From melody to lexical tone: Musical ability enhances specific aspects of foreign language perception

Previous research shows that music ability provides positive effects on language processing. This study aims at better clarifying the involvement of different linguistic subdomains in this cross-domain link, assessing whether or not musicality and music expertise enhance phonological and lexical tone processing of Mandarin Chinese. In two experiments different groups of adults and children with no previous experience in tonal languages, were invited to perform a same–different task trying to detect phonological and tonal variations in pairs of sequences of monosyllabic Mandarin Chinese words. Main results show that all subjects perform significantly better in detecting phonological variations rather than tonal ones. They also show that both melodic proficiency and music expertise are good predictors for a better tonal, but not phonological identification. Data lead to a model of music-to-language transfer effect in which musicality selectively affects linguistic intonation while leaving phonological processing substantially unaffected.     

“Coming from Afar” and “Temporarily Becoming the Patient Without Knowing it”: Two Necessary Analytic Conditions According to Ferenczi’s Later Thought

In this paper the author discusses two points regarding Ferenczi’s views of psychoanalysis. The first concerns the fact that analysts, like their patients, “come from afar” (a concept of Borgogno, 2011). The second, closely linked to the first, has to do with Ferenczi’s belief that psychoanalytical knowledge is not intellectual but visceral, seeing that if analysts are to truly understand their patients they must first “take on” their suffering in such a way as to “become the patient.” The author follows Ferenczi’s progression along these two points through his whole oeuvre, from his first psychoanalytical writings to the Clinical Diary (1932a) of the last year of his life.     

Tactile Short-term Memory Revisited

In spite of a large body of empirical research demonstrating the importance of multisensory integration in cognition, there is still little research about multimodal encoding and maintenance effects in working memory. In this study we investigated multimodal encoding in working memory by means of an immediate serial recall task with different modality and format conditions. In a first non-verbal condition participants were presented with sequences of non-verbal inputs representing familiar (concrete) objects, either in visual, auditory or audio-visual formats. In a second verbal condition participants were presented with written, spoken, or bimodally presented words denoting the same objects represented by pictures or sounds in the non-verbal condition. The effects of articulatory suppression were assessed in both conditions. We found a bimodal superiority effect on memory span with non-verbal material, and a larger span with auditory (or bimodal) versus visual presentation with verbal material, with a significant effect of articulatory suppression in the two conditions.     

Private psychotherapy training in Italy: A systematic analysis

This paper examines the results of a systematic analysis, organised by the Italian Ministry of Education, University and Research, of private psychotherapy training in Italy. Since 1989, training in psychotherapy in Italy has been governed by a national law which recognises both public and private institutions. While the public system usually comprises approximately 150 students, the private system has grown significantly over time, registering thousands of students in hundreds of schools (for example, 19,123 students in 212 schools in 2011). Systematic analysis variables included geographical distribution, theoretical approaches, training methods, student and teacher characteristics, student’s personal psychotherapy, supervision and apprenticeships. Data were obtained from 92% of the schools. The primary issues discussed in this paper are as follows: the uneven geographical distribution of the schools; the disorderly amalgamation of traditional scientific paradigms; programmes which concentrate on theory and fail to meet international guidelines. One key issue is the excess supply with regard to demand, meaning that recently graduated psychotherapists (especially women) risk underemployment and financial hardship. Student enrolment is also increasingly problematic. This is the first paper to present an in-depth analysis of one European country’s situation in this field. The authors believe it will foster comparison and discussion internationally.     

Deception, catholicism, and hope: understanding problems in the communication of unfavorable prognoses in traditionally-catholic countries

The doctor's use of deception in appropriate circumstances has commonly been considered a necessity of the medical art. Resistance to full and frank communication is typical of many traditionally Catholic countries, and particularly of Italy, a western country where Catholicism remains particularly influential. The Catholic teaching on truth and lies, and the problem of telling the truth to a severely ill patient is discussed. It is suggested that the contemporary Catholic model of gradually telling a terminal patient the truth, which looks reasonable and feasible in theory, is rarely followed in practice, as in the majority of cases the truth is not told tout court. Problems stem from the way in which medicine is currently practiced in Italy; from the synergism between Catholicism and the medical tradition's grounded paternalism; and from the ambiguity of the term 'hope'. Catholic ethics in fact recommends that the truth must be told without destroying hope, but the Catholic meaning of 'hope' is very different from its meaning in current language.     

Sandplay in Jungian analysis: matter and symbolic integration

Jung described a way of thinking, tied to sensations and feelings, that is a thought connected to the body. Again in The Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious, Jung (1954) speaks of the symbol as a 'live body', corpus et anima. If the mind cannot credit itself with the discomfort that manifests through the body, this is a sign of a separation between mind and body. A consequence of all this is the literalization of the discomfort which makes it impossible to have a symbolic dimension. Therapy activates a process in which the patient can move from a stage of separation to a possible connection between mind and body, resulting in changes in the level of communication and of awareness. The mind opens itself to symbolization and the body becomes a field for a common language. From our reflections we have come to ascertain that we can speak of analysis only when an imaginary space is achieved, an intermediate space between the patient and the analyst, a space that is created from the intertwining of the symbolic capability of the patient with that of the analyst. Focusing our attention on the use of sandplay in analytic therapy, we know that one puts in the sand box objects that are marks of our psyche, visible traits that contain actions, corporeal movements and feelings. When one focuses on the overall representation built, one can go beyond the literal image and the analyst, keeping alive the image through his symbolic capability, opens the possibility of a dialogue with the symbolic dimension. The imagination as a symbolic thought is the humus that allows the analyst to maintain the intermediate symbolic level open by activating a symbolic process within the dialectic of the analysis.     

The Lateralized Linguistic Cerebellum: A Review and a New Hypothesis

During the past 2 decades the collaboration across disciplines and the methodologic and conceptual advances of contemporary neuroscience have brought about a substantial modification of the traditional view of the cerebellum as a mere coordinator of autonomic and somatic motor functions. Growing insights in the neuroanatomy of the cerebellum and its interconnections, evidence from functional neuroimaging and neurophysiological research, and advancements in clinical and experimental neuropsychology have established the view that the cerebellum participates in a much wider range of functions than conventionally accepted. This increase of insight has brought to the fore that the cerebellum modulates cognitive functioning of at least those parts of the brain to which it is reciprocally connected. This article reviews the recently acknowledged role of the cerebellum in cognition and addresses in more detail experimental and clinical data disclosing the modulatory role of the cerebellum in various non-motor language processes such as lexical retrieval, syntax, and language dynamics. In agreement with the findings indicating a topographical organization of the cerebellar structures involved in language pathology we advance the concept of a "lateralized linguistic cerebellum." In our view crossed cerebral diaschisis processes, reflecting a functional depression of supratentorial language areas due to reduced input via cerebellocortical pathways, might represent the relevant pathomechanism for linguistic deficits associated with cerebellar pathology.     

Abortion in adolescence

Sexual attitudes and behavior of adolescent females have been the topic of much interest over the past decade. Feelings about contraception, conception, and abortion have been described in relation to the adolescents' beliefs about the possibility of becoming pregnant, who will or will not "protect" them, and the influence of significant others on their decision making. This study explores differences in 35 women who had abortions during their teenage years with 36 women whose abortions occurred after the age of twenty. A demographic questionnaire, the Millon Clinical Multiaxial Inventory, and the Beck Depression Inventory were completed by women who were members of a patient-led support group. Premorbid psychiatric histories, the decision-making process itself, and distressing symptoms postabortion are reported. Specific differences in perceptions of coercion, preabortion suicidal ideation, and nightmares post-abortion were found in the adolescent group. Antisocial and paranoid personality disorders as well as drug abuse and psychotic delusions were found to be significantly higher in the group who aborted as teenagers. Hypotheses regarding the influences of adolescent development on mother/child relationships, power struggles, and the use of fantasy as a coping device are explored.     

Baby talk from the perspective of discourse production: Linguistic choices and context coding by different speakers

Twenty men and 20 women with children under 3 years of age, and 20 men and 20 women without children were asked to select the most suitable utterance for a series of drawings representing different contexts of mother/father-infant interaction. Data were analyzed in three sections related to different hypotheses: In Phase 1, informational content and syntactic construction of sentences were selected in strict relationship with context by all speakers (closeness to context rule); in Phase 2, different speech acts were selected by different speakers within the same context (analysis of illocutionary force and canonicality); in Phase 3, the same contexts were linked to different interactional dimensions for the four groups, which formed different representations of the same interactional scene. Results are discussed in an attempt to integrate specific rules of adult-infant interaction and more general aspects of discourse production.     

Thalamic Amnesia Following Venous Infarction: Evidence from a Single Case Study

The present paper describes the case of a right-handed Italian–English bilingual male patient suffering from amnesia following a bilateral thalamic lesion due to venous infarction. Within a few months from the onset, the lesion gradually shrank and was finally confined to the left thalamus only, in particular to the antero-medial portion and the pulvinar. The mammillary bodies and the cortical areas of both hemispheres were spared. After the regression of a series of generalized cognitive deficits implying slow psychic activity, confusion, and spatial and temporal disorientation, the patient presented a persistent amnesic syndrome with mild language disorders, both in Italian and in English. Major disorders of memory included a dissociation between verbal memory, which was severely impaired, and spatial memory, which was largely preserved.