Is visual metacognition associated with autistic traits? A regression analysis shows no link between visual metacognition and Autism-Spectrum Quotient scores.

Metacognition -the human ability to recognize correct decisions- is a key cognitive process linked to learning and development. Several recent studies investigated the relationship between metacognition and autism. However, the evidence is still inconsistent. While some studies reported autistic people having lower levels of metacognitive sensitivity, others did not. Leveraging the fact that autistic traits are present in the general population, our study investigated the relationship between visual metacognition and autistic traits in a sample of 360 neurotypical participants. We measured metacognition as the correspondence between confidence and accuracy in a visual two alternative forced choice task. Autistic-traits were assessed through the Autism-spectrum Quotient (AQ) score. A regression analysis revealed no statistically significant association between autistic traits and metacognition or confidence. Furthermore, we found no link between AQ sub-scales and metacognition. We do not find support for the hypothesis that autistic traits are associated with metacognition in the general population.

Faster might not be better: Pictures may not elicit a stronger unconscious priming effect than words when modulated by semantic similarity.

It has been suggested that unconscious semantic processing is stimulus-dependent, and that pictures might have privileged access to semantic content. Those findings led to the hypothesis that unconscious semantic priming effect for pictorial stimuli would be stronger as compared to verbal stimuli. This effect was tested on pictures and words by manipulating the semantic similarity between the prime and target stimuli. Participants performed a masked priming categorization task for either words or pictures with three semantic similarity conditions: strongly similar, weakly similar, and non-similar. Significant differences in reaction times were only found between strongly similar and non-similar and between weakly similar and non-similar, for both pictures and words, with faster overall responses for pictures as compared to words. Nevertheless, pictures showed no superior priming effect over words. This could suggest the hypothesis that even though semantic processing is faster for pictures, this does not imply a stronger unconscious priming effect.

Participación del odontólogo en la asistencia de pacientes con trastornos respiratorios relacionados con el sueño / The dentist´s role in attending patients with sleep-related respiratory disorders

En esta revisión se mencionan, en primer lugar, algunas alteraciones odontológicas y oro-cráneo-faciales que son observadas con cierta frecuencia en pacientes que concurren a la consulta odontológica. Luego se realiza una descripción del rol del odontólogo en la evaluación de pacientes que pudieran presentar trastornos respiratorios relacionados con el sueño (TRRS). A continuación, se describen brevemente dos de los más frecuentes TRRS: el ronquido y la apnea obstructiva del sueño. Finalmente, se mencionan algunos recursos terapéuticos de utilidad en los TRRS, particularmente los beneficios de la implementación de la aparatología oral (AO) en estos pacientes (AU)

In this review, we first mention some odontological and oro-cranial-facial alterations that are frequently observe in patients who attend the dental office. After that, a description of the role of the dentist in the evaluation of patients who could present RDRS will be made. Besides two of the most frequent RDRS are briefly describe: snoring and obstructive sleep apnea. Finally, some useful therapeutic resources for the RDRS treatment will be comment, particularly the benefits of the implementation of oral appliances (OA) -in these patients (AU)

Event-related potential correlates of stimulus equivalence classes: A study of task order of the equivalence based priming probes with respect to the stimulus equivalence tests, and among the distinct trial types with each other.

This study investigates the influences of: 1) the task order of two stimulus equivalence classes (SEC) probes, and 2) the possible differences within the equivalence trial types. These factors were analyzed together on both behavioral and event-related potentials (ERP) data. Two groups of normal subjects participated in two successive sessions. In the first session, all participants were trained in the baseline relations among visual stimuli (pseudo-words). In the second session, one group performed the matching-to-sample (MTS) equivalence tests before the equivalence-relatedness-priming (EBRP) task, while the other group performed both tasks in reverse order. In the EBRP task related trial types included trained, symmetrical and equivalence relationships while the unrelated trial types included the same stimuli but without relationships. Event related potentials were recorded separately for related and unrelated conditions during the EBRP task. Results showed that response times to related trials were shorter than those to unrelated ones. At the electrophysiological level, two late waveforms were sensitive to the differences among the stimulus pairs of the EBRP task: Both waveforms were larger for the unrelated than the related conditions. Conversely, there were no main influences of the task order or of the trial types with each other. These results provide evidence that 1) the EBRP task exhibits priming effects among the SEC stimuli, 2) the behavioral and electrophysiological effects were similar regardless of whether the EBRP task was done before or after the MTS tests, and 3) there were no differences within the baseline and derived trial types in the EBRP task.

Ensombreciendo el surgimiento de clases de equivalencia / Overshadowing the formation of equivalence classes

Investigaciones actuales postulan que el condicionamiento respondiente (CR) es suficiente para establecer clases de equivalencia de estímulos (CEE). A su vez, el fenómeno de ensombrecimiento no se ha estudiado dentro del contexto de aprendizaje de CEE. Estudiar la influencia de procesos propios del CR se plantea como una forma de evaluar esta hipótesis. Tres clases de tres estímulos fueron entrenadas mediante una tarea de emparejamiento con la muestra. Cada clase estuvo compuesta por dos estímulos simples y un estímulo compuesto, conformado por dos estímulos de distinta saliencia. Luego se evaluó la emergencia de relaciones derivadas para los estímulos saliente y ensombrecido. La emergencia de CEE se observó en cuatro de 13 sujetos para el estímulo saliente y en ninguno para el estímulo ensombrecido. Estos resultados demuestran que la emergencia de relaciones derivadas es sensible al ensombrecimiento, y aporta evidencia respecto del rol del CR en la formación de CEE.

Current researches postulate that respondent conditioning (RC) is sufficient to establish Stimuli Equivalence Classes (SEC). In turn, the influency of the the overshadowing phenomenon has not been studied within the learning context of SEC. Studying the influence of RC\'s processes is posed as a way of evaluating this hypothesis. Three classes of three stimuli were trained through a matching to sample task. Each class consisted of two simple stimuli and one compound stimulus, consisting of two stimuli of different salience. The emergence of derived relationships for salient and overshadowed stimuli was then evaluated. Emergence of SEC was observed in four of 13 subjects for the salient stimuli and in none for the overshadowed stimuli. These results shown that the emergence of derived relationships is sensitive to overshadowing, and provides evidence regarding the role of RC in the formation of SEC.