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Background: Patient orientation in the decision-making process for the best treatment, but patient participation in research projects, are more required., Methods: In a multi-center prospective cross-sectional study, ENT patients completed a layman-friendly questionnaire with questions on patient orientation, evidence-based medicine, need for research, and health literacy. The survey was performed during an ENT awareness week in June 2021 in 27 ENT practices, 18 ENT clinics and 14 university ENT departments., Results: 2023 patient responses (46% female; 49% 46-75 years old; 40% in ENT practice) were evaluated. The most commonly reported ENT diseases were sensory disorders (16.8%), or tumors (12.7%), Shared decision-making was the favored process for treatment decisions (43.5%). Sufficient time to talk was cited as the most important element of the relationship (15.8%). Most participants felt well informed about treatment steps (42.4%). For electronic searches, general search engines were primarily used (50.3%). Three-quarters of participants (73.7%) had never participated in a study before. About two-thirds (62.8%) could not imagine doing so in the future. Factors such as gender, age, schooling, or location of the survey were associated with different response behaviors., Discussion: The desire for patient orientation is also high among ENT patients and frequently implemented by ENT doctors in practice and clinic. Especially, patients with lower education level should be more involved in the planning of studies in order to provide opportunities for participation in accordance with the recommendations of the funding institutions., Competing Interests: Die Autorinnen/Autoren geben an, dass kein Interessenkonflikt besteht., (Thieme. All rights reserved.)

Despite a growing number of studies, the neurophysiology of adult vocabulary acquisition is still poorly understood. One reason is that paradigms that can easily be combined with neuroscientfic methods are rare. Here, we tested the efficiency of two paradigms for vocabulary (re-) acquisition, and compared the learning of novel words for actions and objects. Cortical networks involved in adult native-language word processing are widespread, with differences postulated between words for objects and actions. Words and what they stand for are supposed to be grounded in perceptual and sensorimotor brain circuits depending on their meaning. If there are specific brain representations for different word categories, we hypothesized behavioural differences in the learning of action-related and object-related words. Paradigm A, with the learning of novel words for body-related actions spread out over a number of days, revealed fast learning of these new action words, and stable retention up to 4 weeks after training. The single-session Paradigm B employed objects and actions. Performance during acquisition did not differ between action-related and object-related words (time*word category: p = 0.01), but the translation rate was clearly better for object-related (79%) than for action-related words (53%, p = 0.002). Both paradigms yielded robust associative learning of novel action-related words, as previously demonstrated for object-related words. Translation success differed for action- and object-related words, which may indicate different neural mechanisms. The paradigms tested here are well suited to investigate such differences with neuroscientific means. Given the stable retention and minimal requirements for conscious effort, these learning paradigms are promising for vocabulary re-learning in brain-lesioned people. In combination with neuroimaging, neuro-stimulation or pharmacological intervention, they may well advance the understanding of language learning to optimize therapeutic strategies.

The idea that knowledge of events entails a universal spatial component, that is conceiving agents left of patients, was put to test by investigating native users of German sign language and native users of spoken German. Participants heard or saw event descriptions and had to illustrate the meaning of these events by means of drawing or arranging toys. Two types of verbs were tested, differing in the way they are signed. Verbs with a horizontal transient are typically signed with a left-to-right directionality, from the addressee's point of view. In contrast, verbs with sagittal transients display transitions moving toward or away from speaker. Signers showed a direct mapping preference for verbs with horizontal transients, by putting agents at the same position in space as in the signed message (i.e., mirroring signing space). No such effect was found for verbs with sagittal transients. In all, the data fit with the idea that interpretations of signed or spoken languages are modulated by task and culture as well as language-related factors and constraints., (© The Author 2011. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved.)

Recently, researchers reported a bias for placing agents predominantly on the left side of pictures. Both hemispheric specialization and cultural preferences have been hypothesized to be the origin of this bias. To evaluate these hypotheses, we conducted a study with participants exposed to different reading and writing systems: Germans, who use a left-to-right system, and Israelis, who use a right-to-left system. In addition, we manipulated the degree of exposure to the writing systems by testing preschoolers and adults. Participants heard agent-first or recipient-first sentences and were asked to draw the content of the sentences or to arrange transparencies of protagonists and objects such that their arrangement depicted the sentences. Although preschool-age children in both countries showed no directional bias, adults manifested a bias that was consistent with the writing system of their language. These results support the cultural hypothesis regarding the origin of spatial-representational biases.

Objectives: Event-related potential correlates of phonological encoding - as compared with lexical access and semantic categorization - were measured in two studies involving two groups of 14 German and 14 Italian subjects., Methods: A two stimulus reaction time paradigm was used. Stimulus pairs presented one-by-one with 2 s inter-stimulus intervals (ISI) had to be matched with respect to lexical identity (word-picture) in a word comprehension task or with respect to the phonological representative of objects in a rhyming task. A semantic categorization task was added for the Italian sample. In both studies, the EEG was recorded from 26 scalp electrodes according to the 10-20 system. The slow negative potential during the ISI (CNV) was determined as the electrocortical correlate of preparation for and activation of the specific language-related task., Results: In both samples, phonological encoding (rhyming) evoked a more pronounced CNV over the left- compared with the right-frontal area, while less lateralized central dominance of the CNV was found in the word comprehension task. Semantic categorization was accompanied by the least asymmetry of activity., Conclusions: Results indicate that the different degree of asymmetry induced by phonological and semantic processing may be determined from the scalp distribution of slow cortical potentials with cross-lingual reliability.