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In the last decade, cognitive neuroscience in China has advanced in at least four aspects: first, specialized research institutes and bodies have been set up throughout the nation; second, more and more high-tech research facilities and approaches have been adopted by domestic researchers; third, international conferences on cognitive neuroscience have been held in Mainland China; and finally, publications relating cognitive processes to neural activation and functioning have increased. This paper selectively reviews research on perception and face recognition, attention, language, memory, and disorders in cognitive brain functions carried out by scientists in Mainland China. For visual perception, some excellent work has been carried out to investigate the neural mechanisms of perceptual priming, perceptual grouping, and perception of global/local properties in compound stimuli. For attention, much work is on issues such as the time course of brain activation in selective attention, the patterns of event-related potentials in visual and auditory selective attention, and the effect of pre-cueing on spatial attention. Because the Chinese language has many unique characteristics in phonological and syntactic systems and in the writing system, much research carried out in China takes advantage of these characteristics, trying to separate the universal and language-specific aspects of language processing and their neural correlates. Memory research is mainly at neuropsychological and neurobiological levels. Disorders of cognitive functioning and their underlying impairments in the brain are attracting more and more attention. The paper concludes that as the Chinese economy is growing fast, more resources will be poured into basic research. Thus, systematic research in various fields of cognitive neuroscience by Chinese scientists is no longer a dream. It is reasonable to expect that research in this field will be accelerated in China and become an important force in the world in the near future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In part, the US has sustained superpower status as a result of educational systems that are superior to much of the less industrialized world. If the US wishes to remain a dominant economic and political force, rigorous intellectual standards must be a priority. The pendulum of intellectual capital has perhaps begun to tilt in the direction of China, in particular due to the staggering manpower of the country, but also as a product of restructuring spanning decades, in both education and politics. This restructuring has prompted the US to question the level of threat China could pose if they increase their role on the global stage. A position is asserted that through an integrated, systems-level approach that treats intellectual capital as a vital national resource, the US may broaden the gap to amass an indomitable advantage. A target is proposed whereby through a combination of science, technology and practice, there is a shift such that our top 50% are performing at or above the levels of today's top 2%. Such an accomplishment may be achieved partially through US educational policies, but more importantly, there must be commitments to essential science and technology. While investments in different areas of science and technology may impact the global balance of power, this paper, will focus on one facet of science and technology - specifically, cognitive neuroscience and related neurotechnology. The elements essential to achieve such a dramatic shift in the balance of intellectual capital exist - what is lacking is a vision to bring these pieces together, motivated by a desire to build upon our intellectual capital as the means to assure global dominance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduces the articles included in the special of issue of the "International Journal of Psychology" on Chinese psychology. Unique perspective on psychology and psychological issues; Papers reporting contributions made by Chinese psychologists in different fields of psychology; Developmental psychology; Cognitive neuroscience; Chinese language and mathematics learning; Biopsychology.

During the past decade, cognitive neuroscience has been calling for population diversity to address the challenge of validity and generalizability, ushering in a new era of population neuroscience. The developing Chinese Color Nest Project (devCCNP, 2013–2022), the first ten-year stage of the lifespan CCNP (2013–2032), is a two-stages project focusing on brain-mind development. The project aims to create and share a large-scale, longitudinal and multimodal dataset of typically developing children and adolescents (ages 6.0–17.9 at enrolment) in the Chinese population. The devCCNP houses not only phenotypes measured by demographic, biophysical, psychological and behavioural, cognitive, affective, and ocular-tracking assessments but also neurotypes measured with magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of brain morphometry, resting-state function, naturalistic viewing function and diffusion structure. This Data Descriptor introduces the first data release of devCCNP including a total of 864 visits from 479 participants. Herein, we provided details of the experimental design, sampling strategies, and technical validation of the devCCNP resource. We demonstrate and discuss the potential of a multicohort longitudinal design to depict normative brain growth curves from the perspective of developmental population neuroscience. The devCCNP resource is shared as part of the "Chinese Data-sharing Warehouse for In-vivo Imaging Brain" in the Chinese Color Nest Project (CCNP) – Lifespan Brain-Mind Development Data Community (https://ccnp.scidb.cn) at the Science Data Bank. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While internal migration is widely occurring in countries across the world and older people are more likely to be left behind by family members who out-migrated to other locations, little attention has been paid to the cognitive health of those people who have been left behind (PLB). Understanding how these demographic patterns relate to older persons’ cognitive health may inform efforts to reduce the disease burden due to cognitive decline. Data came from the China Health and Nutrition Survey in 1997, 2000 and 2004. Participants aged 55 to 93 who participated in a cognitive function screening test (score range: 0–31) in two or more waves and provided information on family members’ migration (n = 1,267) were included in the analysis. A mixed linear model was used to investigate the association between being left behind by any members who had not resided in the household for at least 6 months at baseline and cognitive function. Approximately 10% of the participants had been left behind by family members who migrated out of their communities. A significant interaction was observed in relation to cognitive function between being left behind and the number of years from the first test. Specifically, there was a less steep decline in cognitive function of PLB compared to people not left behind. This longitudinal study showed that PLB tended to have a higher cognitive function compared to those not left behind due to their relatively stable transition in cognitive function during the study period. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Chinese consumers’ craze about imported products, especially foods and drugs, peaked after various safety incidents, such as the contamination of Chinese dairy products. Recently, this boom has gradually receded because of the constant quality problems of imported products and the stricter safety supervision of domestic products. Researchers have measured consumer’s perception toward domestic and imported products in various ways. In the current research, we investigated whether the country-of-origin stereotype has weakened in Chinese young consumers at the neurological level. By using a word-pair paradigm, 21 young participants were required to classify positive or negative words while event-related potentials were recorded. The results showed that reaction time to identify negative words following presentation of imported products (imported-negative condition) was longer than domestic products (domestic-negative condition). The amplitudes of N270 and LPP evoked in the imported-negative condition were significantly larger than those in the domestic-negative condition, possibly reflecting the higher expectation conflict when participate identified the adjectives as negative primed by imported healthy-related products. These findings revealed that young Chinese consumers still evaluated imported products better than domestic products. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To examine the correlation between birth season and early childhood development. Background: Almost all previous studies that examine the effect of birth season on early childhood development were conducted in developed countries with a limited sample size. The present study was conducted in poor, rural areas of western China, a developing region with a continental monsoon climate. Method: We administered a hemoglobin test to 650 infants (52% boys), aged 8–10 months, using a Hemocue Hb 201+ finger prick system, and assessed the cognitive and psychomotor development of sample infants using Bayley Scales of Infant Development. Results: Infants born in winter have higher Hb concentrations (t = 3.63, p < 0.001) compared to infants born in summer. Similarly, cognitive development scores (t = 5.17, p < 0.001) and psychomotor development scores (t = 10.60, p < 0.001) were significantly higher among winter-born infants. Conclusion: The findings point to the involvement of birth season in early childhood development and suggest that aspects of the environment shape the experiences that contribute to early childhood development. Policy suggestions such as providing infants with ample opportunities for movement and stimulation during the cold season are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: Cognitive deficits are common after aneurysmal subarachnoid haemorrhage (aSAH), and clinical evaluation is important for their management. Our hypothesis was that the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCa) is superior to the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) in screening for cognitive domain deficit in aSAH patients. Methods: We carried out a prospective observational and diagnostic accuracy study on Hong Kong aSAH patients aged 21 to 75 years who had been admitted within 96 hours of ictus. The domain-specific neuropsychological assessment battery, the MoCA and MMSE were administered 2–4 weeks and 1 year after ictus. A cognitive domain deficit was defined as a cognitive domain z score <−1.65 (below the fifth percentile). Cognitive impairment was defined as two or more cognitive domain deficits. The study is registered at ClinicalTrials.gov of the US National Institutes of Health (NCT01038193). Results: Both the MoCA and the MMSE were successful in differentiating between patients with and without cognitive domain deficits and cognitive impairment at both assessment periods. At 1 year post-ictus, the MoCA produced higher area under the curve scores for cognitive impairment than the MMSE (MoCA, 0.92; 95% CI, 0.83 to 0.97 versus MMSE, 0.77; 95% CI, 0.66 to 0.83, p = 0.009). Interpretation: Cognitive domain deficits and cognitive impairment in patients with aSAH can be screened with the MoCA in both the subacute and chronic phases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to develop normative data of a battery of neuropsychological tests in the mainland Chinese population, we examined the performance of 15 neuropsychological tests in 465 healthy subjects (231 males and 234 females) in a population-based cohort study. The years of education were ranged between 1 and 23 years, and ages were ranged between 16 and 75 years old. The 15 neuropsychological tests cover five domains of neurocognitive functions including attention and speed of information processing, memory and learning, verbal function, visual constructive abilities, and executive function. We also assessed the effects of gender, age, educational attainment on the performance of these neuropsychological tests. The results showed that, as expected, educational attainment and age are the two main factors affecting performance in these tests. Educational attainment has the strongest predictive effect on all tests, while the majority of tests selected in this study are also affected by age at examination to varying degrees. The presented normative data will be useful for future studies in related clinical research, and be of value in transcultural neuropsychological studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]