Biomedical subjects

Makoto Miyatani

Publications and source records attributed to Makoto Miyatani.

4 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed2005

Self-reference in elaborative processing of desirability of trait adjectives.

We investigated whether the desirability of trait adjectives was elaboratively processed during self-reference tasks (Exp. 1-1, 1-2) and whether desirability information played a role in memory processes in self-reference tasks (Exp. 2). In Exp. 1-1, 14 participants performed a series of initial tasks and target tasks, which were self-reference, evaluative, or semantic. Responses on the evaluating target task were faster when the initial task was self-reference rather than semantic. Exp. 1-2 demonstrated that information relevant to the evaluative task did not facilitate the process of performing an other-reference task. Although there was no evidence that desirability information had a role in the self-reference effect in Exp. 2, desirability of trait adjectives was specifically processed during self-reference tasks.

Adult↗

PubMed2005

Quantitative relation between conflict and response inhibition in the Flanker task.

The 2001 conflict monitoring hypothesis of Botvinick and colleagues posits that the amount of conflict raised by incongruent stimuli in a flanker task affects subsequent cognitive control, such as response inhibition. The present experiment yielded empirical evidence of the quantitative relation between conflict and response inhibition. Participants judged the direction of a target arrow flanked by distractor arrows presented above and below the target. The amount of conflict was manipulated by varying the distance between the target and the directional distractors. Analysis showed that response times were longer for incongruent trials than for congruent trials, and response times on incongruent trials were longer for the small distance than for the large distance conditions. In addition, the response times in congruent trials became longer as the amount of conflict in the preceding trial increased. These results are consistent with Botvinick, et al.'s hypothesis that the conflict-detection mechanism determines the amount of response inhibition depending on the amount of conflict. Responses on incongruent trials were faster and more accurate when the preceding trial was incongruent than when it was congruent, and the size of this response facilitation was not influenced by the amount of conflict. These results suggest that the conflict detection mechanism modulates the subsequent behaviors by two forms of control which are differently affected by the amount of conflict.

Adult↗

PubMed2005

Affective integration speeds trait processing.

We investigated whether affective integration increases the speed of processing of personality trait knowledge. The fan effect was compared between cases where trait knowledge is stored with the affective value and cases where it is not stored with the affective value. 18 college students first memorized a set of traits about fictitious individuals and then made recognition judgments. In the 2 x 2 factorial repeated-measures design, the number of traits learned about a fictitious individual and whether those traits were integrated by a shared affective value were manipulated. The significant interaction showed that knowledge of personality trait with affective integration was processed quickly even if the particular person's memory had rich connections with traits.

Adolescent↗

PubMed2004

Brain activation during manipulation of the myoelectric prosthetic hand: a functional magnetic resonance imaging study.

Neuroimaging data, particularly functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) findings, have not been reported in users of the myoelectric or electromyographic (EMG) prosthetic hand. We developed a virtual EMG prosthetic hand system to eliminate mutual signal noise interference between fMRI imaging and the EMG prosthesis. We used fMRI to localize activation in the human brain during manipulation of the virtual EMG prosthetic hand. Fourteen right-handed normal subjects were instructed to perform repetitive grasping with the right hand with eyes closed (CEG); repetitive grasping with the right hand with eyes open to obtain visual feedback of their own hand movement (OEG); and repetitive grasping with the virtual EMG prosthetic hand with the eyes open to obtain visual feedback of the prosthetic hand movement (VRG). The specific site activated during manipulation of the EMG prosthetic hand was the right ventral premotor cortex. Both paradigms with visual feedback also (OEG and VRG) demonstrated activation in the right posterior parietal cortex. The center of activation of the right posterior parietal cortex shifted laterally for visual feedback with the virtual EMG prosthetic hand compared to a subject's own hand. The results suggest that the EMG prosthetic hand might be recognized in the brain as a high-performance alternative to a real hand, being controlled through a "mirror system" in the brain.

Action Potentials↗