Analysis of voice impairment in aphasia after stroke-underlying neuroanatomical substrates

Phonation is a fundamental feature of human communication. Control of phonation in the context of speech-language disturbances has traditionally been considered a characteristic of lesions to subcortical structures and pathways. Evidence suggests however, that cortical lesions may also implicate phonation. We carried out acoustic and perceptual analyses of the phonation of /a/ in 60 males with aphasia (20 Wernicke's, 20 Broca's, 20 subcortical aphasia) and 20 males matched in age with no neurological or speech-language disturbances. All groups with aphasia were significantly more impaired on the majority of acoustic and perceptual measures as compared with the control speakers. Within the subjects with aphasia, subjects with subcortical aphasia were more impaired on most measures compared to subjects with Broca's aphasia, and they, in turn, more impaired than those with Wernicke's aphasia. Lesions in regions involved in sound production-perception result in dysfunction of the entire neurocognitive system of articulation-phonological language processing.     

Effects of Threat on Police Officers' Shooting Behavior: Anxiety,Action Specificity,and Affective Influences on Perception

In the current study, we investigated the impact of threat and response mode on police officers' distance perception and shooting behavior in relation to a suspect that approached with a knife. To manipulate threat and increase anxiety, the suspect carried either a plastic knife (low threat) or an electrical knife (high threat). Regarding the manipulation of response mode, officers provided either an actual shooting response or indicated their shot verbally. In both cases, perceptual judgments of shooting distances were assessed through visual matching. Results show that high threat led to earlier shooting, but only for actual shooting responses. Although high threat generally induced more anxiety, perceptual judgments remained unaffected by threat and indicated systematic underestimations of the distance to the suspect. It is suggested that in the online control of action, increased anxiety does not affect distance perception but alters the functional relationship between distance and perceived threat, thereby causing officers to shoot the approaching suspect at an earlier stage. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The role of schizoid personality,peritraumatic dissociation and behavioral activation system in a case of parricide

The goal of this paper is to emphasize several important details through a case study of parricide: a) the schizoid personality structure as a potential basis for brutal offenses, b) the role of dissociation during the commitment of crime; and c) the contribution of non-standard psychological assessment instruments and Gray's reinforcement sensitivity theory in illuminating the killer's personality and motivation for the offense. A parricide case was analyzed through psychiatric examination, standard clinical psychological assessment, and Behavioral Inhibition and Activation Scales based on Gray's theory. It was determined that the perpetrator suffered from schizoid personality disorder and that there were visible signs of peritraumatic dissociation at the moment he committed the offense. It was concluded that: a) a schizoid personality sometimes become a perpetrator of a brutal offense in situations where he feels he is in danger of punishment, and his personal space is being threatened, b) dissociation, activated by murder itself, can help the murderer to protect himself from a traumatic situation which overcomes his resources, and c) Gray's theory can serve as a framework for understanding individual cases as this one.     

Early Gesture Provides a Helping Hand to Spoken Vocabulary Development for Children with Autism,Down Syndrome,and Typical Development

Typically developing (TD) children refer to objects uniquely in gesture (e.g., point at a cat) before they produce verbal labels for these objects (“cat”). The onset of such gestures predicts the onset of similar spoken words, showing a strong positive relation between early gestures and early words. We asked whether gesture plays the same door-opening role in word learning for children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and Down syndrome (DS), who show delayed vocabulary development and who differ in the strength of gesture production. To answer this question, we observed 23 18-month-old TD children, 23 30-month-old children with ASD, and 23 30-month-old children with DS 5 times over a year during parent–child interactions. Children in all 3 groups initially expressed a greater proportion of referents uniquely in gesture than in speech. Many of these unique gestures subsequently entered children’s spoken vocabularies within a year—a pattern that was slightly less robust for children with DS, whose word production was the most markedly delayed. These results indicate that gesture is as fundamental to vocabulary development for children with developmental disorders as it is for TD children.     

完美主义及其认知-行为治疗研究

完美主义是一种深刻影响人格的心理特征,与心理病理学现象有极为密切的联系。完美主义已经引起了心理界的关注。从完美主义的定义出发,提出完美主义认知和行为特征,总结了完美主义的评估方法及完美主义与心理障碍的关系研究,最后对完美主义的认知-行为治疗的方法和步骤进行了阐述。     

复兴国家:国家理论的新形态

民族国家的架构尽管日益式微,但它在组织全球化经济、全球化政治和正在形成的全球公民社会中仍然占有首要地位。民族国家不是在消亡,而是正在被重新想象、重新设计、重新调整方向以回应一系列挑战。相应地,对国家的研究在现时代仍然具有重要意义,在全球化背景下,全球资本、全球公民社会、全球治理与民族国家的关系研究构成了国家理论的新形态。     

有关医疗事故认定问题的商榷

随着医疗法律制度的逐渐健全,人们法律意识不断提高,医疗纠纷逐渐成为热点问题,它的解决与医疗事故的认定密切相关.仅从认定的意义,包括赔偿责任承担、鉴定费用分配、行政和民事诉讼中的作用,以及认定书的效力方面作以商榷,旨在使该问题得以进一步明确.     

浅谈产科镇痛与人文关怀

实施无痛分娩是对每位产妇最贴切的人文关怀,每位产妇都有享受这种关怀的权利,而在我国分娩镇痛仍未普遍采用.通过实际案例及产科镇痛发展史,论证了当今实施产科镇痛的必要性及技术条件的成熟性,剖析了当今实施此技术的人为及社会障碍,并提出了解决这一问题的方法和途径.     

医学模式的转变与对腰痛患者实施认知行为治疗

随着医学模式从生物医学模式向生物-心理-社会医学模式的转变,心理社会因素对腰痛患者疼痛的影响亦日益引起社会的普遍关注.从心理社会因素对腰痛患者疼痛的影响探讨医学模式转变的必要性以及给腰痛患者实施认知行为治疗的可行性.