Bioethics and Christian Theology

The authors of this essay suggest that the field of bioethics and Christian theology have a great deal to offer to each other. The authors first argue that representatives from both fields must first make sure that they fully and correctly represent their respective position. In other words, scientists, ethicists, and theologians alike must make sure that they present their fields and not use their knowledge merely for personal gain at the stake of misguiding people. Once this is established, the authors then proceed to show the intimate relationship between Christianity and medicine that has existed throughout the ages. It is a call for a continuation of such a relationship that the authors suggest between bioethics and theology. Through an integration of bioethics and Christian theology, both scientists/physicians and theologians are able to gain greater insight into the human person—a focus in both fields.     

Concordant Spiritual Orientations as a Factor in Physician--Patient Spiritual Discussions: A Qualitative Study

Objectives: To understand the impact of physicians and patients religious/spiritual orientation on discussions of spiritual issues. Methods: We performed semi-structured interviews of 10 Missouri family physicians and 10 patients of these physicians, selecting subjects nonrandomly to represent a range of demographic factors, practice types, and chronic or terminal illness. We coded and evaluated transcribed interviews for themes. Results: Respondents expressed that similar belief systems facilitate patient–physician spiritual interactions and bring confidence to their relationships. Those holding dissimilar faiths noted limited ability to address spiritual questions directly. They cited significant barriers to spiritual interaction but considered that ecumenism, use of patient-centered care, and negotiation skills lessen these barriers. Conclusions: Our respondents view spirituality similarly to other aspects of the physician–patient relationship involving differing viewpoints. Where discordance exists, cross-cultural, patient-centered, diplomatic approaches facilitate spiritual discussions.     

The dynamics of self-esteem in adults over a 6-month period: an exploratory study

In this exploratory study, the authors examined the dynamics of self-esteem in 8 adults over a 6-month period. Each participant (M age = 29.4 years, SD = 7.9, SEM = 2.8) completed a single item from the Physical Self Inventory (G. Ninot, M. Fortes, & D. Delignières, 2001) using a 10-cm visual analog scale (horizontal line), twice a day between 7:00 and 9:00 a.m. and between 7:00 and 9:00 p.m. Time series analyses, including autocorrelation and autoregressive integrated moving average (ARIMA) procedures, showed that global self-esteem dynamics were neither stable, stationary, nor random. The ARIMA procedures indicated that this perceived dimension functioned as a moving average (0, 1, 1) without a significant constant, thus suggesting a short-term dynamic adjustment. This pattern is a typical signature of a complex system submitted to several constraints and not an indication of personality trait or state.     

Early psychological consequences of the March 11, 2004, terrorist attacks in Madrid, Spain

On March 11, 2004, Al-Qaeda set off 10 bombs on several train routes in Madrid. 192 people were killed and 2,000 wounded. In this study, 1,179 questionnaires were administered Week 2 after the attacks to residents 18 years and over from the affected geographical areas. The questionnaire included items about sociodemographic variables and exposure to the attacks. Psychological effects were assessed as presence of acute stress and depressive symptomatology and functional impairment. 46.7% of the sample presented symptomatology of acute stress and 49.6% depressive symptoms. Among the symptoms of acute stress, the most frequent were re-experiencing (72.5%) and dissociative symptoms (71.8%). The chief predicting variables in symptomatology were being female, over 65 yr. old, and a habitual train user. The large number of affected people was refined with an item analysis and the consideration of severity of interference in psychosocial functioning.     

The Spanish version of Betts' Questionnaire Upon Mental Imagery

Sheehan's shortened form of Betts' Questionnaire Upon Mental Imagery is one of the most widely used inventories for measuring imaging. Participants were 562 undergraduate students (414 women and 148 men), with a mean age of 20.2 yr. In a principal components analysis followed by varimax orthogonal rotation for the Spanish version, eight factors were identified, six of which coincide with those of the original English version. Internal consistency was .92 (Cronbach alpha). Scores on the Betts Questionnaire Upon Mental Imagery correlated -.34 with those on the Gordon Test of Visual Imagery Control, .58 with those on the Vividness of Visual Imagery Questionnaire, and .02 with the Verbalizer-Visualizer Questionnaire.     

Determinants of capacious memory: a process-dissociation and experiential approach

The aim of this study is to delineate some important circumstances where exceptionally good memory performance, or capacious memory occurs. A further aim is to study memory processes involved in this memory phenomenon. In a first experiment, participants looked through two series of pictures differing in number and were evaluated in two-alternative forced-choice and yes-no recognition memory tasks combined in a process-dissociation procedure. Moreover, participants were asked to provide remember and know responses to tap recollective experience. The results as to forced-choice recognition task accuracy and according to process-dissociation procedure estimates were replicated in a second experiment with a more intrinsic contextual manipulation, and in a third, forgetting experiment. In addition to replicating previous findings, the results show (a) that capacious memory is associated with strong feelings of recollection; and (b) that familiarity (in terms of the process-dissociation framework) contributes to this phenomenon.     

Visual search for object orientation can be modulated by canonical orientation

The authors studied the influence of canonical orientation on visual search for object orientation. Displays consisted of pictures of animals whose axis of elongation was either vertical or tilted in their canonical orientation. Target orientation could be either congruent or incongruent with the object's canonical orientation. In Experiment 1, vertical canonical targets were detected faster when they were tilted (incongruent) than when they were vertical (congruent). This search asymmetry was reversed for tilted canonical targets. The effect of canonical orientation was partially preserved when objects were high-pass filtered, but it was eliminated when they were low-pass filtered, rendering them as unfamiliar shapes (Experiment 2). The effect of canonical orientation was also eliminated by inverting the objects (Experiment 3) and in a patient with visual agnosia (Experiment 4). These results indicate that orientation search with familiar objects can be modulated by canonical orientation, and they indicate a top-down influence on orientation processing.     

The perception of second language sounds in early bilinguals: new evidence from an implicit measure

Previous studies have suggested that nonnative (L2) linguistic sounds are accommodated to native language (L1) phonemic categories. However, this conclusion may be compromised by the use of explicit discrimination tests. The present study provides an implicit measure of L2 phoneme discrimination in early bilinguals (Catalan and Spanish). Participants classified the 1st syllable of disyllabic stimuli embedded in lists where the 2nd, task-irrelevant, syllable could contain a Catalan contrastive variation (/epsilon/-/e/) or no variation. Catalan dominants responded more slowly in lists where the 2nd syllable could vary from trial to trial, suggesting an indirect effect of the /epsilon/-/e/ discrimination. Spanish dominants did not suffer this interference, performing indistinguishably from Spanish monolinguals. The present findings provide implicit evidence that even proficient bilinguals categorize L2 sounds according to their L1 representations.     

Premovement activity of the pre-supplementary motor area and the readiness for action: studies of time-resolved event-related functional MRI

The supplementary motor area (SMA) is thought to play in important role in the preparation and organisation of voluntary movement. It has long been known that cortical activity begins to increase up to 2s prior to voluntary self-initiated movement. This increasing premovement activity measured in EEG is known as the Bereitschaftspotential or readiness potential. Modern functional brain imaging methods, using event-related and time-resolved functional MRI techniques, are beginning to reveal the role of the SMA, and in particular the more anterior pre-SMA, in premovement activity associated with the readiness for action. In this paper we review recent studies using event-related time-resolved fMRI methods to examine the time-course of activation changes within the SMA throughout the preparation, readiness and execution of action. These studies suggest that the pre-SMA plays a common role in encoding or representing actions prior to our own voluntary self-initiated movements, during motor imagery, and from the observation of others' actions. We suggest that the pre-SMA generates and encodes motor representations which are then maintained in readiness for action.