Visual dreams in the congenitally blind?

An EEG study of sleep in congenitally blind persons revealed a significant correlation between the visual activity reported during dreaming and the decrease of alpha strength recorded from the central and occipital regions of the scalp. This provides the first objective evidence that subjects who have never had visual experiences can have dreams with virtual images that are probably mediated by the activation of the cortical areas responsible for visual representations.     

Decomposition of warning effects in Parkinson's disease

ABSTRACT

Neutral warning signals speed voluntary reactions by reducing temporal uncertainty and by triggering a brief burst of arousal. We attempted to isolate the phasic arousal mechanism in people with Parkinson's disease (PD) using a clock display to minimize temporal uncertainty. In this condition, the speeding of responses in a color-discrimination task by an accessory stimulus was the fully equivalent to the effect in age-matched control subjects. This indicates preserved phasic arousal in PD. Temporal preparation based on warning cues also appeared to be normal. By contrast, in a condition with high temporal uncertainty, the accessory stimulus (an air puff to the foot) impaired accuracy for the patients but not the neurologically normal subjects. The data are consistent with the view that PD disrupts internal but not external control of alertness.     

Construction Of Reality Or Dependent Origination? From Scientific Psychotherapy To Responsible Attention

The term ‘postmodernism’ has carved itself a niche in everyday, and specialised, vocabulary. We understand it as being the new mentality that emerges from the critique of modernity. This transformation, which has been underway since the second half of the twentieth century, undermines the foremost myth of the modern world, that we can discover an objective and stable truth, that is to say independent and lasting. This change is affecting all areas of human knowledge, from philosophy to physics, as well as human practices and experiences. Its origins are to be found in the theories that label themselves critical, starting with Marxism and existentialism, and in further developments such as hermeneutics, symbolic interactionism, post-structuralism, ethnomethodology, deconstructionism, and others. In this article we wish to recover one of the principal ideas of this change of mentality, the idea of ‘construction of reality’ and contrast it with ‘dependent origination’ (Paticcasamuppada) characteristic of the Dharma, a system of liberation from suffering synthesised by Buddha. We are interested in this relationship in the specific field of Psychotherapy, or in the broader field of Integral Psychology. To this end, firstly we inquire how constructivism has made a space for itself in the scientific world; we then address the constructivist features of the Dharma.     

Factores psicosociales y cáncer: una revisión crítica

Resumen

Se presenta en este artículo una introducción al campo de estudio de las relaciones entre factores psicosociales y neoplasia, enmarcándolo dentro de la medicina conductual y desde un enfoque interdisciplinar. A continuación se discute el papel que pueden desempeñar las variables psicosociales (estrés) en la vulnerabilidad del ser humano a la enfermedad en general a través de su acción sobre el sistema inmune. En el apartado III se realiza una revisión crítica en la investigación en la que se ha intentado delimitar la influencia de factores psicosociales en la aparición y pronóstico del cáncer, en animales (cáncer experimental) y en el ser humano. Se discute por último el papel de los mediadores biológicos propuestos como más importantes hasta el momento en la literatura del área (sistemas neuroendocrino e inmune). De esta revisión se desprende que los resultados de la investigación, aunque su- gerentes no son definitivos, ni tampoco están claros los mecanismos biológicos a través de los cuales se puede producir la influencia. Después de analizar algunas de las deficiencias metodológicas más importantes de los trabajos realizados, creemos que en enfoque más adecuado para poner a prueba la hipótesis de que los factores psicosociales afectan al desarrollo del cáncer debería ser longitudinal, utilizando grandes muestras y estudiando variables psicosociales y biomédicas conjuntamente.     

From Blickets to Synapses: Inferring Temporal Causal Networks by Observation

How do human infants learn the causal dependencies between events? Evidence suggests that this remarkable feat can be achieved by observation of only a handful of examples. Many computational models have been produced to explain how infants perform causal inference without explicit teaching about statistics or the scientific method. Here, we propose a spiking neuronal network implementation that can be entrained to form a dynamical model of the temporal and causal relationships between events that it observes. The network uses spike‐time dependent plasticity, long‐term depression, and heterosynaptic competition rules to implement Rescorla–Wagner‐like learning. Transmission delays between neurons allow the network to learn a forward model of the temporal relationships between events. Within this framework, biologically realistic synaptic plasticity rules account for well‐known behavioral data regarding cognitive causal assumptions such as backwards blocking and screening‐off. These models can then be run as emulators for state inference. Furthermore, this mechanism is capable of copying synaptic connectivity patterns between neuronal networks by observing the spontaneous spike activity from the neuronal circuit that is to be copied, and it thereby provides a powerful method for transmission of circuit functionality between brain regions.     

Goal orientations, motivational climate, equality, and discipline of Spanish physical education students

This study analyzes how dispositional goal orientations and perception of different motivational climates are related to the students' perception of sex-related egalitarian treatment and the appearance of disciplined or undisciplined behaviors in physical education classes. Analyses showed that ego orientation is a predictor of undisciplined behavior. Task orientation was positively associated to discipline. The perception of task-involving motivational climate is related to the students' perception of equal treatment. On the contrary, the perception of ego-involving climate has been linked positively to the prediction of the perception of sex discrimination in physical education classes and negatively to the perception of equality and the appearance of disciplined behavior. This study discusses the implications of these results related to teaching instructional actions in physical education classes.     

Spanish adaptation of the Psychological Well-Being Scales (PWBS)

The aim of this paper is to adapt to Spanish the D. van Direndonck version of Carol Ryff's Psychological Well-Being Scales, and to analyse its consistency and factorial validity. All the scales exhibited good internal reliabilities, with Cronbach alpha's ranging from 0.83 (Self-acceptance) to 0.68 (Personal growth). However, confirmatory factor analyses didn't corroborate the six-factor model (Self-acceptance, Positive relations, Autonomy, Environmental mastery, Purpose in life, and Personal growth) with a second order factor called Psychological Well-Being . To improve the psychometric properties, a new reduced version was proposed that indeed will facilitate the application. The scales of the new version maintain and raise its internal consistency (Cronbach alpha's 0.84 to 0.70). Furthermore, the scales shown an excellent fit to the theoretical model proposed by D. van Dierendonck.     

The relation of white matter hyperintensities to cognitive performance in the normal old: education matters

This study examined whether the severity of cerebral white matter abnormalities (evident on MR images as white matter hyperintensities (WMH)) was related to the cognitive performance of 141 high-functioning older adults. The elderly showed the typical age decrement on measures of processing speed, working memory, and inhibition; however WMH severity was significantly related only to processing speed. The strength of this relationship was, however, influenced by the educational level of the participants, such that processing speed was more associated with WMH severity in less-educated than in well-educated participants. This is consistent with recent concepts of cognitive reserve, but does raise a question as to the underlying source of the cognitive decrement found in the sort of well-educated elders typically used in cognitive-aging studies.     

Aphasic naming in Spanish: predictors and errors

Sixteen Spanish aphasic patients named drawings of objects on three occasions. Multiple regression analyses were carried out on the naming accuracy scores. For the patient group as a whole, naming was affected by visual complexity, object familiarity, age of acquisition, and word frequency. The combination of variables predicted naming accuracy in 15 of the 16 individual patients. Age of acquisition, word frequency, and object familiarity predicted performance in the greatest number of patients, while visual complexity, imageability, animacy, and length all affected performance in at least two patients. High proportions of semantic and phonological errors to particular objects were associated with objects having early learned names while high proportions of no-response errors were associated with low familiarity and low visual complexity. It is suggested that visual complexity and object familiarity affect the ease of object recognition while word frequency affects name retrieval. Age of acquisition may affect both stages, accounting for its influence in patients with a range of different patterns of disorder.     

Theophostic Ministry: Preliminary Practitioner Survey

This exploratory survey investigated Theophostic Ministry, a recently developed inner healing prayer technique that has simultaneously garnered much anecdotal support and criticism. Specifically, the survey sought to assess who is using Theophostic Ministry, what disorders are being treated, and regular practitioners perceptions of this techniques efficacy. The survey was administered during an advanced training seminar given by Ed Smith, the techniques developer. Of the 148 participants 74% completed the survey (Respondent N = 111). Survey results suggested a wide variety of people are using Theophostic Ministry - from pastors to lay counselors to psychologists. Overall, the respondents believe this technique is very effective and have used the prayer ministry in treating a wide variety of disorders including some quite complex. Training level issues therefore emerged from this surveys findings. These issues are explored and recommendations made. The limitations of the survey are discussed.