算命之谜

时下外出旅游,不论是到名山古刹还是大小公园,常常会碰到算命、看手相、看面相、抽贴的算命先生。他们或是盲人,或是打扮一副仙风道骨的普通人,他们有的身边像模像样地放着一本《周易》或有关算命之类的书,或摆放着一个笔筒之类的器皿,里面放着做好的竹签,竹签上几句话,或在眼前放着几枚铜钱,专等游客上钩。十月六日,我与妻到一风景区旅游,正在一景点前休息,妻目睹一算命人正给一个大款模样的人算命,妻出于好奇,就挤进去听。架不住诱说,妻说那就给儿子抽一卦吧,给儿子算一算婚姻、事业、前途,然后报过年龄生日时辰。算命人翻翻书,闭目自言自…     

大枫树下有鬼之谜

刘家村村后有棵大枫树,相传这棵树以前吊死过人。现在随着树龄增长,根繁加果实芽发,大枫树周围有了众多小树,成为阴森森的树丛堆。也不知是何年何人先说起,说这阴森森树丛正好给吊死的人安家。从此刘家村人很少单身夜走大枫树下,要么     

佛光之谜

佛家认为,只有与佛有缘的人,才能看到佛光,因为佛光是从佛的眉宇间放射出的救世之光,吉祥之光。传说1600多年前,敦煌莫高窟建窟前曾闪现“金光”和“千佛”的奇异景象。那么,“金光”和“千佛”的出现,是“佛祖显灵”呢,还是一种自然现象?公元366年的一天傍晚,在中国西北部的甘肃省敦煌市附近的一座沙山上,“佛光”的一次偶尔出现被一个叫乐尊的和尚无意中看到了。看到“佛光”的乐尊当即跪下,并朗声发愿要把他见到“佛光”的地方变成一个令人崇敬的圣洁宝地。受这一理念的感召,经过工匠们千余年断断续续的构筑,终于成就了我们今天看到的这…     

The riddle of the Rotating-Tilted-Lines illusion

Gori and Hamburger (2006, Perception 35 853-857) devised a new visual illusion of relative motion elicited by the observer's motion. We propose that the systematic error of direction discrimination found by Lorenceau et al (1993, Vision Research 33 1207 - 1217) can explain this illusion. The neural correlate of such a systematic error with respect to the two types of neurons in the primary visual cortex, namely end-stopped and contour cells, is discussed.     

The riddle of Siegfried: exploring methods and psychological perspectives in analytical psychology

Jung's dream of the killing of Siegfried poses a riddle: why did the unconscious choose precisely Siegfried as the hero to be murdered? Jung himself declares that he does not know. This paper attempts to decipher this riddle using three distinct methodological approaches accepted by Jung, two of them in fact grounded in his theories of dream interpretation. Besides presenting some possible answers to the riddle of Siegfried, this interpretative reflection brings to light the discrepancy of the psychological perspectives created by the heterogeneity of methods within analytical psychology.     

Primate vocal production and the riddle of language evolution

Trying to uncover the roots of human speech and language has been the premier motivation to study the signalling behaviour of nonhuman primates for several decades. Focussing on the question of whether we find evidence for linguistic reference in the production of nonhuman primate vocalizations, I will first discuss how the criteria used to diagnose referential signalling have changed over time, and will then turn to the paradigmatic case of semantic communication in animals, the alarm calls of vervet monkeys, Chlorocebus pygerythrus. A recent in-depth analysis of the original material revealed that, while the alarm calls could be well distinguished, calls of similar structure were also used in within- and between-group aggression. This finding is difficult to reconcile with the idea that calls denote objects in the environment. Furthermore, nonhuman primates show only minimal signs of vocal production learning, one key prerequisite for conventionalized and symbolic communication. In addition, the structure of calls in different populations or closely related species is highly conserved. In conclusion, any continuity between nonhuman primate and human communication appears to be found at the level of the processing of signals. Why and how the ancestors of our own species one day began to talk to each other continues to be an enigma. Future research should focus on changes in the neural structure supporting volitional control over vocalizations, the gene networks associated with vocal production, and the developmental processes involved in the integration of production and perception of vocalizations.     

An epistemic solution to Goodman's new riddle of induction

Goodman'snew riddle of induction can be characterized by the following questions: What is the difference between ‘grue’ and ‘green’?; Why is the hypothesis that all emeralds are grue not lawlike?; Why is this hypothesis not confirmed by its positive instances?; and, Why is the predicate ‘grue’ not projectible? I argue in favor of epistemological answers to Goodman's questions. The notions of ‘lawlikeness’, ‘confirmation’, and ‘projectibility’ have to be relativized to (actual and counterfactual) epistemic situations that are determined by the available background information. In order to defend this thesis, I discuss an example that is less strange than the grue example. From the general conclusions of this discussion, it follows that ‘grue’ is not projectible in the actual epistemic situation, but it is projectible in certain counterfactual epistemic situations.     

German philosophy, Freud, and the riddle of the woman

After Kant's critique of empiricism, subjectivist epistemologies cropped up in 19th-century German philosophy. Schopenhauer argued that the true essence of every object was an irrational and sexual will. This underlying will distorted a subject's knowledge of the world. Schopenhauer's notion of this true essence was analogous to his portrayal of women; they too were natural, irrational, and instinctual. Nietzsche postulated a will-to-power that structured and hence distorted a chaotic world. That structureless "real" world Nietzsche symbolized as the essential "truth of a woman," a truth which for Nietzsche was unknowable to the desirous male philosopher. Freud, while maintaining belief in empirical truth, developed a psychology of mis-knowledge which had much in common with Schopenhauer's epistemology. His theory of transference grew from a need to explain how female patients libidinally distorted the reality of their male analysts. Conversely, Freud's later writings on women are hampered by the author's realization of his own precarious and subjective position as man trying to know woman. These counter-transferential concerns ultimately made the woman's psychological essence an unknowable riddle for Freud.     

抑郁的多基因遗传基础

抑郁具有复杂的、非孟德尔式的多基因遗传模式, 但是目前多数抑郁的遗传研究集中于考察单个候选基因, 不能全面揭示遗传因素的作用机制。近年来, 多基因遗传得分研究和基因−基因交互研究分别为抑郁的多基因累加效应和交互效应提供了新的证据。多基因不仅直接影响抑郁, 还通过与环境因素的交互作用影响抑郁的发生发展, 并且这一复杂交互作用存在性别差异。抑郁的内表型研究发现多基因可能通过认知因素、人格、压力荷尔蒙等间接影响个体的抑郁水平。未来研究应更加关注多基因与多种环境因素如何相互作用影响抑郁, 探索多基因遗传机制的性别差异, 考察多基因对抑郁影响随年龄的发展动态变化。     

The future of depression psychopharmacology

Along with the development of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors there has been a tremendous widening of the definition of depression and an impressive decrease in the placebo-drug difference in controlled studies. In the early 1960s, about one third of depressed patients improved with placebo and two thirds with active compounds. Current controlled studies suggest that the situation has certainly not improved. The Sequenced Treatment Alternatives to Relieve Depression Study found that response rates to new compounds after the failure of the first antidepressant are low. The monoamine hypothesis of depression was formulated in the mid 1960s based on the antidepressant efficacy of the monoamine reuptake inhibitors, monoamine oxidase inhibitors, and the depressogenic effects of reserpine as a monoamine depleter. However, no monoamine-related finding has been found that is diagnostic for depression. A second major hypothesis regarding depression has been the stress cortisol hypothesis. However, blood cortisol levels are not diagnostic of depression. Psychiatric clinicians are convinced that there are patients for whom antidepressants have made the difference between life and death. However, physicians may generalize unjustifiably based on single dramatic cases to a much larger diagnostic group. Perhaps there are many causes of different types of human sadness, and perhaps only some of these involve mechanisms related to monoamines. Thus, perhaps only some kinds of depression are responsive to monoamine affecting antidepressants..