Deviations in the emergence of representations: a neuroconstructivist framework for analysing developmental disorders

A common way of studying developmental disorders is to adopt a static neuropsychological deficit approach, in which the brain is characterized in terms of a normal brain with some parts or ‘modules’ impaired. In this paper we outline a neuroconstructivist approach in which developmental disorders are viewed as alternative developmental trajectories in the emergence of representations within neural networks. As a concrete instantiation of the assumptions underlying this general approach, we present a number of simulations in an artificial neural network model. The representations that emerge under different architectural, input and developmental timing conditions are then analysed within a multi‐dimensional state space. We explore alternative developmental trajectories in these simulations, demonstrating how initial differences in the same parameter can lead to very different outcomes, and conversely how different starting states can sometimes result in similar end states (phenotypes). We conclude that the assumptions of the neuroconstructivist approach are likely to be more appropriate for analysing developmental deviations in complex dynamic neural networks, such as the human brain.     

Why theories about developmental dyslexia require developmental designs

This article examines the importance of developmental designs in dyslexia research using a neuroconstructivist framework. According to neuroconstructivism, the lowest level of impairment should be identified as early as possible, and developmental effects on higher-level cognition examined longitudinally. A number of recent studies proposing candidate low-level impairments have not used such developmental designs. The role of normal variation in postulated causal factors on development is ignored, inadequate control groups are used, and the nature and timing of environmental inputs are not measured, even though reading is taught systematically and both reading acquisition and dyslexia vary with orthography. It is suggested here that only a phonological deficit arising from low-level auditory processing problems meets the criteria for a neuroconstructivist approach.     

Journal reviews

Articles reviewed: Astor, James: ‘Some Jungian and Freudian perspectives on the Oedipus myth and beyond’. Colman Warren: ‘That within which passes show: Hamlet and the unknowable Self’. Halberstadt-Freud H. C: ‘Electra versus Oedipus à Femininity reconsidered’. Kulish, Nancy & Holtzman, Deanna: ‘Persephone, the loss of virginity and the female Oedipus complex’ Hopkins, Linda B: ‘D. W. Winnicott's analysis of Masud Khan: a preliminary study of failures of object usage’. Miletic, Michael (ed.): ‘Perspectives on the analyst's self-disclosure during psychoanalysis’. Miletic, Michael J. (ed.): ‘Perspectives on the analyst's self-disclosure during psychoanalysis’. Ornstein, Anna: ‘The fate of narcissistic rage in psychotherapy’. Solomon, Hester McFarland: ‘Love, Paradox of Self and Other’. Stack, Carolyn: ‘The analyst's new clothes: the impact of the therapist's unconscious conflicts on the treatment process’. Von Der Tann, Matthias: ‘Was lesen Jungianer in Berlin für das Examen?’–‘What do Jungians in Berlin read for their final paper?’     

Babies' logic activity: a differential study

From a neuroconstructivist point of view based on infant cognitive development, the aim of this study is to get to know and compare the logical organization and content of the spontaneous activity of babies with alternative developmental courses (typical babies and Down's Syndrome ones). A fundamental form of logic is observed since the beginning of babies' interaction with their environment. This protologic is constructed through their organised and significative activity with the environment and it results in the elaboration of logico-mathematical and physical knowledge. Using Systematic Observation, we recorded the spontaneous activity of n=20 babies, (n=10 typical babies, n=10 Down Syndrome babies), with a cognitive developmental level of 1; 3 years (15 months). Microgenetical and statistical analyses were applied and the results obtained showed a reduced logical content and organization of the activity of Down's Syndrome babies, which corroborates and amplifies the results of previous research works. These results make evident the need to plan early educational intervention in order to optimize babies' developmental resources.     

Brain Science as the Analytic Fourth: Commentary on Paper by Michael J. Gerson

I support Michael J. Gerson’s aim to further the dialogue between neuroscience and psychoanalysis, especially in light of increasingly sophisticated brain imaging. Enhanced capabilities for simultaneous brain measurements inch interpersonal neurobiology ever closer to the psychoanalytic concept of intersubjective space. While it is inherently meaningful to distinguish between self and identity using lenses of brain science, Gerson’s argument would be significantly bolstered by a developmental perspective.     

Neural bases and development of face recognition in autism

This paper critically examines the literature on face recognition in autism, including a discussion of the neural correlates of this ability. The authors begin by selectively reviewing the behavioral and cognitive neuroscience research on whether faces are represented by a "special" behavioral and neural system-one distinct from object processing. The authors then offer a neuroconstructivist model that attempts to account for the robust finding that certain regions in the inferior temporal cortex are recruited in the service of face recognition. This is followed by a review of the evidence supporting the view that face recognition is atypical in individuals with autism. This face-recognition deficit may indicate a continued risk for the further development of social impairments. The authors conclude by speculating on the role of experience in contributing to this atypical developmental pattern and its implications for normal development of face processing.     

BOOK REVIEWS

Hermeneutics, the Bible and Literary Criticism (Studies in Literature and Religion). Edited by Ann Loades and Michael McLain. The Craft of Theology: From Symbol to System. By Avery Dulles. The Shape of Soreriology. By John McIntyre. Not the Cross But the Crucfied (Louvain Theological and Pastoral Monographs 1 1). By H.-E. Mertens. Verbum Curo: An Encyclopedia on Jesus, the Christ. By Michael O'Carroll. The Search for the Origins of Christian Worship: Sources and Methods for the Study of the Early Liturgy. By Paul Bradshaw. Worship: Initiation and the Churches. By Leonel L. Mitchell. The Eucharistic Mystery: Revitalizing the Tradition. By David Power. Church of Churches: The Ecclesiology of Communion. By J.-M. Tillard. God and History, Aspects of British Theology 1875-1914. By Peter Hinchliff. Clear Heads and Holy Hearts: The Religious and Theological Ideal of John Henry Newman (Louvain Theological and Pastoral Monographs 7). By Terrence Merrigan. The Desert Fathers on Monastic Community. By Graham Gould. John Moschos, ‘The Spiritual Meadow’. Introduction, translation and notes by John Wortley. A Gentle Touch. By David Pailin. The Eye of the Storm: Spiritual Resources for rhe Pursuit of Justice. By Kenneth Leech. The Church and the Arts (Studies in Church History 28). Edited by Diana Wood. Anti-Christian Polemic in Early Islam: Abu Isa al-Warraq's ‘Against the Trinity’ (University of Cambridge Oriental Publications 45). Edited by David Thomas. Bernardus Magister: Papers Presented at the Nonacentenary Celebration of the Birth of St Bernard of Clairvaux (Cistercian Studies Series 135). Edited by John R. Sommerfeldt. Church and City 1000-1500: Essays in Honour of Christopher Brooke. Edited by David Abulafia, Michael Franklin and Miri Rubin. ‘Piers Plowman’ and the Problem of Belief. By Britton J. Harwood. Ignutius of Luyola: The Psychology of a Saint. By W. W. Meissner. Jerome Naahl, S. J., 1507-1580: Tracking the First Generation of Jesuits. By William V. Bangert, edited and completed by Thomas M. McCoog. From Bishop to Witch: The System of the Sacred in Early Modern Terra d'Otranto. By David Gentilcore. Civic Politics in the Rome of Urban VIII. By Laurie Nussdorfer. Michel de Montaigne: The Complete Essays. Translated by M. A. Screech. Montaigne and Melancholy: The Wisdom of the ‘Essays’. By M. A. Screech. Religion and Philosophy (Royal Institute of Philosophy Supplements 31). Edited by Martin Warner. What is Faith? Essays in the Philosophy of Religion. By Anthony Kenny. Truth and Hisroriciry. By Richard Campbell.     

Book Reviews

Books reviewed:
George E. Marcus, W. Russell Newman, and Michael MacKuen, Affective Intelligence and Political Judgment
Micha Popper, Hypnotic Leadership:Leaders, Followers, and the Loss of Self
James W. Davis, Jr., Threats and Promises: The Pursuit of International Influence
Mark R. Warren, Dry Bones Rattling: Community Building to Revitalize American Democracy
Tali Mendelberg, The Race Card: Campaign Strategy, Implicit Messages, and the Norm of Equality     

Reviews

Book reviews in this article:
Science and Relipon, A Critical Survey. By H olmes R olston , 111.
Two Faces of Time. By L awrence W. F agg .
Science and Religious Thought: A Darwinian Case Study. By W alter J. W ilkins .
Jung's Treatment of Christianity. The Psychotherapy of a Religious Tradition. By M urray S tein . Wilmette, III.
Polanyian Meditations: In Search of a Post-Critical Lopc. By W illiam H. P oteat .
Michael Polanyi: A Critical Exposition By H arry P rosch .     

A review on eye movement studies in childhood and adolescent psychiatry

The neural substrates of eye movement measures are largely known. Therefore, measurement of eye movements in psychiatric disorders may provide insight into the underlying neuropathology of these disorders. Visually guided saccades, antisaccades, memory guided saccades, and smooth pursuit eye movements will be reviewed in various childhood psychiatric disorders. The four aims of this review are (1) to give a thorough overview of eye movement studies in a wide array of psychiatric disorders occurring during childhood and adolescence (attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, oppositional deviant disorder and conduct disorder, autism spectrum disorders, reading disorder, childhood-onset schizophrenia, Tourette’s syndrome, obsessive compulsive disorder, and anxiety and depression), (2) to discuss the specificity and overlap of eye movement findings across disorders and paradigms, (3) to discuss the developmental aspects of eye movement abnormalities in childhood and adolescence psychiatric disorders, and (4) to present suggestions for future research. In order to make this review of interest to a broad audience, attention will be given to the clinical manifestation of the disorders and the theoretical background of the eye movement paradigms.     

SHORT NOTICES

Why God? Thinking Through Faith, Jim Thompson The Mandate of Heaven: The Divine Command and the Natural Order, Michael Keeling, T. & T. Clark The Times Best Sermons of 1996, Ruth Gledhill (ed.) Calendar: Christ's Time for the Church, Laurence Hull Stookey The ‘Obscrurism’ of Light: A Theological Study into the Nature of Light, Iain M. MacKenzie The Beginning and the End of ‘Religion’, Nicholas Lash Clinging to Faith, Peter D. Bishop Walter Benjamin and the Bible, Brian Britt Religion and Rational Theology: The Cambridge Edition of the Works of Immanuel Kant, Allen W. Wood and George di Giovanni (eds) The New God-Image: a Study of Jung's Key Letters conceming the Evolution of the Western God-Image, Edward F. Edinger Zeal for Truth and Tolerance, Jan Mili? Lochman Qumran Cave 4 XIII: The Damascus Document (4Q266–273) (Discoveries in the Judaean Desert XVIII), Joseph Barmgarten (ed.) Mark Pryce, Finding a Voice: Men, Women and the Community of the Church     

Cognitive neuroscience: the biology of the mind and findings and current opinion in cognitive neuroscience

Cognitive Neuroscience: The Biology of the Mind by Michael Gazzaniga, Richard Ivry and George Mangun, W.W. Norton, 1998. ￡24.95 (xv+587 pages) ISBN 0 393 97219 4 Findings and Current Opinion in Cognitive Neuroscience by Larry Squire and Stephen Kosslyn, MIT Press, 1998. $35.00 (vii+381 pages) ISBN 0 262 69204 X.     

REVIEWS

The Origins of Christian Morality: The First Two Centuries, Wayne A. Meeks Christian Ethics: A Historical Introduction, J. Philip Wogaman Sexual Chaos, Tim Stafford Promise or Pretence? A Christian's Guide to Sexual Morals, A. E. Harvey Church in Black and White, John L. Wilkinson A Tale of Two Missions, Michael Goulder The Buddha and Christ: Explorations in Buddhist and Christian Dialogue, Leo D. Lefebure Living the Mystery: Affirming Catholicism and the Future of Anglicanism, Jeffrey John (ed.) The Anglican Parochial Clergy: A Celebration, Michael Hinton The Gospel and the Sacred: Poetics of Violence in Mark, Robert Hamerton-Kelly Who Would a Teacher Be? Wrestling with Religious Education (Wounded Pilgrim Series), Clare Richards, Darton, Longman & Todd Catholic Social Thought and the New World Order, Oliver F. Williams and John W. Hauck (eds) Can Virtue be Taught?, Barbara Darling-Smith (ed.) The Rise and Decline of the Scholastic ‘Quaestio Disputata’: With Special Emphasis on its Use in the Teaching of Medicine and Science, Brian Lawn, E. J. Brill The Orthodox Corruption of Scripture, Bart D. Ehrman The Church: The Universal Sacrament of Salvation, Johann Auer Ace of Freedoms: Thomas Merton's Christ, George Kilcourse Retrieving Fundamental Theology: The Three Styles of Contemporary Theology, Gerald O'Collins     

Peer Commentaries on Andreas Demetriou,Smaragda Kazi and Stelios Georgiou’s The emerging self: the convergence of mind,personality and thinking styles

Ference Marton, The mind’s mind, p.410 Robert J. Sternberg, Some divergent thoughts on a convergent model, p.411 Cornelis F.M. van Lieshout, Self, mind, personality and thinking styles: just expressions of a single cognitive system?, p.413 Elizabeth C. Hair and William G. Graziano, What are the developmental origins of the emerging slf?, p.415 Jens B. Asendorpf, Commentary on ‘The emerging self’ by Demotriou et al, p.416     

Book Reviews

Book reviewed in this article:
Freud and Psychoanalysis. By W. W. Meissner.
Psychoanalysis and Culture: A Kleinian Perspective. Edited by David Bell.
Sigmund Freud, 1886-1897. Psychanalystes d'aujourd'hui. By Françoise Coblence.
Sigmund Freud, 1897-1904. Psychanalystes d'aujourd'hui. By Laurence Kahn
Sigmund Freud, 1905-1920. Psychanalystes d'aujourd'hui. By Paul Denis
Sigmund Freud, 1920-1939. Psychanalystes d'aujourd'hui. By Ruth Menahem.
Psychoanalytic Participation, Action, Interaction, and Integration. By Kenneth A. Frank.
The Possession at Loudun. By Michel de Certeau. Translated by Michael B. Smith.
Le temps eéclaté [Exploded time]. By André Green.
Anna Freud: A View of Development, Disturbance and Therapeutic Techniques. By Rose Edgcumbe.
Politics on the Couch: Citizenship and the Internal Life. By Andrew Samuels.
Freudian Repression. By Michael Billig.     

Reviews

Abstract

Selected review of current books on sexuality and sex therapy, John P. Wincze, Brown University/V.A. Hospital, Providence

Becoming Orgasmic: A Program of Sexual Growth for Women. Heiman, J., LoPiccolo, L., and LoPiccolo, J. New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, 1976.

Female and Male: Dimensions of Human Sexuality. Pierson, E. and D'Antonio, W. New York: J.B. Lippincott Co., 1974.

Medical Aspects of Human Sexuality. Lief, H.I. Baltimore: The Williams and Wilkins Co., 1975.

Sex After Sixty. Butler, R. and Lewis, M. New York: Harper and Row, 1976.

Sex Therapy at Home. Kass, D. and Stauss, F. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1975.

SIECUS Study Guides. Sex Information and Education Council of the United States. New York, 1976 (6th printing).

Adulthood and aging: An interdisciplinary developmental view, Douglas Kimmel, New York, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 1974, $12.50, 484 pages

Permanent weight control: A total solution to the dieter's dilemma, Michael J. Mahoney, Kathryn Mahoney, New York, W.W. Norton and Co., Inc., 1976, $7.95, 177 pages     

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The editors of Human Performance express their appreciation to the following people who served as ad hoc reviewers for the Volume 15 submissions: Maureen L. Ambrose Blake Ashforth Leanne E. Atwater John W. Boudreau Allan H. Church Jeanette N. Cleveland James M. Conway David P. Costanza David V. Day Rick DeShon Andris Freivalds Deborah Gebhardt Alicia A. Grandey Madeline E. Heilman Leaetta M. Hough Daniel R. Ilgen Bradley L. Kirkman Howard J. Klein Charles E. Lance Gary P. Latham Jeffery A. LePine Paul E. Levy Edwin A. Locke Joseph J. Martocchio Rodney A. McCloy Michael A. McDaniel Michael D. McNeese Michael D. Mumford Delbert M. Nebeker George A. Neuman Thomas Nygren Deniz S. Ones Cheri Ostroff Robert E. Ployhart Philip M. Podsakoff Miguel A. Quiñones Roni Reiter-Palmon Chet Robie Joseph Rosse Paul Sackett Benjamin Schneider James W. Smither Andrea F. Snell Alexander D. Stajkovic Robert M. Stern Paul Tesluk George C. Thornton III Jeff A. Weekley James D. Westaby Robert Williges Robert Wood Patrick M. Wright     

The experience of the tacit in multi- and interdisciplinary collaboration

In exploring his concept of interactional expertise in the context of managers of big science projects, Collins identifies the development and deployment tacit knowledge as central, but acknowledges that sociologically, he cannot probe the concept further in developmental or pedagogical directions. In using the term tacit knowledge, Collins relies on the concept as articulated by Michael Polanyi. In coining the term, Polanyi acknowledges his reliance on Heidegger’s concept of being-in-the-world. This paper explores how Polanyi, and so Collins, fails to adequately ground the idea of the tacit in Heidegger’s hermeneutic phenomenology. In so doing, it employs a rereading of Being and Time to phenomenologically resituate the tacit. This resituating of the tacit allows us to go further than Collins in providing developmental and pedagogical approaches to the tacit in the context of the kind of interactional expertise that may be employed to enhance the effectiveness of collaborative, multi-and interdisciplinary teams like those found in team science and in professional settings like healthcare management. As illustrative, the paper provides an example of this resituated understanding of the tacit in the author’s work teaching in a multidisciplinary healthcare management program.     

Jaina Logic and the Philosophical Basis of Pluralism

Michael Dummett, Frege and other philosophers. Oxford:Clarendon Press, 1991. xii + 330pp. £35. ISBN

W.Balzer and C.U.Moulines (eds,), Structuralist theory of science:focal issues, new results, Berlin; de Gruyter, 1996. xi + 295 pp.DM 210. ISBN 3-11-014075-6

Henry Prakken, Logical tools for modeling legal argument a study of defeasible reasoning in law.Dordrecht, The Netherlands:Kluwer Academic, 1997, xiii + 314pp.£75.00/$125.00

J.Srzednicki and Z.Stachniak (eds.) Lesniewski’s Systems.Protothetic.Nijhoff International Philosophy Series, 54, Dordrecht, Boston and London:Kluwer, 1998. xiv + 310 pp, £99 (cloth). ISBN 0-7923-4504-5     

SHORT NOTICES

The School Tradition of the Old Testament (Bampton Lectures 1994), E. W. Heaton Augustine (Outstanding Christian Thinkers Series), Mary T. Clark The Church as Polis: From Political Theology to Theological Politics as Exemplified by Jürgen Moltmann and Stanley Hauerwas , Arne Rasmussen Pantheism: A Non-theistic Concept of Deity , Michael P. Levine Religion in Britain since 1945: Believing without Belonging , Grace Davie Sarah Laughed , Trevor Dennis John's Gospel , Mark W. G. Stibbe Ephesians , Martin Kitchen II Thessalonians, Maarten J. J. Menken The Catholic Faith , Richard Conrad Faith and Criticism , Basil Mitchell Emotion and Spirit: Questioning the Claims of Psychoanalysis and Religion , Neville Symington