IntroductionPrevious transcranial magnetic stimulation studies have revealed that the activity of the primary motor cortex ipsilateral to an active hand plays an important role in motor control. The aim of this study was to investigate whether the ipsi-M1 excitability would be influenced by goal-directed movement and laterality during unilateral finger movements.MethodTen healthy right-handed subjects performed four finger tapping tasks with the index finger: simple tapping task, Real-word task, Pseudoword task, and Visually guided tapping task. In the Tap task, the subject (...) performed self-paced simple tapping on a touch screen. In the real-word task, the subject tapped letters displayed on the screen one by one to create a Real-word. Because the action had a specific purpose, this task was considered to be goal-directed as compared to the Tap task. In the Pseudoword task, the subject tapped the letters to create a pseudoword in the same manner as in the Real-word task; however, the word was less meaningful. In the VT task, the subject was required to touch a series of illuminated buttons. This task was considered to be less goal-directed than the Pseudoword task. The tasks were performed with the right and left hand, and a rest condition was added as control. Single- and paired-pulse TMS were applied to the ipsi-M1 to measure corticospinal excitability and short- and long-interval intracortical inhibition in the resting first dorsal interosseous muscle.ResultsWe found the smaller SICI in the ipsi-M1 during the VT task compared with the resting condition. Further, both SICI and LICI were smaller in the right than in the left M1, regardless of the task conditions.DiscussionWe found that SICI in the ipsi-M1 is smaller during visual illumination-guided finger movement than during the resting condition. Our finding provides basic data for designing a rehabilitation program that modulates the M1 ipsilateral to the moving limb, for example, for post-stroke patients with severe hemiparesis. (shrink)

近代日本が抱える「文明」と「独立」の矛盾を、最も鋭く直視した福沢。彼の原点=蘭学に着目し、新しい思想が誕生する瞬間を描く。.

We designed the system, Rescue-MIKE, and implemented to the RoboCup Rescue Simulation System. The Rescue MIKE system aims to communicate with large numbers of relief workers and controllers working in a rescue domain. The system has an ability to report the situation of the domain like a newscaster. Our system consists of multiple agents. The system collects information from a simulated disaster scenario, and then produces a dialogue that fits to the actions of the agents in the domain. We described (...) the design policy, implementation of our system, and Rescue-MIKE's facility. Rescue-MIKE initial version can provide aural information that helps to explain the unfolding scenarios to onlookers. We discussed the future applications of our system, including knowledge elicitation about disaster relief control methods, automated relief support systems, and public education about the dangers of large natural disasters such as earthquakes, floods or volcanic eruptions. (shrink)

The proposal that language has evolved to conform to general cognitive and learning constraints inherent in the human brain calls for specification of these mechanisms. We propose that just as cognition appears to be grounded in cross-modal perceptual-motor capabilities, so too must language. Evidence for perceptual-motor grounding comes from non-arbitrary sound-to-meaning correspondences and their role in word learning.

江戸時代の儒学者・宗教者である山崎闇斎の思想を、心理学・文化人類学・現代哲学等を取り入れた学際的なアプローチで解明する。.

Recent research has demonstrated that word learners can determine word-referent mappings by tracking co-occurrences across multiple ambiguous naming events. The current study addresses the mechanisms underlying this capacity to learn words cross-situationally. This replication and extension of Yu and Smith (2007) investigates the factors influencing both successful cross-situational word learning and mis-mappings. Item analysis and error patterns revealed that the co-occurrence structure of the learning environment as well as the context of the testing environment jointly affected learning across observations. Learners (...) also adopted an exclusion strategy, which contributed conjointly with statistical tracking to performance. Implications for our understanding of the processes underlying cross-situational word learning are discussed. (shrink)

Propõe-se a discussão de alguns aspectos intrínsecos ao processo de produção de farinha modulado por tecnologias de organização social e produtiva, com destaque para os serviços ambientais originados durante essas atividades. Os serviços ambientais são maiores do que os consumidos e atribuem a esses povos um importante papel dentro do processo de sustentabilidade em um ecossistema frágil. Esta pesquisa possui abordagem qualitativa e quantitativa, e inclui incursões etnográficas feitas pelos pesquisadores. As análises indicam a importância do reconhecimento do Estado através (...) de políticas públicas estruturantes e não de ações de transformação social, que não validam os sistemas de produção tradicional. (shrink)

第1部は、奈良女子大学のCOE「古代日本形成の特質解明」の一環として開催されたシンポジウム「死の機能―前方後円墳とは何か」の記録。巨大な前方後円墳が、なぜ築造されたのか...。初期の国家は、なぜ死者の ためにあのような巨大な施設をつくったのか...。古墳時代を、日本国家形成の一段階として、正当に位置づける。第2部には、上記シンポにパネラーとして参加した佐藤弘夫氏の新著『死者のゆくえ』の書評2本を収め る。同書は、死と生のありようを古代から現代までを見通した問題作で、本テーマにかかわる重要な問題を提起している。.

The current study assessed the extent to which the use of referential prosody varies with communicative demand. Speaker–listener dyads completed a referential communication task during which speakers attempted to indicate one of two color swatches (one bright, one dark) to listeners. Speakers' bright sentences were reliably higher pitched than dark sentences for ambiguous (e.g., bright red versus dark red) but not unambiguous (e.g., bright red versus dark purple) trials, suggesting that speakers produced meaningful acoustic cues to brightness when the accompanying (...) linguistic content was underspecified (e.g., “Can you get the red one?”). Listening partners reliably chose the correct corresponding swatch for ambiguous trials when lexical information was insufficient to identify the target, suggesting that listeners recruited prosody to resolve lexical ambiguity. Prosody can thus be conceptualized as a type of vocal gesture that can be recruited to resolve referential ambiguity when there is communicative demand to do so. (shrink)

Seit einiger Zeit mehren sich in der Fichte-Forschung die Versuche, Fichtes Philosophie aus ihrer Interpretation durch Hegel herauszulösen und damit ihre Eigenständigkeit neu sichtbar zu machen. Dabei wird u.a. die Auffassung vertreten, Hegel habe Fichte falsch oder zumindest einseitig verstanden, wenn er in seiner Differenzschrift oder in Glauben und Wissen dessen Philosophie als »Reflexionsphilosophie« oder »formalen Idealismus« bezeichnet. Dagegen gibt es Stimmen, die Hegels Interpretation Fichtes als gerechtfertigt verteidigen. Diese Diskussion verweist nicht nur auf Defizite in den philosophischen Theorien von (...) Fichte und Hegel, die nicht geleugnet werden können, sondern mehr noch darauf, dass es in den Standpunkten beider erhebliche Unterschiede gibt, die zunächst herausgearbeitet und bedacht werden müssen. (shrink)

Seit einiger Zeit mehren sich in der Fichte-Forschung die Versuche, Fichtes Philosophie aus ihrer Interpretation durch Hegel herauszulösen und damit ihre Eigenständigkeit neu sichtbar zu machen. Dabei wird u.a. die Auffassung vertreten, Hegel habe Fichte falsch oder zumindest einseitig verstanden, wenn er in seiner Differenzschrift oder in Glauben und Wissen dessen Philosophie als »Reflexionsphilosophie« oder »formalen Idealismus« bezeichnet. Dagegen gibt es Stimmen, die Hegels Interpretation Fichtes als gerechtfertigt verteidigen. Diese Diskussion verweist nicht nur auf Defizite in den philosophischen Theorien von (...) Fichte und Hegel, die nicht geleugnet werden können, sondern mehr noch darauf, dass es in den Standpunkten beider erhebliche Unterschiede gibt, die zunächst herausgearbeitet und bedacht werden müssen. (shrink)

In classifications of vocabulary knowledge, vocabulary size and depth have often been separately conceptualized (Schmitt, 2014). Although size and depth are known to be substantially correlated, it is not clear whether they are a single construct or two separate components of vocabulary knowledge (Yanagisawa & Webb, 2020). This issue has not been addressed extensively in the literature and can be better examined using structural equation modeling (SEM), with measurement error modeled separately from the construct of interest. The current study reports (...) on conventional and Bayesian SEM approaches (e.g., Muthén & Asparouhov, 2012) to examine the factor structure of the size and depth of second language vocabulary knowledge of Japanese adult learners of English. A total of 255 participants took five vocabulary tests. One test was designed to measure vocabulary size in terms of the number of words known, while the remaining four were designed to measure vocabulary depth in terms of word association, polysemy, and collocation. All tests used a multiple-choice format. The size test was divided into three subtests according to word frequency. Results from conventional and Bayesian SEM show that a correlated two-factor model of size and depth with three and four indicators, respectively, fit better than a single-factor model of size and depth. In the two-factor model, vocabulary size and depth were strongly correlated (r =.945 for conventional SEM and.943 for Bayesian SEM with cross loadings), but they were distinct. The implications of these findings are discussed. (shrink)

Although language has long been regarded as a primarily arbitrary system, sound symbolism, or non-arbitrary correspondences between the sound of a word and its meaning, also exists in natural language. Previous research suggests that listeners are sensitive to sound symbolism. However, little is known about the specificity of these mappings. This study investigated whether sound symbolic properties correspond to specific meanings, or whether these properties generalize across semantic dimensions. In three experiments, native English-speaking adults heard sound symbolic foreign words for (...) dimensional adjective pairs and for each foreign word, selected a translation among English antonyms that either matched or mismatched with the correct meaning dimension. Listeners agreed more reliably on the English translation for matched relative to mismatched dimensions, though reliable cross-dimensional mappings did occur. These findings suggest that although sound symbolic properties generalize to meanings that may share overlapping semantic features, sound symbolic mappings offer semantic specificity. (shrink)

This investigation examined whether speakers produce reliable prosodic correlates to meaning across semantic domains and whether listeners use these cues to derive word meaning from novel words. Speakers were asked to produce phrases in infant‐directed speech in which novel words were used to convey one of two meanings from a set of antonym pairs (e.g., big/small). Acoustic analyses revealed that some acoustic features were correlated with overall valence of the meaning. However, each word meaning also displayed a unique acoustic signature, (...) and semantically related meanings elicited similar acoustic profiles. In two perceptual tests, listeners either attempted to identify the novel words with a matching meaning dimension (picture pair) or with mismatched meaning dimensions. Listeners inferred the meaning of the novel words significantly more often when prosody matched the word meaning choices than when prosody mismatched. These findings suggest that speech contains reliable prosodic markers to word meaning and that listeners use these prosodic cues to differentiate meanings. That prosody is semantic suggests a reconceptualization of traditional distinctions between linguistic and nonlinguistic properties of spoken language. (shrink)