“Science in Dialogue” — 10th Sino-German Workshop Selected Papers

In the study, psychological and physiological features were assessed during an experimentally designed stressful situation in 85 subjects with hypertension (HTN) in the workplace, 85 patients with essential HTN, and 82 healthy individuals.

It was showed, that patients with HTN in the experimental situation were characterized by a complex of physiological and psychological features, which distinguish them from healthy participants. A reliably greater increase In systolic blood pressure (BP) was recorded in these patients in comparison with healthy individuals (on average by 14 and 3 mmHg respectively). The aspiration level (AL) of these patients was characterized by a reliably greater height, inadequacy, and instability; as for nonverbal behavior, it revealed a reliably greater amount of gestures, and frequent changes in voice tone against similar features of healthy individuals.

The group of patients with HTN at work, when compared with essential HTN patients, was characterized by a reliably greater increase of systolic BP (on the average by 16 and 4 mmHg respectively) as a reaction to emotional stress. The systolic BP increase in this group was revealed in combination with an initially reliably lower catecholamines’ level (CA), a gradual decrease of CA level in urine, and renin and angiotensin-1 in blood plasma during the experiment. This combination is an indicator of chronic stress and psychophysiological exhaustion. The patients did not manifest any increase of anxiety during the experiment; they were characterized, however, by a greater frequency of AL inadequacy and instability. The behavior of patients with HTN at work during the experiment was marked by a limited repertory of poses and gestures, but more vigorous facial expressions, and frequent pitch jumps. Obtained results lead us to confirm that the repression of emotions comes as a significant pathogenetic factor in the genesis of psychosomatic syndrome among patients with HTN at work, as opposed to patients with essential HTN.

This article considers different aspects of the new neuropsychological theory of the social brain and its relationship to Luria’s and Vygotsky’s understanding of a human as a social and biological unity. The main functions of social cognition are described. Five aspects of these functions and five groups of evidence are analyzed: the negative consequences of brain damage on social behavior and social cognition; the social features of early-childhood development; the double interaction between brain maturation and the formation of mental functions; the negative consequences of social neglect on brain development; and the social and cultural specificity of neuropsychological assessment methods. The proposed new understanding of the social brain is as the social and cultural regulator of brain functioning.

In this paper the authors put polysemy research into the broader context of research into the mental lexicon, cognitive context conceptual priming, and probabilistic conceptual modelling. The article adopts a novel approach to the resolution of polysemy and puts it to an empirical test. The authors argue that priming plays a key role in the activation of an adequate meaning of a polysemous word. Mental structures, represented by a prime lexical unit, contain relevant conceptual information on the target word meaning. The prime triggers a cognitive context that influences the selection process of the target word sense.

This article investigates the problem of lightness perception. To clarify the role of depth in lightness perception two current models—the albedo hypothesis and the coplanar-ratio hypothesis—are discussed. To compare them the strength of the simultaneous-lightnesscontrast (SLC) illusion was investigated as a function of three-dimensional (3D) configurations of the test and background squares. In accordance with both hypotheses the changes in the depth arrangements of the test and background squares should result in changes in the illusory effect. However, the reasons for and the directions of these changes should be different. Five different types of 3D configurations were created in which the test squares were tilted at different angles to the background squares. A virtual-reality technique was used to present stereo pairs of different 3D configurations. Thirty-seven observers took part in the experiment. The method of constant stimuli was used to obtain psychometric functions. The displacements of these functions for 3D configurations in comparison with the 2D configuration allowed the estimation of illusion strength. The analysis of individual values of illusion strength revealed two groups of subjects. For the first group (38% of all participants) the strength changed insignificantly depending on the 3D configurations. For the second group (62% of all participants) significant differences were obtained for those configurations in which the test and background squares were perceived as differently illuminated. The changes in the SLC illusion strength for the second group were consistent with predictions made by the albedo hypothesis. Thus, it seems that the perceived illumination of a surface should be considered the main parameter for lightness estimations in 3D scenes.

Automated classification of a human functional state is an important problem, with applications including stress resistance evaluation, supervision over operators of critical infrastructure, teaching and phobia therapy. Such classification is particularly efficient in systems for teaching and phobia therapy that include a virtual reality module, and provide the capability for dynamic adjustment of task complexity.

In this paper, a method for automated real-time binary classification of human functional states (calm wakefulness vs. stress) based on discrete wavelet transform of EEG data is considered. It is shown that an individual tuning stage of the classification algorithm — a stage that allows the involvement of certain information on individual peculiarities in the classification, using very short individual learning samples, significantly increases classification reliability. The experimental study that proved this assertion was based on a specialized scenario in which individuals solved the task of detecting objects with given properties in a dynamic set of flying objects.

This article shows that the peculiarities of divergent and convergent thinking in young males and females of various creativity levels are stipulated by a definite EEG frequency-and-spatial arrangement. Young males and females of mixed and left lateral arrangement profiles demonstrate an expressed activity of occipital, central, and temporal areas of both cerebral hemispheres. In young males and females of right LAP (lateral arrangement profile), connections are clearly localized in case of solution of both convergent and divergent tasks. Solution of divergent and convergent tasks may condition certain frequency-and-spatial arrangement of EEG in young males and females with different levels of academic progress and a different lateral arrangement profile (LAP).

Neuropsychological characteristics of verbal working memory (memory capacity, permanency, and different types of memory errors) of 43 healthy subjects of older age were compared with the anatomical characteristics of their brain structures (volume of the hippocampi and the caudate nuclei, size of the cingulate-cortex regions of both hemispheres). The obtained data demonstrate a correlation between the permanency of verbal- information maintenance and left caudate-nucleus volume and a positive correlation between associative-memory capacity and left hippocampus volume. A decline in the number of verbal-memory errors (confabulations) is related to the increased size of the left anterior cingulate cortex. Furthermore, verbal working-memory capacity and permanency correlate negatively with the size of the left posterior dorsal cingulate cortex, whereas the number of fluctuations and word replacements correlate positively with the increased size of this brain region. We suggest a psychophysiological model of verbalstimulus maintenance in working memory based on the results of our study and published research data.

Contemporary psychology and cognitive neuroscience create many opportunities for studying the brain functions, but also generate numerous challenges. To date, scientists face common conceptual problems which are relevant to almost every research study/ case such as: classification of functions, unified methodological approaches, explanation of the psychological phenomenon etc. The Sino-German Workshop which took place in Hamburg in 2013 aimed to address unasked questions and unused answers, attracting scientists from different countries and different fields of psychology, neuroscience, medicine, history, and philosophy. The present discussion on the 9 unasked questions was initiated by Professor Ernst Poeppel and was held on by Russian participants from various academic institutions.