That similar words can prime one another is not news. However, this phenomenon can be exploited to make inferences about the organization of conceptual representations. What types of similarity matter? Although there is evidence that similarity of function, shape, and even manner of manipulation is reflected in semantic memory, evidence for organization on the basis of color similarity is sparse. This lack of evidence is surprising: Intuition suggests that color is a prominent feature of many object concepts. The research reported here clarifies this puzzle and illustrates the dynamic nature of conceptual representations. Our research demonstrates color-based priming (e.g., "emerald" primes "cucumber") in participants who completed a Stroop color-naming task before a priming task. Notably, the size of the Stroop effect predicted the size of the priming effect. When the order of tasks was reversed, priming effects were eliminated. By demonstrating that both extrinsic and intrinsic factors can influence conceptual activation, our findings have implications for theories of semantic memory.
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http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0956797611430691 | DOI Listing |
Curr Biol
December 2024
Department of Pharmacology, Vanderbilt Brain Institute, Vanderbilt Center for Addiction Research, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN 37232, USA; Department of Anatomy, Cell Biology, & Physiology, Indiana University School of Medicine, Indianapolis, IN 46202, USA. Electronic address:
Human and non-human primate studies clearly implicate the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC) as critical for advanced cognitive functions. It is thought that intracortical synaptic architectures within the dlPFC are the integral neurobiological substrate that gives rise to these processes. In the prevailing model, each cortical column makes up one fundamental processing unit composed of dense intrinsic connectivity, conceptualized as the "canonical" cortical microcircuit.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFNeurosurg Focus
January 2025
6Plastic Surgery, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, Tennessee.
Objective: Sagittal synostosis is the most common type of craniosynostosis, resulting in deformity with distinctive morphological characteristics. These include occipital narrowing, parietal narrowing, anteriorly shifted vertex with parietal depression, and exaggerated frontal bossing. The traditional cephalic index affords limited reliability in quantifying initial severity and correction.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFFront Hum Neurosci
December 2024
Charitable Medical Healthcare Foundation, Augusta, GA, United States.
How do reflexes operate so quickly with so much multimodal information on the environment? How might unconscious processes help reveal the nature of consciousness? The Default Space Theory of Consciousness (DST) offers a novel way to interpret these questions by describing how sensory inputs, cognitive functions, emotional states, and unconscious processes are integrated by a single unified internal representation. Recent developments in neuroimaging and electrophysiology, such as fMRI, EEG, and MEG, have improved our knowledge of the brain mechanisms that underpin the conscious mind and have highlighted the importance of neural oscillations and sensory integration in its formation. In this article, we put forth a perspective on an underresearched relationship of reflexes with the dynamic character of consciousness and suggest that future research should focus on the interplay of the unconscious processes of reflexes and correlates of the contents of consciousness to better understand its nature.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSports Med
December 2024
Research Centre in Physical Activity, Health and Leisure, and Laboratory for Integrative and Translational Research in Population Health, University of Porto, Porto, Portugal.
Motor competence is related to a large number of correlates of different natures, forming together a system with flexible parts that are synergically and cooperatively connected to produce a wide range of motor outcomes that cannot be explained from a predetermined linear view or a unique mechanism. The diversity of interacting correlates, the various connections between them, and the fast changes between assessments at different time points are clear barriers to the study of motor competence. In this manuscript, we present a multilayer framework that accounts for the theoretical background and the potential mathematical procedures necessary to represent the non-linear, complex, and dynamic relationships between several underlying correlates that emerge as a motor competence network.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSoc Cogn Affect Neurosci
December 2024
Cognitive Neuroscience Center (CNC), University of San Andres, Buenos Aires, C1011ACC, Argentina.
Human vocabularies include specific words to communicate interpersonal behaviors, a core linguistic function mainly afforded by social verbs (SVs). This skill has been proposed to engage dedicated systems subserving social knowledge. Yet, neurocognitive evidence is scarce, and no study has examined spectro-temporal and spatial signatures of SV access.
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