Brain imaging technologies as source for Extrospection: self-formation through critical self-identification

Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences - Brain imaging technologies are increasingly used to find networks and brain regions that are specific to the functional realization of particular aspects...     

The Eternal Irony of the Community: Aristophanian Echoes in Hegel's Phenomenology of Spirit

This essay re-examines Hegel's account of Greek culture in the section of the Phenomenology of Spirit devoted to “ethical action”. The thrust of this section cannot be adequately grasped, it is argued, by focusing on Hegel's references to either Sophocles' Antigone or Greek tragedy as a whole. Taking into account Hegel's complex use of literary sources, the essay shows in particular that Hegel draws on Aristophanes' comedies to comprehend the collapse of Greek culture, a collapse he considered to result from the tragic conflict constitutive of Greek culture as a whole. The essay thus aims to shed light on Hegel's abstruse remarks on womanhood and, more generally, to demonstrate that Hegel's peculiar employment of literary sources constitutes an essential element of the method he employs throughout the Phenomenology of Spirit.     

Irrational Beliefs in Employees with an Adjustment,a Depressive,or an Anxiety Disorder: a Prospective Cohort Study

It remains unclear if patients with different types of common mental disorders, such as adjustment, anxiety and depressive disorders, have the same irrational ideas. The aim of this prospective cohort study (n = 190) is to investigate differences in level and type of irrational beliefs among these groups and to examine whether a change in irrational beliefs is related to symptom recovery. Irrational beliefs (IBI) and symptoms were measured at four points in time: at baseline, after 3, 6 and 12 months. Results showed that diagnostic groups differed in their level of irrational beliefs and this effect remained over time. Highest levels of irrationality were observed in the double diagnosis group, followed by the anxiety disorder group and the depression group. Participants with adjustment disorders showed the lowest levels of irrationality, comparable to a community sample. We did not find differences in the type of irrational beliefs between diagnostic groups. The level of irrationality declined over time for all diagnostic groups. No differences in decrease were observed between diagnostic groups. The magnitude and direction of change in irrational beliefs were related to the magnitude of recovery of depressive, anxiety and stress symptoms over time. These results support the application of general cognitive interventions, especially for patients with a depressive or an anxiety disorder.     

Perseverative and compulsive-like staring causes uncertainty about perception

Earlier studies have found that perseverative checking provokes memory distrust for checked stimuli, suggesting that compulsive checking is a counter-productive strategy to increase memory confidence. Obsessive Compulsive (OC) uncertainty also occurs for functions other than memory, like perception. Uncertainty about perception in OC patients gives rise to prolonged attending to the issues that patients feel uncertain about. In an experiment with 40 healthy volunteers, it was tested whether OC-like, perseverative (visual) attending induces OC-like experiences of dissociation and perceptual uncertainty. Participants had to look at an object (a gas stove or a light bulb) during a pre-test and a post-test. In between these tests, participants in the experimental condition were asked to stare at an object that was the same as the to-be-looked-at object during the pre/post-tests. Participants in the control condition stared at an object that was different from the object they looked at during pre/post-test. Both in the experimental and control conditions, dissociation was observed; the effects were equally strong. Critically, with regards to OC-like perceptual uncertainty, the effects were significantly stronger in the experimental condition. The findings indicate that OC-like perseveration induces distrust, not only about memory, but also about perception. To explain the results, we suggest that perseveration interferes with spreading of activation and that cognitive uncertainty (and possibly derealisation) is the experiential end-product of perseveration. It is suggested that all forms of OC perseveration share such interference and that all undermine confidence in cognitive operations.     

Job demands and job resources as predictors of absence duration and frequency

This study among 214 nutrition production employees uses the Job Demands-Resources (JD-R) model to predict future company registered absenteeism. According to this model, job demands are primarily responsible for health impairment, whereas job resources lead primarily to increased motivation and attachment to work and the organization. Consistent with hypotheses derived from the JD-R model and the absenteeism literature, results of structural equation modeling analyses show that job demands are unique predictors of burnout (i.e., exhaustion and cynicism) and indirectly of absence duration, whereas job resources are unique predictors of organizational commitment, and indirectly of absence spells. These findings have implications for individual and organizational interventions aimed at reducing absenteeism.     

From vision to action: experiments and models of steering control during driving

Experienced drivers performed simple steering maneuvers in the absence of continuous visual input. Experiments conducted in a driving simulator assessed drivers' performance of lane corrections during brief visual occlusion and examined the visual cues that guide steering. The dependence of steering behavior on heading, speed, and lateral position at the start of the maneuver was measured. Drivers adjusted steering amplitude with heading and performed the maneuver more rapidly at higher speeds. These dependencies were unaffected by a 1.5-s visual occlusion at the start of the maneuver. Longer occlusions resulted in severe performance degradation. Two steering control models were developed to account for these findings. In the 1st, steering actions were coupled to perceptual variables such as lateral position and heading. In the 2nd, drivers pursued a virtual target in the scene. Both models yielded behavior that closely matches that of human drivers.     

Assessment of thinking style preferences and language proficiency for South African students whose native languages differ

The language proficiency of first-year students at the University of Pretoria (56 men and 59 women, M age=19.40 yr., SD=.80, range from 18.00 to 20.70) was assessed by means of the English Language Skills Assessment. More than one-third of the students did not show proficiency at Grade 10, as expected. This language assessment was not correlated with academic achievement equally well for students in a group. The diversity of thinking style preferences of the students enrolled in a language development course was also assessed on the Herrmann Brain Dominance Instrument. Scores indicated a range of thinking style preferences but the group's overall mean scores represented detail-oriented and feeling-based modes of thinking processes. These preferences were correlated with academic achievement and learning of languages. The data are consistent with the hypothesis that thinking styles could be a focus of educational strategies in South Africa, using the perspective that qualitatively different approaches to teaching might be associated with students' qualitatively different approaches to learning.     

Variation of meningioma in response to cyproterone acetate in a trans woman

Background: Meningiomas express estrogen and progesterone receptors, suggestive of hormonal responsiveness. So far, eight cases of trans women with a meningioma have been reported in the literature.

Methods: Detailed report of the symptoms, treatment, and follow-up of an individual transgender patient with a meningioma.

Results: A trans woman treated long-term with gender affirming hormone therapy, including cyproterone acetate, a synthetic progestin and anti-androgen, was diagnosed with a meningioma, significantly expanding in volume over 10 years. After stopping cyproterone acetate a substantial volume decrease of the meningioma was noticed within 3 months.

Conclusion: This addition to the literature demonstrates that a conservative approach with interruption of cyproterone acetate may be a sufficient intervention, obviating the need for additional neurosurgical treatment.     

Chinese Christian communism in the early twentieth century

This article deals with a unique period in Chinese Christianity in the early twentieth century. During this period a number of Christian theologians engaged actively with communism and Marxist theory. We focus on the work of Wu Leichuan (1870–1944), Wu Yaozong (1893–1979) and Zhu Weizhi (1905–1999), who creatively sought engagements between Christianity and historical materialism and thereby articulated a unique Chinese development, albeit engaged with international currents of thought. The article analyses their varying methods of doing so, their reconstructions of the figure of Jesus and early Christianity, and the efforts to see both the links and differences between Christianity and communism.