Family Therapy in Trouble: Psychoeducation as Solution and as Problem

The authors cite clinical literature attesting to the importance of recognizing the family, rather than the individual, as the proper locus of conceptualizing, diagnosing, and treating mental illnesses. Specifically with regard to severe psychiatric illnesses, in particular schizophrenia, family dysfunction contributes to the emergence of the illness, significantly affects its course, and strongly influences the achievement and maintenance of treatment gains. Currently, a movement is afoot to limit sharply the amount and kind of treatment offered to schizophrenic patients and their families. Rooted in a “medical model” or “biogenic” view of the etiology of schizophrenia, this school of thought prescribes psychoeducation as the family treatment of choice. The present article looks at some misconceptions regarding treatment that prompted a widespread turning away from psychoanalytically oriented family psychotherapy for schizophrenic patients and their families, examines the reductionism (biological and behavioral) inhering in the exclusive use of psychoeducation, and looks at the clinical dangers of such reductionism. Finally, it proposes that family psycho-therapists should not abandon a concern with the inner lives of severely ill patients and their families in the face of spuriously generalized claims made by reductionist researchers.     

Beyond cognitive myopia: a patchwork approach to the concept of neural function

In this paper, I argue that looking at the concept of neural function through the lens of cognition alone risks cognitive myopia: it leads neuroscientists to focus only on mechanisms with cognitive functions that process behaviorally relevant information when conceptualizing “neural function”. Cognitive myopia tempts researchers to neglect neural mechanisms with noncognitive functions which do not process behaviorally relevant information but maintain and repair neural and other systems of the body. Cognitive myopia similarly affects philosophy of neuroscience because scholars overlook noncognitive functions when analyzing issues surrounding e.g., functional decomposition or the multifunctionality of neural structures. I argue that we can overcome cognitive myopia by adopting a patchwork approach that articulates cognitive and noncognitive “patches” of the concept of neural function. Cognitive patches describe mechanisms with causally specific effects on cognition and behavior which are likely operative in transforming sensory or other inputs into motor outputs. Noncognitive patches describe mechanisms that lack such specific effects; these mechanisms are enabling conditions for cognitive functions to occur. I use these distinctions to characterize two noncognitive functions at the mesoscale of neural circuits: subsistence functions like breathing are implemented by central pattern generators and are necessary to maintain the life of the organism. Infrastructural functions like gain control are implemented by canonical microcircuits and prevent neural system damage while cognitive processing occurs. By adding conceptual patches that describe these functions, a patchwork approach can overcome cognitive myopia and help us explain how the brain’s capacities as an information processing device are constrained by its ability to maintain and repair itself as a physiological apparatus.     

Neural reuse: a fundamental organizational principle of the brain

An emerging class of theories concerning the functional structure of the brain takes the reuse of neural circuitry for various cognitive purposes to be a central organizational principle. According to these theories, it is quite common for neural circuits established for one purpose to be exapted (exploited, recycled, redeployed) during evolution or normal development, and be put to different uses, often without losing their original functions. Neural reuse theories thus differ from the usual understanding of the role of neural plasticity (which is, after all, a kind of reuse) in brain organization along the following lines: According to neural reuse, circuits can continue to acquire new uses after an initial or original function is established; the acquisition of new uses need not involve unusual circumstances such as injury or loss of established function; and the acquisition of a new use need not involve (much) local change to circuit structure (e.g., it might involve only the establishment of functional connections to new neural partners). Thus, neural reuse theories offer a distinct perspective on several topics of general interest, such as: the evolution and development of the brain, including (for instance) the evolutionary-developmental pathway supporting primate tool use and human language; the degree of modularity in brain organization; the degree of localization of cognitive function; and the cortical parcellation problem and the prospects (and proper methods to employ) for function to structure mapping. The idea also has some practical implications in the areas of rehabilitative medicine and machine interface design.     

Treatment of cognitive impairment in multiple sclerosis

Cognitive impairment in multiple sclerosis is an increasingly recognized entity. This article reviews the cognitive impairment of multiple sclerosis, its prevalence, its relationship to different types of multiple sclerosis, and its contribution to long-term functional prognosis. The discussion also focuses on the key elements of cognitive dysfunction in multiple sclerosis which distinguish it from other forms of cognitive impairment. Therapeutic interventions potentially effective for the cognitive impairment of multiple sclerosis are reviewed including the effects of disease modifying therapies and the use of physical and cognitive interventions.     

Ten years of the rational analysis of cognition

Rational analysis is an empirical program that attempts to explain the function and purpose of cognitive processes. This article looks back on a decade of research outlining the rational analysis methodology and how the approach relates to other work in cognitive science. We illustrate rational analysis by considering how it has been applied to memory and reasoning. From the perspective of traditional cognitive science, the cognitive system can appear to be a rather arbitrary assortment of mechanisms with equally arbitrary limitations. In contrast, rational analysis views cognition as intricately adapted to its environment and to the problems it faces.     

The level of frontal-temporal beta-2 band EEG synchronization distinguishes anterior cingulate cortex from other frontal regions

Recent findings indicate that complex cognitive functions are organized at a global level in the brain and rely on large-scale information processing requiring functional integration of multiple disparate neural assemblies. The critical question of the integration of distributed brain activities is whether the essential integrative role can be attributed to a specific structure in the brain or whether this ability is inherent to the cognitive network as a whole. The results of the present study show that mean values of the running correlation function in frontal-temporal EEG pairs with one electrode in the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) are significantly higher than the same values in other frontal-temporal pairs. These findings indicate a particular role of the ACC in large-scale communication, which could reflect its unique integrative functions in cognitive processing.     

Using a Fork as a Hairbrush: Investigating Dual Routes to Release from Functional Fixedness

Functional fixedness involves difficulty with conceptualizing creative object uses. When it obstructs problem‐solving, individuals must reframe their approach. We examined how different training techniques—chunk decomposition (i.e., considering an object’s basic parts and physical properties) and constraint relaxation (i.e., considering an object’s different functions)—might rely upon different routes to creative reframing. Additionally, we investigated how different forms of cognitive load interact with these dual routes. Participants learned one of three techniques. Chunk decomposition participants created object breakdown diagrams; constraint relaxation participants created object functions lists; and free association (control) participants wrote a word that they associated with each of several concrete nouns. After training, participants attempted to solve five functional fixedness problems. E1 investigated how increasing germane cognitive load via either direct or indirect prompting affected training transfer. Experiment 2 investigated how reducing extraneous cognitive load by providing no transfer instructions and using an eye‐closure strategy. Across both experiments, results supported differences in accuracy and response latency by training. However, chunk decomposition and constraint relaxation did not follow the same pattern, suggesting different mechanisms of the effect. We discuss possible applications to increase innovation in real‐world domains such as education, business, and engineering.     

Concepts do more than categorize

Concepts underlie all higher-level cognitive processes. Until recently, the study of concepts has largely been the study of categorization. But categorization is only one conceptual function among several. We argue that concepts cannot be understood sufficiently through the study of categorization, or any other function, in isolation, for two important reasons. First, concepts serve multiple functions which interact to affect conceptual structure and processing. Second, studying a single function in isolation encourages one to see cognitive processes that are particular to each function, but discourages the discovery of processes that are common to multiple functions. For these two reasons, we suggest that concepts should instead be studied in the context of a system of interrelated functions.     

Novels as Social Media: How Literature Helped Shape Notions of Sexual Liberation

In the historiography of sexual liberation, the role of cultural artefacts like novels and films has either been taken for granted or not received much attention at all. This article discusses these cultural dimensions of sexual liberation, using the Netherlands as a case study, arguing that these dimensions are important to research in order to better understand the (self-)fashioning of a sexually liberated subject. The seemingly close ties between literature and societal transformations in the sixties is remarkable and points to the function of literature in the 1945–1980 period, when novels functioned as an important social platform for broaching moral controversies and articulated seminal cultural repertoires for identity construction. The article analyses the ways literature functions in Dutch cultural memory of the sexual revolution nowadays, and looks at the specific historical constellation and literary culture that provided important channels for the spreading of new ideas in the 1960s. Guiding questions to investigate the specificities of this literary culture and its function in articulating and disseminating notions of sexual liberation are: what are the functions ascribed to writers and their works in sexual transformations of the 1960s/70s? To what extent are these transformations captured in terms of national identity, or do they travel across national borders? What role do they play in cultural memory, nationally and internationally?     

Conventional naturalism: A perceptualist account of pictorial representation

This paper proposes that pictures are functional objects which figure in norm‐governed practices of usage yet whose specific function is to present the world as it looks to acculturated perceivers. Pictorial content presents the way the world looks to a subject's acculturated perceptual grasp. Hence, pictorial content needs to be explained in terms of a theory of perceptual content, but a novel theory which departs from the two‐stage sensation‐based approach to perception and the polarization between naturalism and conventionalism that it engenders. Following a diagnosis of this polarization, I invoke a novel theory of perception that explains perceptual content as conceptually articulated and determinate in character. I show that (1) pictures present content of the same distinctive determinate type as perceptual content; and that (2) pictures do so by invoking perceptual experience and perceptual processes that are of the same kind as those invoked by actual scenes. This perceptualist approach considers and explains the role of norms as well as of the nature of our visual processes, allowing us to allocate the insights of both conventionalism and naturalism to their proper theoretical roles.     

Exploring the neural basis of cognition: multi-modal links between human fMRI and macaque neurophysiology

Although functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) with sophisticated behavioral paradigms has enabled the investigation of increasingly higher-level cognitive functions in humans, these studies seem to lose touch with neurophysiological studies in macaque monkeys. The application of fMRI and other MRI-based techniques to macaque brains allows studies in the two species to be linked. fMRI in human and macaque subjects using equivalent cognitive tasks enables direct comparisons of the functional brain architecture, even for high-level cognitive functions. Combinations of functional or structural MRI and microelectrode techniques provide ways to explore functional brain networks at multiple spatiotemporal scales. These approaches would illuminate the neurophysiological underpinnings of human cognitive functions by integrating human functional neuroimaging with macaque single-unit recordings.     

Effects of interactive physical-activity video-game training on physical and cognitive function in older adults

The purpose of the present study was to assess the potential of exergame training based on physically simulated sport play as a mode of physical activity that could have cognitive benefits for older adults. If exergame play has the cognitive benefits of conventional physical activity and also has the intrinsic attractiveness of video games, then it might be a very effective way to induce desirable lifestyle changes in older adults. To examine this issue, the authors developed an active video game training program using a pretest-training-posttest design comparing an experimental group (24 × 1 hr of training) with a control group without treatment. Participants completed a battery of neuropsychological tests, assessing executive control, visuospatial functions, and processing speed, to measure the cognitive impact of the program. They were also given a battery of functional fitness tests to measure the physical impact of the program. The trainees improved significantly in measures of game performance. They also improved significantly more than the control participants in measures of physical function and cognitive measures of executive control and processing speed, but not on visuospatial measures. It was encouraging to observe that, engagement in physically simulated sport games yielded benefits to cognitive and physical skills that are directly involved in functional abilities older adults need in everyday living (e.g., Hultsch, Hertzog, Small, & Dixon, 1999).     

Darwin's mistake: explaining the discontinuity between human and nonhuman minds

Over the last quarter century, the dominant tendency in comparative cognitive psychology has been to emphasize the similarities between human and nonhuman minds and to downplay the differences as "one of degree and not of kind" (Darwin 1871). In the present target article, we argue that Darwin was mistaken: the profound biological continuity between human and nonhuman animals masks an equally profound discontinuity between human and nonhuman minds. To wit, there is a significant discontinuity in the degree to which human and nonhuman animals are able to approximate the higher-order, systematic, relational capabilities of a physical symbol system (PSS) (Newell 1980). We show that this symbolic-relational discontinuity pervades nearly every domain of cognition and runs much deeper than even the spectacular scaffolding provided by language or culture alone can explain. We propose a representational-level specification as to where human and nonhuman animals' abilities to approximate a PSS are similar and where they differ. We conclude by suggesting that recent symbolic-connectionist models of cognition shed new light on the mechanisms that underlie the gap between human and nonhuman minds.     

脑岛在成瘾中的结构和功能异常

脑岛位于大脑外侧裂的深处, 与情绪和内感受等多种心理功能有关。脑岛在成瘾中的结构变化和功能连接异常, 表明了脑岛在成瘾中的作用, 刺激脑岛区域干预成瘾也逐渐成为研究者们关注的领域。未来的研究应该通过对脑岛进行精细分割和多种方法相结合来进一步考察脑岛在成瘾中的具体作用, 并挖掘不同成瘾类型的共性和特性, 以便更好开展基于脑的成瘾干预。     

Does functional neuroimaging solve the questions of neurolinguistics?

Neurolinguistic research has been engaged in evaluating models of language using measures from brain structure and function, and/or in investigating brain structure and function with respect to language representation using proposed models of language. While the aphasiological strategy, which classifies aphasias based on performance modality and a few linguistic variables, has been the most stable, cognitive neurolinguistics has had less success in reliably associating more elaborately proposed levels and units of language models with brain structure. Functional imaging emerged at this stage of neurolinguistic research. In this review article, it is proposed that the often-inconsistent superfluity of outcomes arising from functional imaging studies of language awaits adjustment at both "ends" of the process: model and data. Assumptions that our current language models consistently and reliably represent implicit knowledge within human cerebral processing are in line for major revision; and the promise of functional brain imaging to reveal any such knowledge structures must incorporate stable correlates of the imaging signal as dependent variable.     

Integrating cognitive psychology, neurology and neuroimaging

In the last decade, there has been a dramatic increase in research effectively integrating cognitive psychology, functional neuroimaging, and behavioral neurology. This new work is typically conducting basic research into aspects of the human mind and brain. The present review features as examples of such integrations two series of studies by the author and his colleagues. One series, employing object recognition, mental motor imagery, and mental rotation paradigms, clarifies the nature of a cognitive process, imagined spatial transformations used in shape recognition. Among other implications, it suggests that when recognizing a hand's handedness, imagining one's body movement depends on cerebrally lateralized sensory-motor structures and deciding upon handedness depends on exact match shape confirmation. The other series, using cutaneous, tactile, and auditory pitch discrimination paradigms, elucidates the function of a brain structure, the cerebellum. It suggests that the cerebellum has non-motor sensory support functions upon which optimally fine sensory discriminations depend. In addition, six key issues for this integrative approach are reviewed. These include arguments for the value and greater use of: rigorous quantitative meta-analyses of neuroimaging studies; stereotactic coordinate-based data, as opposed to surface landmark-based data; standardized vocabularies capturing the elementary component operations of cognitive and behavioral tasks; functional hypotheses about brain areas that are consistent with underlying microcircuitry; an awareness that not all brain areas implicated by neuroimaging or neurology are necessarily directly involved in the associated cognitive or behavioral task; and systematic approaches to integrations of this kind.     

Analogical Reasoning in Handling Emerging Technologies: The Case of Umbilical Cord Blood Biobanking

How are we individually and as a society to handle new and emerging technologies? This challenging question underlies much of the bioethical debates of modern times. To address this question we need suitable conceptions of the new technology and ways of identifying its proper management and regulation. To establish conceptions and to find ways to handle emerging technologies we tend to use analogies extensively. The aim of this article is to investigate the role that analogies play or may play in the processes of understanding and managing new technology. More precisely we aim to unveil the role of analogies as analytical devices in exploring the “being” of the new technology as well the normative function of analogies in conceptualizing the characteristics and applications of new technology. Umbilical cord blood biobanking will be used as a case to investigate these roles and functions.     

多目标追踪在各类人群评价与训练中的应用

多目标追踪范式主要用来探讨动态情景下对多个目标的视觉注意和记忆加工过程, 早期研究侧重于追踪过程中的影响因素及加工机制。近年来, 越来越多的研究应用多目标追踪范式对各类人群进行评价与训练, 包括儿童、老年人、神经发育障碍患者、驾驶员、运动员、电子游戏玩家以及一些其他职业群体。总体来看, 多目标追踪表现越好, 在复杂快速的动态情境中的专业表现越好; 反之, 多目标追踪表现差, 标志着认知功能可能发育不成熟或出现衰退。并且, 多目标追踪还可作为认知训练的手段, 改善老年人和神经发育障碍患者的认知功能, 提高各职业人群的专业表现。未来, 多目标追踪作为评价和训练的方法还有很大的发展空间, 包括加强特殊职业人群的模拟训练, 扩展目标人群, 结合立体视觉和真实场景, 结合身体活动, 探索多人合作的多目标追踪, 拓展用于进行情绪和社会功能的评价与训练等。