Biomedical subjects

Nobuo Masataka

Publications and source records attributed to Nobuo Masataka.

8 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed2007

Neural correlates for learning to read Roman numerals.

This study examined the neuronal correlates of reading Roman numerals and the changes that occur with extensive practice. Subjects were scanned by functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) three times the first day of the experiment and once following two to three months of practice. This allowed comparison of brain activations with varying levels of practice on the same day and across the two to three months of training. The results revealed that upon learning that the alphabetical symbols had numeric meaning subjects immediately activated a network of brain areas, many of which have been previously implicated in numerical processing. Subsequent practice led to a change in the pattern of neuronal activity in only a single region of the mid-dorsolateral prefrontal cortex in the left hemisphere. Implications of these findings are argued with regard to the prevalent neuronal model for the implementation of elementary numerical abilities.

Adult↗

PubMed2007

Music, evolution and language.

Darwin (1871) noted that the human musical faculty 'must be ranked amongst the most mysterious with which he is endowed'. Indeed, previous research with human infants and young children has revealed that we are born with variable musical capabilities. Here, the adaptive purpose served by these differing capabilities is discussed with reference to comparative findings regarding the acoustic behavior of nonhuman primates. The findings provide evidence supporting Darwin's hypothesis of an intermediate stage of human evolutionary history characterized by a communication system that resembles music more closely than language and possibly acting as a precursor for both current language and music.

Age Factors↗

PubMed2006

Preference for consonance over dissonance by hearing newborns of deaf parents and of hearing parents.

Behavioral preferences for consonance over dissonance were tested in hearing infants of deaf parents and in hearing infants of hearing parents when they were 2 days old. Using a modified visual-fixation-based, auditory-preference procedure, I found that both 2-day-old infants of deaf parents and those of hearing parents looked longer at a visual stimulus when looking produced the original version of a Mozart minuet as opposed to a version altered to contain many dissonant intervals. The relative magnitude of such preference did not significantly differ whether their parents were deaf or hearing. Infants prefer consonance over dissonance, and the preference is present from birth and is not dependent on any specific prenatal or early postnatal experience.

Acoustic Stimulation↗

PubMed2005

Neural correlates for numerical processing in the manual mode.

This paper reports a study designed to examine the neuronal correlates for comprehending the signs of American Sign Language representing numerals in deaf signers who acquired Japanese Sign Language as their first language. The participants were scanned by functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) twice on the day of the experiment. The results of the measurements revealed that upon learning that the signs actually have numeric meaning, a network of brain areas is activated immediately. Many of these areas have been previously implicated in numerical processing. The similar neural network of brain regions responsible for numerical processing exists on a nonlinguistical basis and works to retrieve arithmetic facts from presented linguistic material regardless of the mode of the language.

Adult↗

PubMed2005

Differences in arithmetic subtraction of nonsymbolic numerosities by deaf and hearing adults.

Previous research has demonstrated that both hearing adults and hearing children with no training in arithmetic successfully performed approximate arithmetic on large sets of elements. Here, the possibility is explored that the same phenomenon can be confirmed in deaf adults who have acquired a signed language as their first language. Results reveal that they can perform simple arithmetic subtraction on nonsymbolic numerosities. Their performance levels were even higher than those of hearing adults who participated in the experiment as a control group. On the other hand, the performance levels of subtraction of the deaf adults in the formal mathematics were lower than those of the hearing adults. The findings are argued in terms of the characteristics of cognitive capabilities the deaf adults acquired through their development.

Adult↗

PubMed2003

[Recognition of sound pattern of words extracted from spoken sentences by preverbal infants].

The present experiment investigated the ability of recognition and long-term retention of sound pattern of words extracted from spoken sentences in preverbal infants. When preferences of 8-month-old Japanese infants for target words and for novel words were tested by head-turn preference procedure, immediately after being auditory exposed to spoken sentences that included the target words, they showed preference for target words significantly over novel words. They were able to recognize words that were presented within sentences previously. Moreover, such preference was confirmed when the infants were tested with a 2-week interval. On the other hand, their preference for prosodic properties of the exposed spoken sentences was not confirmed. Infants retain information of those words that were extracted from the speech analytically rather than holistically.

Female↗

PubMed2002

Pitch modification when interacting with elders: Japanese women with and without experience with infants.

Twenty Japanese-speaking twenty-six- to twenty-seven-year-old women were recorded as they conversed with an infant, an elder, or another young adult. When their utterances were acoustically compared among the three settings with regard to prosodic characteristics, elevated pitch and increased pitch range were found when their speech was directed to both the infant and the elder as compared to when it was directed to the young adult. The degree to which such modifications occurred was greater in those women who were experienced with children than in those women who were not experienced. Moreover, the degree of the modification showed a highly positive correlation in each participant when the speech was directed to the infant and when it was directed to the elder. Prosodic modifications of speech styles to infants and to elders are both exaggerated consistently through the experience with children.

Adult↗

PubMed2002

A pattern of common acoustic modification by human mothers to gain attention of a child and by macaques of others in their group.

Criticisms of how Niwano and Sugai (2002) conducted their analysis of pitch change in human mothers' repeated utterances to their children suggest mothers resort to utterance with elevated pitch when infants are initially unresponsive. When this phenomenon is compared with an evaluation of similar data for free-ranging macaques, a certain common pattern of human mothers and the macaques may be observed in seeking to gain the attention of another.

Animals↗