Hot Tips – Canadian Society for Brain, Behaviour and Cognitive Science Conference

The Amazing, Changing Brain

Featured symposium on brain plasticity

From before we are born until we die, our brains are in a constant state of flux. This special symposium highlights the work of four internationally acclaimed research groups, who have all made significant advances in our understanding of how the brain changes and what those changes mean for behaviour.

• Yang Dan (University of California at Berkeley) “Adult visual cortical plasticity: Spike-time dependence”
• Christo Pantev (Rotman Research Institute) “The competition for cortical space”
• Daphne Maurer & Terri Lewis (McMaster University) “The role of visual input in the postnatal development of human visual perception: Lessons from children treated for cataract”
• Isabel Gauthier (Vanderbilt University) “Interference between holistic processing of faces and objects of expertise”

Developing a vision of the world

Babies' brains are constantly changing as they learn new things and acquire new skills. Studies of animal brains have made it clear that many of these changes depend on the development of certain chemicals in the brain. Now, new research on human brain led by a graduate student at McMaster University has shown for the first time how these chemicals change in infants' brains. These results may provide key insights into our understanding of how babies learn to see the world around them.

• Brett Beston, Sandra Hessels, David Jones & Kathryn Murphy (McMaster University) “Developmental changes in glutamate receptor expression in human visual cortex”

Reading in technicolour

Imagine seeing the colour purple every time you saw the letter M, or the colour red every time you saw the number 3. This is the reality for people with synaesthesia. New research from the University of Guelph suggests that such visual associations can be learned. Rather than being something you are born with, synaesthesia might be acquired through early experiences with the environment.

• Dan Meegan (University of Guelph) “Training non-synaesthetes to behave like synaesthetes: Implications for the development of synaesthesia”

Narcissism is only natural

How attractive you think someone is depends on how much they look like you, suggests new research done by Lisa Debruine, a graduate student at McMaster. In this study, people rated the attractiveness of computer-morphed faces, some of which resembled the participants. Although they were unaware of the resemblances, people consistently rated their own morphs as more attractive.

• Lisa DeBruine (McMaster University) “Facial resemblance increases attractiveness”

Substance abuse

Symposium showcases new research on drug addiction
Canadian psychologists will present the latest research on drug addiction in a special symposium organized by Professor Mary Olmstead from Queen's University. Researchers will discuss their findings on drug addiction at each stage of the disorder: from getting hooked, to kicking the habit, to relapsing.

• Kim Hellemans & Mary Olmstead (Queen's University) “Early environmental experience influences impulsive choice following alcohol intoxication”
• Robert Sorge, Giovanna Paolone & Jane Stewart (Concordia University, Universita di Roma LaSpeinza) “Buprenorphine maintenance reduces cocaine, but not heroin, self-administration in rats trained to self-administer both drugs”
• Tracie Paine & Mary Olmstead (Queen's University) “Effects of chronic cocaine on impulsivity: Relation to cortical serotonin mechanisms”
• Annie Tremblay, Francesco Leri & Jane Stewart (Concordia University, University of Guelph) “Methadone maintenance attenuates heroin and cocaine seeking in rats trained to self-administer both drugs
• Franca M. Placenza & Franco J. Vaccarino (University of Toronto, Centre for Addiction and Mental Health) “The role of substance P in reinstatement of cocaine-seeking behaviour”

Brain scans provide a window into Fetal Alcohol Syndrome

Brain imaging techniques are shedding new light on Fetal Alcohol Syndrome. Researchers at the National Research Council of Canada and the University of Manitoba have shown that both pre-teens and adults who were born with Fetal Alcohol Syndrome have irregular patterns of brain activity when performing certain memory tasks.

• Ava-Ann Allman, Lorna Jakobson, Deboral Shiloff, Albert Chudley, Sally Longstaffe, Krisztina Milisza (National Research Council of Canada, University of Manitoba) “Executive function and spatial working memory in fetal alcohol syndrome”

Chronic stress and “high” anxiety

New findings by Canadian and US researchers suggests that the behavioural effects of marijuana may depend on pre-existing stress levels. Scientists administered low and high doses of cannabinoids to chronically stressed and unstressed rates. The results suggest that stress increases anxiety in response to the drug.

• Matthew Hill, Boris Gorzalka, Erica Carrier, Sachin Patel, Brandi Ormerod, Cecilia Hillard (University of British Columbia, Medical College of Wisconsin) “Enhancement of responsiveness to cannabinoid agonists following chronic stress”

Good news for aging brains

Older adults may remember less than younger adults, but they remember the important things. Canadian and US researchers asked younger and older adults to remember lists of words and told them that some words were more important than others. Older adults remembered fewer words, but they remembered the most important words best.

• Alan Castel, Aaron Benjamin, Fergus Craik & Michael Watkins (University of Toronto, University of Illinois, Rice University) “The strategic and selective control of memory in younger and older adults”

Practice makes perfect, or at least reverses some age-related changes in vision

Tasks like driving require people to look at, and pay attention to, many things at once. Older adults have more difficulty doing this than younger adults. Fortunately, McMaster researchers have shown that some older adults can learn to pay attention to multiple things just as well as younger adults if given enough practice. Even more promising, these benefits are retained for at least two months after practice.

• Eric Richards, Patrick Bennett & Allison Sekuler (McMaster University) “Aging, learning, and the useful field of view”

The birds and the bees

Polly want a dictionary

Researchers from the University of Alberta have discovered that two different species of bird can communicate with one another. The research team has also completed the first bioacoustic analysis of mountain chickadee “chick-a-dee” calls, which may lead to a more complete understanding of how such interspecies communication is possible.

• Isabelle Charrier, Laurie Bloomfield, Tiffany Lee & Christopher Sturdy (University of Alberta) “Interspecific communication in chickadees”.
• Laurie Bloomfield, Isabelle Charrier & Christopher Sturdy (University of Alberta) “Bioacoustic analysis of the mountain chickadee chick-a-dee' call”

Finding bees' favourite flowers

A study by University of Ottawa psychologist Dana Church indicates that when bees fly back to a particular flower, they don't rely on the smell of the flower or on the positions of neighbouring flowers. Instead, bees can find flowers by relying on their exact positions. A flower with a new scent might smell as sweet, but it won't fool the bee that's looking for it.

• Dana Church (University of Ottawa) “Bumblebee floral recognition: Simultaneous exploration of memory and non-memory mechanisms”

The body rules the mind

Go speed racer!

When bike racers speed down a hill, you might think that they can tell how fast they are going from information they get from their eyes. Surprisingly, feedback from their bodies matters more than vision, according to research by a Hamilton psychologist and his students. Using a virtual-reality simulator to simulate bicycling, Professor Hong-Jin Sun and his McMaster students found that physical sensations overruled the visual experience when the two were inconsistent with one another.

• Amanda Lee, Jennifer Campos, George Chan & Hong-Jin Sun (McMaster University) “Visual and proprioceptive integration of speed estimation during self-motion”

Moving to the sound of music

Music makes you bounce. Now, new research led by McMaster graduate student Jessica Phillips-Silver suggests that how you bounce might improve your memory for music. Infants were bounced at different rhythms in their mother's arms to musical beats. Both infants and adults remembered the music differently depending on their initial movements when they first heard the music. These findings suggest that movement plays an important role in how people remember music.

• Jessica Phillips-Silver & Laurel Trainor (McMaster University) “Movement influences the auditory encoding of rhythmic patterns in infants and adults”

Insights into brain injury

Brain waves show severity of brain injury

Electrical activity generated by the brain can indicate the severity of damage to the brain, according to a study by Professor Sidney Sigalowitz and his colleagues at Brock University. The study found that the degree of reduction in certain high-frequency brain waves varied with the severity of thought impairment reported by patients. In a related study on people with mild head injury, Sigalowitz's group found that the patients' brain wave patterns revealed attentional impairments similar to those of normally aging adults.

• Jane Dywan, Bill Tays & Sidney Segalowitz (Brock University) “ERP correlates of source monitoring deficits after mild head injury”
• Sidney Segalowitz, Anthony Folino & Jane Dywan (Brock University) “High frequency EEG reduction is associated with post-concussive symptoms following traumatic brain injury”

New computer model mimics brain damage

McMaster psychologists have developed a mathematical model that mimics a bizarre problem that can result from brain damage. People with “category-specific deficits” lose specific knowledge, for example losing memory about plants, but not about any other object categories (e.g., furniture or animals). The computer model developed by graduate student Damian Jancowicz and colleagues mimics this impairment by assuming that the brain stores similar information in nearby locations. In addition to helping us understand the effects of brain damage, the model may provide insights into the way we think about objects more generally.

• Damian Jankowicz, Suzanna Becker & Steve Howell (McMaster University) “Modeling semantic category-specific deficits using topographic, corpus-derived representations”

Problem solved!

Mr. Confident isn't necessarily Mr. Right

Your boss, after thinking carefully about the problem you've laid out, suddenly comes up with a solution. You have your doubts, but he seems so sure of himself that you think he must be right. Not necessarily, according to research by scientists at the University of Saskatchewan. In their study of how people solve reasoning problems, Valerie Thompson and Jody Maton found no relation between people's accuracy and confidence. Giving someone extra time to solve a problem might make that person more confident, but it won't necessarily make them more right.

• Valerie Thompson & Jody Maton (University of Saskatchewan) “On being confidently wrong: The relationship between confidence and accuracy in deductive reasoning”

There's more to math than numbers

To solve word problems correctly, kids need to learn how to extract relevant information and ignore unnecessary details. Shilpi Majumder's recent research at York University has shown that how well children can solve mathematical word problems is related to the language and attentional components of each problem. What does this add up to? Part of the solution to math woes might lie in teaching kids to use these additional skills more effectively.

• Shilpi Majumder (York University, University of Waterloo) “Are children's difficulties with math word problems related to inhibition?”

Planning to remember

You are less likely to forget what you are doing if you carry out your plans in the same place that you planned them. Research from the department of Psychology at the University of British Columbia shows that memory for planning, and the ability to execute plans are both strongly influenced by environmental cues. Investigating how the environment around you affects memory will provide valuable insight into the human mind, and may eventually help you find your misplaced keys.

• Peter Graf (University of British Columbia) “Contextual influences on prospective memory”