Chenguang Lu

Objectives: The aim of the current study was to differentiate between neural activity that represents neural anomalies that are responsible for persistent developmental stuttering from the activity that is a result of compensating for stuttering. This was done by investigating alterations to the intrinsic functional architecture of speech-language processes of patients with PDS before and after a short-term intervention. Methods: The resting-state functional connectivity and cortical thickness were examined before and after the intervention. The structural data were used to validate the functional results. Fifteen stuttering patients who received intervention, 13 stuttering patients who did not receive intervention, and 13 fluent controls participated. Results: Before the intervention, both groups of PDS patients showed significant RSFC and cortical thickness reductions in the left pars-opercularis and RSFC increases in the cerebellum, as compared to fluent controls. The intervention was effective in reducing stuttering in PDS- patients and lowering their RSFC in the cerebellum to the level of fluent controls. The intervention effect was specific to the PDS-group. The intervention did not change RSFC and cortical thickness in the left PO, which remained at its preintervention level. Conclusions: The results suggest that the left PO is a locus where the intrinsic functional architecture of speech-language processes is altered in PDS patients, suggesting an etiologic role of this region in PDS. The cerebellum showed intervention-induced neural reorganization, suggesting a compensatory response when stuttering occurs. Copyright © 2012 by AAN Enterprises, Inc.

How "red", "green" were defined? Through analyzing how two children with congenitally inverted color sensations corresponding to red flags and green grass accept their grand mothers’ teaching about colors, the paper get opposite conclusions against logical empiricism. The “red” and “green” and other names of properties of objects were defined by objective physical properties (or together with behavior, such as in defining “beauty”), instead our sensations. So language directly points to things in themselves passing through sensations and presentative world. It is not that things in themselves are unknowable, but that sensations and presentative world cannot be exactly described by daily language

A generalized information theory is proposed as a natural extension of Shannon's information theory. It proposes that information comes from forecasts. The more precise and the more unexpected a forecast is, the more information it conveys. If subjective forecast always conforms with objective facts then the generalized information measure will be equivalent to Shannon's information measure. The generalized communication model is consistent with K. R. Popper's model of knowledge evolution. The mathematical foundations of the new information theory, the generalized communication model , information measures for semantic information and sensory information, and the coding meanings of generalized entropy and generalized mutual information are introduced. Assessments and optimizations of pattern recognition, predictions, and detection with the generalized information criterion are discussed. For economization of communication, a revised version of rate-distortion theory: rate-of-keeping-precision theory, which is a theory for datum compression and also a theory for matching an objective channels with the subjective understanding of information receivers, is proposed. Applications include stock market forecasting and video image presentation.