Right-hemispheric cortical contributions to language ability in healthy adults

In this study we investigated the correlation between individual linguistic ability based on performance levels and their engagement of typical and atypical language areas in the brain. Eighteen healthy subjects between 21 and 64 years participated in language ability tests, and subsequent functional MRI scans measuring brain activity in response to a sentence completion and a word fluency task. Performance in both reading and high-level language tests correlated positively with increased right-hemispheric activation in the inferior frontal gyrus (specifically Brodmann area 47), the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC), and the medial temporal gyrus (Brodmann area 21). In contrast, we found a negative correlation between performance and left-hemispheric DLPFC activation.Our findings indicate that the right lateral frontal and right temporal regions positively modulate aspects of language ability.     

Medical ethics in Sweden

In this article a brief overview is given of the field of medical ethics in Sweden in recent years. The presentation concentrates on the occurrence of official ethical norms for physicians, current ethical committees, the educational situation, legislation in force, and some essential features of the ethical debate on a few central issues.     

Philosophy of medicine in Scandinavia

This article presents a brief general view of the recent literature and the scholarly activity in the field of philosophy of medicine in Scandinavia. The focus of attention is not on medical ethics, but on studies on topics like decision theory, medical classification, causality, causal explanations, concept formation, and on analyses of different ideals of medical science and clinical practice. A few principal works on medical ethics are mentioned by way of introduction and a brief account of a highly topical debate on the legislation on artificial insemination in Sweden is given at the end.     

Determinism and locality in quantum mechanics

In current philosophical debate Bell's theorem is often refered to as a proof of the impossibility of determinism in nature. It is argued here that this conclusion is wrong. The main consequence of the theorem is the non-local character of quantum theory itself and it is shown how this quality leads to a contradiction with the theory of relativity. If hidden variable theories are impossible, it is so because no empirically founded interpretation at all can be compatible with both quantum mechanics and relativity.     

Interactive computation is interaction with what?: A reply to Clark

In this response essay, we argue that Andy Clark’s assessment of our position on cyborgs is rooted in a misconception of the notion of “interaction” that we advance.     

Police officers and civilians as witnesses: intergroup biases and memory performance

To compare police officers and civilians with respect to intergroup biases and memory performance in a witness situation, two versions of a film with a simulated, violent robbery were shown to experienced police officers and civilians (university students and police recruits). The perpetrator was either an immigrant or a native Swede. Results showed that the police officers were less ethnocentric in their evaluations of the perpetrator than the civilians. Moreover, police officers showed higher accuracy in their recollections of crime-relevant information in the film. It is suggested that police officers' knowledge of, and experience with, crime incidents helps them to sort out the relevant information in the situation, and this in turn enhances their memory for crime-relevant information. Policing experience may also result in reduced levels of psychological stress, giving police officers more room to form an individuated, rather than stereotypic, interpretation of the perpetrator's behaviour. Alternatively, it may be that police officers have become aware of biasing effects in the presence of outgroup members, and due to the social disapprobation such ethnocentric reactions can elicit, are more motivated to avoid or inhibit such expressions than civilians. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The Limits of Medical Practice

Theoretical Medicine and Bioethics - Should medicine be defined as the enterprise in charge of the health problems of society? If so, then any problem (individual, public, social or political) that...