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Investigates commonsense knowledge schemes connecting the elements weight, air, and gravity to the phenomena of free fall of a range of students from primary school children to adults. Finds that majority of people from the secondary education level onwards held alternative schemes. Discusses educational impacts of mass media. (Author/YP)

Presents information about the organization and the participants at the Symposium on World Trends in Science Education held in Halifax, Canada in August of 1979. Presents a brief description of the papers presented and lists the views that the discussion participants considered to be problem areas. (GS)

Aim In the framework of IMI PharmaCog project (Grant Agreement no. 115009), this study evaluated whether abnormal cortical sources of resting state electroencephalographic (EEG) rhythms are correlated to cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) ® amyloid (A®) level in amnesic Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI) subjects. Methods Artifact-free resting state eyes-closed EEG rhythms (19 electrodes) were recorded. Individual datasets were divided into those with high CSF A® level (81 A®-negative, CSF A ® > 550 pg / ml ) and those with low CSF A® level (46 A®-positive, CSF A ® < 550 pg / ml ). Regional normalized cortical sources of EEG rhythms at frequency bands of interest were estimated by LORETA package. ANOVA compared these sources between the two MCI groups ( p < 0.05, corrected) and 50 cognitively normal elderly (Nold) subjects. Results Statistical results showed: (1) source pattern Nold < A®-negative < A®-positive at frontal, temporal and limbic delta sources level; (2) significant negative correlation (Pearson test, p < 0.05) between temporal delta sources and CSF A® level ( r = −0.26; p = 0.003) across all MCI subjects. Conclusions These results suggest a relationship between the brain amyloid charge, as revealed by CSF A® level, and pathological delta cortical sources indicating cortical disconnection in amnesic MCI subjects. EEG delta sources could represent a promising early diagnostic marker of Alzheimer’s disease (AD). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim In the framework of IMI PharmaCog project (Grant Agreement no. 115009), this study evaluated whether cortical sources of AO-ERPs are related to cerebrospinal fluid (CSF)® amyloid (A®) level in amnesic Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI) subjects. Methods Artifact-free AO-ERPs (19 electrodes) were recorded in 115 MCI subjects. Individual datasets were divided into those with high CSF A® level (61 A®-negative, CSF A® > 550 pg/ml) and those with low CSF A® level (43 A®-positive, CSF A® < 550 pg/ml). Cortical sources of late positive frontal (P3a; novelty of rare targets) and posterior (P3b; attention and reaction to rare targets) peak components of AO-ERPs were estimated by sLORETA package. sLORETA T -test compared these sources between the two MCI groups ( p < 0.05, corrected). Results The ANOVA for the P3a peak illustrate a statistically significant interaction effect ( F = 2.87; p = 0.006) between the factors Group and Brodmann Area (BA 10 and 11). The ANOVA for the P3b peak illustrate a statistically significant interaction effect ( F = 2.745; p = 0.008) between the factors Group and BA (BA 5,7,23,31). Conclusions The present study provides support to the hypothesis that specific neurophysiological markers may enrich the discrimination of aMCI subjects in an early stage of prodromal Alzheimer’s disease (AD) for early diagnosis and preventive treatments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]