomes, such as academic achievement. Despite empirical evidence supporting this claim, research on the benefits of mindfulness training in child populations is scarce, with some mixed findings in the field. Here, we aimed to fill in this gap, by examining the effects of a mindfulness training on third graders' proximal and distal outcomes, namely, attention and executive functions (viz.

Impaired Recognition of Facial and Vocal Emotions in Mild Cognitive Impairment.

Objective: The ability to recognize others' emotions is a central aspect of socioemotional functioning. Emotion recognition impairments are well documented in Alzheimer's disease and other dementias, but it is less understood whether they are also present in mild cognitive impairment (MCI). Results on facial emotion recognition are mixed, and crucially, it remains unclear whether the potential impairments are specific to faces or extend across sensory modalities.

The Mozart Effect on the Episodic Memory of Healthy Adults Is Null, but Low-Functioning Older Adults May Be an Exception.

Literature on the effects of passive music listening on cognitive performance is mixed, showing negative, null or positive results depending on cognitive domain, age group, temporal relation between music and task (background music vs. music before task, the latter known as Mozart effect), or listener-dependent variables such as musical preference. Positive effects of background music on the two components of episodic memory - item and source memory - for verbal materials seem robust and age-independent, and thus deserve further attention.

Look at me: The relation between empathy and fixation on the emotional eye-region in low vs. high social anxiety.

Background And Objectives: Fixation on another person's eye-region may be an effective measure of one's level of empathy. In the present study, we tested the hypothesis that this type of empathy measure may not be appropriate for individuals with high levels of social anxiety, since avoidance or hypervigilance attentional biases towards emotional faces are frequent in this condition.

Methods: Using eye-tracking, we measured fixation time on the eye-region of another person in participants with low vs.

Enhanced recognition of vocal emotions in individuals with naturally good musical abilities.

Music training is widely assumed to enhance several nonmusical abilities, including speech perception, executive functions, reading, and emotion recognition. This assumption is based primarily on cross-sectional comparisons between musicians and nonmusicians. It remains unclear, however, whether training itself is necessary to explain the musician advantages, or whether factors such as innate predispositions and informal musical experience could produce similar effects.

Spelling Performance of Portuguese Children: Comparison Between Grade Level, Misspelling Type, and Assessment Task.

There is consensus among researchers that misspellings are something to avoid. However, misspellings also convey relevant information for researchers and educators. The present study is a first effort toward the analysis of misspellings produced by Portuguese children.

Exploring the Effects of Guided vs. Unguided Art Therapy Methods.

Art therapy has become known by its psychosocial and affective impact, but not so much by its effects on cognitive functioning. Based on a comparison between art therapy and music-making programs, we hypothesized that guided methods-dominant in music-making programs and characterized by an emphasis on execution (play the piece, produce the visual object) rather than ideation (conceive the visual object)-could boost the cognitive effects of art-making. We also hypothesized that removing ideation from the process with guided methods could decrease psychosocial/affective benefits.

Acceptance of Mobile Health Applications: Examining Key Determinants and Moderators.

Mobile health applications are increasingly numerous and varied. However, despite high expectations and large budgets involved in their development they are often rejected by potential users, and little is known on why this happens. This study aimed to fill this gap by investigating the determinants of technology acceptance and its moderators.

Structural meter perception is pre-attentive.

A prominent question in timing research is whether meter perception is possible without attention to meter. So far, research has probed attention effects on meter perception with a surface-based approach that may create confounds between meter and rhythm, and not with a structural approach requiring abstraction from surface patterns. The available pattern of findings suggests that different meter dimensions (meter as beat hierarchy vs.