Search results for "Grammar"
showing 10 items of 662 documents
Is recursion language-specific? Evidence of recursive mechanisms in the structure of intentional action
2014
In their 2002 seminal paper Hauser, Chomsky and Fitch hypothesize that recursion is the only human-specific and language-specific mechanism of the faculty of language. While debate focused primarily on the meaning of recursion in the hypothesis and on the human-specific and syntax-specific character of recursion, the present work focuses on the claim that recursion is language-specific. We argue that there are recursive structures in the domain of motor intentionality by way of extending John R. Searle's analysis of intentional action. We then discuss evidence from cognitive science and neuroscience supporting the claim that motor-intentional recursion is language-independent and suggest so…
Self-esteem: An antecedent or a consequence of social support and psychosomatic symptoms? Cross-lagged associations in adulthood
2008
Abstract This study investigated the relationships of self-esteem with social support and psychosomatic symptoms in cross-lagged longitudinal data with two measurement points and a time lag of 6 years. Two hundred thirteen participants were drawn from the ongoing Jyvaskyla Longitudinal Study of Personality and Social Development, Finland. The present study focused on data collected by questionnaires at ages 36 and 42. The cross-lagged analyses of Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) indicated that high self-esteem at age 36 predicted high social support 6 years later and simultaneously, but to a lesser extent, high social support at age 36 predicted high self-esteem at age 42. In addition, lo…
a1D-Adrenoceptors are responsible for the high sensitivity and the slow time-course of noradrenaline-mediated contraction in conductance arteries.
2013
The objective of this study was to determine whether the different time-course characteristics of α1-adrenoceptor-mediated contraction in arteries can be related to the subtypes involved. Contractile responses to noradrenaline (NA) were compared with inositol phosphate accumulation and extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK)1/2 phosphorylation after α1-agonist stimuli in the same vessels in the presence or absence of α1-antagonists in rat or in α1-subtype knockout (KO) mice. Aorta, where α1D-AR is the main functional subtype, had higher sensitivity to NA (in respect of inositol phosphate [IP], pERK1/2, and contractile response) than tail artery, where the α1A-adrenoceptor subtype is pre…
Endothelial and neural factors functionally involved in the modulation of noradrenergic vasoconstriction in healthy pig internal mammary artery
2011
The role of endothelial and neural factors as modulators of neurogenic- and noradrenaline-induced vasoconstriction was examined in healthy pig internal mammary artery (IMA). Tetrodotoxin-, guanethidine-sensitive electrical field stimulation (EFS)-, and noradrenaline-elicited contractions were significantly diminished by prazosin (n=8, P0.001) and less so by rauwolscine, indicating functional α₁- and α₂-adrenoceptor-mediated noradrenergic innervation of the IMA. Endothelium removal reduced neurogenic (n=8, P0.01) but augmented noradrenaline responses (n=8, P0.01), suggesting the release of two endothelium-dependent factors with opposite effects. In the presence of endothelium, neurogenic and…
Influence of different attentional focus on EMG amplitude and contraction duration during the bench press at different speeds
2018
The purpose of this study was to investigate whether using different focus affects electromyographic (EMG) amplitude and contraction duration during bench press performed at explosive and controlled speeds. Eighteen young male individuals were familiarized with the procedure and performed the one-maximum repetition (1RM) test in the first session. In the second session, participants performed the bench press exercise at 50% of the 1RM with 3 different attentional focuses (regular focus on moving the load vs contracting the pectoralis vs contracting the triceps) at 2 speed conditions (controlled vs maximal speed). During the controlled speed condition, focusing on using either the pectoralis…
Learning implicitly to produce avoided behaviours
2011
The literature on repetition processing reveals an intriguing paradox between the particular salience of repetitions, which makes them easy to learn, and a tendency to avoid them when generating sequences. The aim of this experiment was to study the extent to which children can learn to produce these avoided behaviours by means of an artificial grammar paradigm using generation tests with implicit or explicit instructions. The analysis of the control group's performance confirmed the presence of a spontaneous tendency to avoid generating repetitions. A comparison with chance revealed that the children learned to produce repetitions in the explicit test but not in the implicit test. However…
Domain-general neural correlates of dependency formation: Using complex tones to simulate language
2015
There is an ongoing debate whether the P600 event-related potential component following syntactic anomalies reflects syntactic processes per se, or if it is an instance of the P300, a domain-general ERP component associated with attention and cognitive reorientation. A direct comparison of both components is challenging because of the huge discrepancy in experimental designs and stimulus choice between language and ‘classic’ P300 experiments. In the present study, we develop a new approach to mimic the interplay of sequential position as well as categorical and relational information in natural language syntax (word category and agreement) in a non-linguistic target detection paradigm using…
Role of endothelial nitric oxide in pulmonary and systemic arteries during hypoxia
2014
Abstract Our aim was to investigate the role played by endothelial nitric oxide (NO) during acute vascular response to hypoxia, as a modulator of both vascular tone (through guanylate cyclase (sGC) activation) and mitochondrial O2 consumption (through competitive inhibition of cytochrome-c-oxydase (CcO)). Organ bath experiments were performed and O2 consumption (Clark electrode) was determined in isolated aorta, mesenteric and pulmonary arteries of rats and eNOS-knockout mice. All pre-contracted vessels exhibited a triphasic hypoxic response consisting of an initial transient contraction (not observed in vessels from eNOS-knockout mice) followed by relaxation and subsequent sustained contra…
Calcium antagonist properties of cinnarizine, trifluoperazine and verapamil in guinea-pig normal and skinned trachealis muscle.
1990
In guinea-pig trachealis, depolarized by a K(+)-rich medium, Ca2+ (0.01-10 mM) caused concentration-related spasm. Verapamil (0.5-5 microM), cinnarizine (10-100 microM) and trifluoperazine (16-160 microM) each produced concentration-dependent antagonism of Ca2+ characterized by a rightward and downward displacement of the log concentration-effect curve for Ca2+. The rank order of potencies of these antagonists, measured as the IC75 against Ca2+ (10 mM)-induced contraction of depolarized trachea, was verapamil (5.6 microM) greater than cinnarizine (59 microM) greater than trifluoperazine (91 microM). In skinned trachea, verapamil in concentrations up to 100 microM did not modify the concentr…
Effects of Calcium Antagonists on Rat Normal and Skinned Fundus
1992
Abstract Calcium chloride (CaCl2) (0·1−25 Mm, in K+-depolarized tissue), KCl (10−112 Mm) and acetylcholine (1 × 10−9 m−1 Mm) produced concentration-dependent contractions of rat isolated fundus. Verapamil (0·01−100 μm), cinnarizine (1−100 μm), trifluoperazine (10−500 μm) and dantrolene (50−250 μm) each produced a concentration-related rightward and downward shift of the log concentration-effect curve for CaCl2. The rank order of potencies of these antagonists, measured as the IC50 against Ca2+ (25 Mm)-induced contraction of depolarized fundus, was verapamil (2.5 μm) > cinnarizine (8·7 μm) > trifluoperazine (85·1 μm) > dantrolene (> 250 μm). Cinnarizine (0·5 Mm) a…