Variation in the serotonin transporter gene modulates selective attention to threat

The 5-HTTLPR is an insertion/deletion polymorphism in the promoter region of the serotonin transporter gene. Prior research has revealed associations between the short-allele variant of this polymorphism, enhanced self-reported negative emotionality, and hypersensitivity of fear relevant neural circuits. In a sample of 50 healthy women we examined the role of 5-HTTLPR for cognitive-affective processing of phylogenetical fear-relevant stimuli (spiders) in a dot probe task. In contrast to homozygote long-allele carriers (ll), participants carrying at least 1 short allele (ss and sl) selectively shifted attention toward pictures of spiders, when these were presented for a duration of 2,000 ms. These results argue for an involvement of 5-HTTLPR in cognitive processing of threatening stimuli and thus, underpin its general role for individual differences in negative affect.     

Using statistical smoothing to estimate the psycholinguistic acceptability of novel phrases

Native speakers of languages perceive differences in the acceptability of phrases even when those phrases are both grammatical and novel (previously unseen). We suggest that smoothing, a statistical technique used by natural language processing engineers, provides several candidate mechanisms for investigating this phenomenon. We describe the creation of a large data set of predictions from several smoothing algorithms about the acceptability of unseen grammatical phrases and a novel experimental method for the pairwise comparison of these models. We use this method to compare three smoothing methods and consider the results in light of the differences among the models. We argue that the data support the idea that similarity in this domain is best thought of as a form of asymmetric representational distortion and that the informational basis over which such estimates are made is broad, rather than narrow, as has been previously suggested.     

The sensitivity of a palm-based psychomotor vigilance task to severe sleep loss

In this study, we evaluated the sensitivity of a 5-min personal digital assistant-psychomotor vigilance test (PDA-PVT) to severe sleep loss. Twenty-one participants completed a 10-min PVT-192 and a 5-min PDA-PVT at two hourly intervals during 62 h of sustained wakefulness. For both tasks, response speed and number of lapses (RTs > 500) per minute significantly increased with increasing hours of wakefulness. Overall, standardized response speed scores on the 5-min PDA-PVT closely tracked those of the PVT-192; however, the PDA-PVT was generally associated with more lapses/minute. Closer inspection of the data indicated that when the level of sleep loss and fatigue became more severe (i.e., Day 3), the 5-min PDA-PVT was not quite as sensitive as the 10-min PVT-192 when 2- to 10-sec foreperiods were used for both. It is likely, however, that the observed differences between the two devices was due to differences in task length. Thus, the findings provide further evidence of the validity of the 5-min PDA-PVT as a substitute for the 10-min PVT-192, particularly in circumstances in which a shorter test is required and/or the PVT-192 is not as practical.     

争论

对语言的关注是后期海德格尔思想的一个基本主题。语言不应当是私人性的,一个思想者不可能脱离其语言,但他必须脱离他的话语,而问自己:谁在说话?并去倾听语言本身的言说。与之有关,本文涉及到博德尔对海德格尔关于赫拉克利特的逻各斯、以及阿那克西曼德、毕达哥拉斯、巴门尼德等人有关思想的解释的解释。从这里,我们看到,海德格尔将本源的语言看成是纯粹的语言,而博德尔则进一步将这种语言理解为智慧。     

分析哲学和向黑格尔的回归

本文以黑格尔哲学的回归为主线,通过研究分析哲学对黑格尔哲学、对唯心主义所为何物认识的不足,以及实用主义者和分析哲学的代表人物对黑格尔哲学的吸收和借鉴,说明了分析哲学在其发展的过程中由排斥到借鉴黑格尔哲学,说明了黑格尔哲学依然是可以给予我们真知灼见的哲学,同时表达了作者对于一个真理王国的渴求。作者认为唯心主义概念是一个不清晰的、值得反思的概念。作者关于知识是历史的和社会的观点分析,也是很有见地的。     

自然科学时代的道德——康德《纯粹理性批判》的一种异端的导读

作者将《纯粹理性批判》视为康德哲学的“哲学全书”,认为它不仅是对“我能够知道什么?”这一问题的回答,而且也是对理性关切的另外两个问题,即“我应该做什么?”与“我可以希望什么?”问题的回答;同时,康德对于“知识”与“希望”的探讨最终都是为道德服务的。康德通过先天综合不但解决了自然科学如何可能的问题,而且一举解决了道德及其基础———自由如何可能的问题,从而使哲学不但具有了超越时代与文化的自明的有效性,而且也展示出其道德———实践的优先性,这使得《纯粹理性批判》成为了自然科学时代具有“世界公民”性质的实践哲学。     

承认之为诠释学的要素

文章鲜明地提出了“承认”在诠释学中的地位这一问题,强调它在诠释学内显得愈来愈大的重要性。作者以他对诠释学历史具有的丰富知识和独到的见地,精彩地列举出了五大类型,并以此来论述和展示“承认”这一概念在诠释学中的地位与作用。文章连贯地在最后部分讲到诠释学研究现在所面临的问题,探讨了从这一概念来解决这些问题的可能性。作者GunterScholtz是德国鲁尔大学哲学系的教授,以研究诠释学、文化学与精神科学史见长。     

美学与作为全球化的美学

当代全球主义激起了全球范围内的美学复兴。如果说,20年前的美学还是艺术哲学和美的哲学,那么今天,美学已经被转化为一种平行的理论话语共存的广阔领域,全球的美学已经失去了中心。尽管美学延续了其来源于一定文化帝国的存在,但是原来形成的分化界限已在很大程度上消失了。这些帝国化的国家已通过地域的传统而得到补充甚至被取代,或者已被重新创造,或者已复兴了来自过去的历史。由此,美学就终止了作为一种霸权的学术话语和理论构架,而投入到地方化知识的生产当中。于是,一种拼贴全球美学地图的工作就出现了,美学在民族或地域环境中的角色和地位的问题亦被凸显了出来。     

全球帝国主义与重构的后现代主义

现代文化和政治已经导致了全球帝国主义,即一种通过一个国家来创建一个无所不包的帝国的尝试。为了战胜这种全球帝国主义,需要从现代世界秩序转向一种后现代世界秩序,其中,以主权为基础的民族国家的无政府秩序将被全球民主所取代。怀特海式的重构的后现代主义为后现代政治的双重任务(抵抗全球帝国主义和建立全球民主)提供了各种文化资源。