Exploring the Current Usage and Preferences for Everyday Technology among People with Serious Mental Illnesses

While literature reports people with serious mental illnesses can benefit from everyday technology, evidence supporting whether or not they are using it in their daily lives is limited. This study investigated what people with serious mental illness are using technology for, what they would like to use it for, and why they are currently not using particular features. Results indicated 97.1% of participants own or use a wireless device, 82.4% use text messaging, 64.7% use email, and 70.6% use voicemail. Implications for further research as well as implications for therapeutic interventions using technology are discussed.     

Involvement of the rostral anterior cingulate cortex in consolidation of inhibitory avoidance memory: interaction with the basolateral amygdala

Previous findings suggest that the rostral anterior cingulate cortex (rACC) is involved in memory for emotionally arousing training. There is also extensive evidence that the basolateral amygdala (BLA) modulates the consolidation of emotional arousing training experiences via interactions with other brain regions. The present experiments examined the effects of posttraining intra-rACC infusions of the cholinergic agonist oxotremorine (OXO) on inhibitory avoidance (IA) retention and investigated whether the BLA and rACC interact in enabling OXO effects on memory. In the first experiment, male Sprague-Dawley rats were implanted with bilateral cannulae above the rACC and given immediate posttraining OXO infusions. OXO (0.5 or 3 ng) induced significant enhancement of retention performance on a 48-h test. In the second experiment, unilateral posttraining OXO infusions (0.5, 3.0 or 10 ng) enhanced retention when infused into rACC, but not caudal ACC, consistent with previous evidence that ACC is composed of functionally distinct regions. A third experiment investigated the effects of posttraining intra-rACC OXO infusions (0.5 or 10 ng) in rats with bilateral sham or NMDA-induced lesions of the BLA. The BLA lesions did not impair IA retention, but blocked the enhancement induced by posttraining intra-rACC OXO infusions. Lastly, unilateral NMDA lesions of rACC blocked the enhancement of IA retention induced by posttraining ipsilateral OXO infusions into the BLA. These findings support the hypothesis that the rACC is involved in modulating the storage of emotional events and provide additional evidence that the BLA modulates memory consolidation through interactions with efferent brain regions, including the cortex.     

Chromatic masking revealed by the standing wave of invisibility illusion

We have used the standing wave of invisibility illusion (Macknik and Livingstone, 1998 Nature Neuroscience 1 144-149) to examine the masking effects produced by a range of stimuli of varying chromatic and luminance contrast content. The pattern of masking was highly selective. Maximum effects were always obtained when the target and mask were identical in terms of their chromatic and/or luminance contrast composition, but were reduced as the angular separation in colour space between them was increased. Masking was of a monopolar nature, indicating the operation of rectified mechanisms selective for different combinations of colour and luminance contrast.     

Unilateral nostril breathing in intraocular pressure of right-handed healthy subjects

The effects of unilateral forced nostril breathing on the intraocular pressures of right and left eyes was studied in 24 male and 26 female right-handed adults. In men, the forced breathing through both the right and left nostrils significantly decreased the intraocular pressures of both right and left eyes. For women, the forced breathing through right nostril did not affect the intraocular pressures of right and left eyes, and the forced breathing through left nostril also had no effect on the intraocular pressure of right eye, although it decreased the intraocular pressure of left eye significantly. These results show that unilateral forced nostril breathing decreases intraocular pressure especially in men, perhaps increasing sympathetic nervous system activity.     

Differential responding to positive and negative items: the case of a negative item in a questionnaire for course and faculty evaluation

Previous factor-analytic studies of self-rating scales have yielded a factor on which negatively worded items loaded separately. The present study investigated the existence for such a factor in a questionnaire for course and teacher evaluation which included one negative item. The questionnaire was administered in 1,095 university classes. Two factors emerged, an exclusively positive-item factor and another factor on which the single negative item and one positive item loaded. It was suggested that both items of Factor 2 were ambiguous and may identify tendencies such as acquiescence, random responding, and response sets.     

Islamic Doctrinal Orthodoxy and Religious Orientations: Scale Development and Validation

A measure of Islamic doctrinal orthodoxy was developed, and its relation to personal religious activities was examined. This study also applied the concept of extrinsic, intrinsic, and quest religiosity to Islamic faith as it investigated the structural validity and internal consistency of Islamic versions of the religious orientation scales. A sample of 381 students was taken from three universities in Indonesia. Notably, the scales were found to be psychometrically adequate and their doctrinal orthodoxy and intrinsic and extrinsic religiosity scores significantly related to personal practice of religious activities. A subsequent analysis also revealed that, for Muslims, doctrinal beliefs are largely independent of extrinsic, intrinsic, and quest religiosity and that the three forms of religiosity are three autonomous but continuous dimensions of personal religiosity.     

Relationship between creativity and right,left, and integrated thinking styles

ABSTRACT:

The purpose of the present study was to explore whether the so‐called “right thinking style” is related to creativity as measured by two types of creativity tests. The How Do You Think (HDYT) inventory evaluates personality and biographical information related to creativity, and the Sounds and Images is a type of divergent thinking test that assesses the originality of images elicited by abstract sounds. As a second purpose, this study permitted an analysis of the relationship between these two types of creativity measures. The two creativity measures and the Your Style of Learning and Thinking (SOLAT) test were administered to 109 undergraduates. Results indicated that the HDYT scores were positively correlated with right thinking scores on the SOLAT (r = .48) and negatively correlated with left thinking scores (r = ‐.70). Results from Sounds and Images were not as clear. Similar relationships were found when overlapping items were removed from the various measures.     

Commanding good and prohibiting evil in contemporary Islam: cases from Britain, Nigeria, and Southeast Asia

This paper examines the concept of (public) sin as well as efforts to counteract sin from the perspective of Islam. The understanding that hisba, the prohibition of vice and enjoining of virtues, are a responsibility of both the state and the community is common in historical and contemporary Muslim societies. Where the state cannot or does not provide means for countering (public) sin, the perception for some Muslims is that the responsibility on the community and individuals to do so increases. Based on ethnographic research in Britain, Nigeria, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore, the paper highlights examples of how sin has been defined amongst Muslim communities as well as the methods and rationales given to justify the forbidding of sin as a collective and communal public obligation. As the world becomes more integrated, there is growing concern amongst Muslim communities that sin is becoming the norm, leading society to degeneracy, that people who would not have otherwise sinned are influenced to do so. Common features in forbidding sin across Muslim communities have appeared, often focusing on what are seen as moral issues such as dress codes, music, gambling, alcohol, smoking, and the mixing of men and women in public. The forbidding of sin has resulted in attempts to introduce “Shari’a Zones” in some predominantly Muslim areas of London, whilst in Indonesia, this has given rise to the Islamic Defenders Front and in some Northern Nigerian states to the reintroduction of the criminal codes of the Shari’a.     

Cognition and lobar morphology in full mutation boys with fragile X syndrome

The aims of the present study are twofold: (1) to examine cortical morphology (CM) associated with alterations in cognition in fragile X syndrome (FXS); (2) to characterize the CM profile of FXS versus FXS with an autism diagnosis (FXS + Aut) as a preliminary attempt to further elucidate the behavioral distinctions between the two sub-groups. We used anatomical magnetic resonance imaging surface-based morphometry in 21 male children (FXS N = 11 and age [2.27-13.3] matched controls [C] N = 10). We found (1) increased whole hemispheric and lobar cortical volume, cortical thickness and cortical complexity bilaterally, yet insignificant changes in hemispheric surface area and gyrification index in FXS compared to C; (2) linear regression analyses revealed significant negative correlations between CM and cognition; (3) significant CM differences between FXS and FXS + Aut associated with their distinctive behavioral phenotypes. These findings are critical in understanding the neuropathophysiology of one of the most common intellectual deficiency syndromes associated with altered cognition as they provide human in vivo information about genetic control of CM and cognition.