The mental rotation of hand imagery: gender differences of the recognition behaviors / 中华行为医学与脑科学杂志

Objective To investigate the gender differences and the effect of three factors(the angle of rotation, left/right,palm/back) on hand mental rotation. Methods 40 healthy adults (20 males and 20 females, age; 18～26 years) were enrolled in this study. By simulation of human hand as picture stimuli,participants were instructed to decide as quickly as possible whether the stimulus was a left or right hand. The accuracy rate and reaction time of the behavior task were quantified. Results ① the subjects' reaction speed was far slower at 180° than 0°(P＜0.01). ②On judgment of 0° back picture,females were faster than males(left back: males( 1033. 16 ±245.85) ms,females( 853.15 ± 142.79) ms,P=0.014; right back; males( 973.07 ±217.11) ms;,females (796.28 ±146.67 )ms, P = 0.016). And,the right hand was responded faster than left hand,with statistical significance (males; P = 0.028, females; P=0.038). ③The time of females in judging the 0° hand back ( left (853. 15 ± 142.79) ms,right (796. 27 ± 146. 67 ms) ) was shorter than palm(left ( 1002. 72 ± 227. 91) ms,right ( 986.06 ± 230. 03) ms), reached statistical significance ( both at P ＜ 0. 001). In contrast, males in judging the 180° pictures, the speed of reaction to back(left ( 1252. 70 ±269. 35) ms,right ( 1216. 68 ±293. 54 )ms) was slower than palm with statistical significance (left: P ＜ 0. 01, right: P = 0. 015). Conclusion The three factors (angle of rotation,left/right,and palm/back) all exert effect on the behavior of hand mental rotation. It really has gender difference on hand mental rotation. Females response faster than males.

The effect of space and color on judging speeds of traffic lights / 中华行为医学与脑科学杂志

Objective To investigate the effect of mental processing speeds of judging traffic lights varying in location and color meaning. Methods 20 healthy adult male (age: 18 ～30 years) were enrolled in this study. By simulation of traffic lights as picture stimuli, all subjects performed a Go/NoGo task separately under normal condition, location-reversed condition, color meaning-reversed condition and both location and color meaning-reversed condition randomly. The accuracy rate and reaction time of the behavior task were quantified. Results The average accuracy rate of the four conditions was 99. 13% , no differences were found in different traffic light colors and different conditions. In the normal condition,the subjects' reaction time(ms) of traffic lights were as fallowings: red light 491.59 ±71.74; green light 487.55 ±58. 11, no difference was found between the two traffic light colors (P=0.522). In the location-reversed condition, subjects' average reaction time(ms) was respectively for red light 606.29 ± 107.59, and green light 593.13 ± 102.45. In the color meaning-reversed condition, it was respectively for red light 572.08 ±78.75, and green light 592.43 ±87.58. Compared with the normal condition, subjects' reaction time was prolonged in the location-reversed condition (F(1,19)=59.77, P<0.01), and also in the color meaning-reversed condition (F(1,19) =52.55, P<0.01). When in the both location and color meaning-reversed condition, the subjects' reaction time (ms) of traffic lights was respectively 502.92 ± 65.27 for red light, and 508.97 ±63.40 for green light,the result came close to statistical significance(P= 0.065)compared with the normal condition. Conclusion A likely "conceptual constancy" is demonstrated on the basis of prolonging the brains' information processing when location and color information changes.

Behavioral study of affective arousal by pictures on female tonic pain / 中华行为医学与脑科学杂志

Objective To investigate the modulation of affective pictures on experimental tonic cold and heat pain in a behavioral study. Methods Fifteen healthy female subjects went through the tonic cold and tonic heat stimulation when watching the affective pictures in a counter-balanced order after the pictures were grouped into the pleasant, the unpleasant and the neutral picture sets. The pain tolerance time ( PTT ) was recorded.Results The tolerance time was prolonged when watching the pleasant and unpleasant pictures contrast to thatwhen watching the neutral ( Unpleasant ( 146.20 ± 13.68 ) s, Neutral ( 86. 73 ± 12.93 ) s, Pleasant ( 145.27 ±15.99 ) s, F(2,42) = 5.718, P ＜ 0.01 ) ). However, no significant difference was observed in the heat pain test under the different experimental conditions ( Unpleasant ( 74.73 ± 15.78 ) s, Neutral ( 68.80 ± 15.85 ) s, Pleasant ( 78.80± 14.81 )s, F(2.42) =0. 109, P＞0.05) ). A correlation between the residual difference of arousal in pleasant and neutral picture sets and the residual difference of heat PTT in pleasant and neutral picture sets was investigated (r = 0.546, P = 0.035 ). Conclusion Besides the emotional valence,the arousal may be one of the key elements that modulate the tonic pain.

A behavioral study of psycho-physiological characteristics of experimental tonic cold and heat pain / 中华行为医学与脑科学杂志

Objective To investigate the psycho-physiological characteristics of experimental tonic cold and heat pain in a behavioral study. Methods Sixty healthy subjects went through the tonic cold and tonic heat stimulation in a counter-balanced order. Psychological traits were measured before the experiment. Pain intensity ratings were recorded together with continuous Infrared thermal imaging recording. SF-MPQ was employed to assess pain intensity and affective measures. Results Anxiety and fear were positively correlated with cold pain intensity on SF-MPQ,while GESE was negatively correlated with that of heat pain (r =0.57,P <0.05; r =0.45,P <0.05,respectively). Verbal descriptors chosen from SF-MPQ for cold and heat pain significantly differed(χ2=18.6,P =0.04). Infrared thermal imaging results showed after stimulation,heat pain intensity ratings decreased simultaneously with skin surface temperature recovery to baseline. In contrast,skin surface temperature began to return to baseline well before the cold sensation began to diminish(t =34.57,P <0.05; t =23.66,P <0.05). Conclusion Experimental tonic cold and heat pain are not psychophysically identical,but may be predicted by different psychological traits,and may reside in differential peripheral and central processing in human.

The modulatory effect of transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS) on tonic heat pain in the human brain: topographic mapping of absolute EEG power spectra / 中华行为医学与脑科学杂志

Objective To investigate the effect of transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS) on baseline eyes-closed brain activation and on pain-related EEG activity when TENS is applied contralatarally to the hand of pain. Method 128-channel electroencephalography (EEG) was recorded in four conditions including baseline,heat pain test,TENS stimulation and contralateral TENS modulation in 15 right-handed healthy young males. The Short Form McGill Pain Questionnaire was employed to assess pain sensation. Fast Fourier Transformation analysis (FFT) was performed to calculate absolute EEG power spectra based on 7 bands spectrum. Results ① The fronto-central beta-1 activity was significantly enhanced by TENS compared to eyes-closed [eyes-closed:(290±201)μV2,TENS:(385±224)μV2,t=3.323,P<0.01].②TENS markedly relived pain sensation assessed by SF-MPQ and significantly increased the posterior-anterior alpha-1 power [pain:(332±221)μV2,TENS modulation:(378±243)μV2,t=3.683,P<0.01] and fronto-central and posterior beta-1 activities [pain:(348±213)μV2,TENS modulation:(397±240)μV2,t=2.362,P<0.05]. Conclusion TENS,used as a peripheral nerve stimulation,mainly activates sensorimotor cortex.The increased Alpha-1 activity implies that TENS is likely able to relieve pain affective.

The effect of tonic pain stimulation on the attention network test in young males / 中华行为医学与脑科学杂志

Objective To investigate the effect of tonic pain stimulation on the attention network test (ANT) . Methods Twenty healthy males recruited from university were enrolled in this study, and laboratory pain was induced by cuff pressure stimulation on the upper arm. All subjects performed the task separately under pain, no-pain and pressure conditions. The reaction time and accuracy rate of the ANT were quantified. The subjective pain perception was assessed by the short-form McGill Pain Questionnaire ( SF-MPQ) . Results Across three conditions, the executive network showed significant pain effect (F = 76.31 , P< 0.001) : no-pain condition at (92.51 ±35.71 )ms, pressure condition at (94.06 ±25. 28) ms, pain condition at ( 120.24 ± 18.21 )ms. Furthermore, the average reaction time and the A-scores (i. e. affective words) in SF-MPQ caused by pain was positively correlated ( r = 0.11, P = 0.03) . Conclusion Pain can result in deficit in the executive network for attention regulation. The negative affections caused by pain can interfere with attention.

Exploration on how to interest medical students in extracurricular activities / 中华医学教育探索杂志

Extracurricular activities are necessary to curricular study and significant in quality and practical ability education for medical students.Research and practice on how to improve the interest in extracurricular activities for medical students were carried out,and good results were achieved in the aspect of the development of teaching efficiency.