Atrophy of the parietal lobe in preclinical dementia

Cortical grey matter atrophy patterns have been reported in healthy ageing and Alzheimer disease (AD), but less consistently in the parietal regions of the brain. We investigated cortical grey matter volume patterns in parietal areas. The grey matter of the somatosensory cortex, superior and inferior parietal lobule was measured in 75 older adults (38 cognitively stable and 37 individuals with cognitive decline after 3 years). Dementia screening 6 years after scanning resulted in nine AD cases from the cognitively stable (n=3) and cognitive decline group (n=6), who were assigned to a third group, the preclinical AD group. When regional differences in cortical volume in the parietal lobe areas were compared between groups, significant differences were found between either the cognitive decline or stable group on the one hand and preclinical AD individuals on the other hand in the inferior parietal lobule. Group membership was best predicted by the grey matter volume of the inferior parietal lobule, compared to the other parietal lobe areas. The parietal lobe was characterised by a differential atrophy pattern based on cognitive status, which is in agreement with the 'last-developed-first-atrophied' principle. Future studies should investigate the surplus value of the inferior parietal lobe as a potential marker for the diagnosis of AD compared to other brain regions, such as the medial temporal lobe and the prefrontal lobe.     

Changing interactions between teachers and socially inhibited kindergarten children: An interpersonal approach

In a short-term longitudinal intervention study, it was investigated whether a short teacher training in interpersonal theory and the complementarity principle could be used to break negative interaction cycles between teachers and socially inhibited kindergartners. Sixty-five children and their 35 regular teachers were observed in a dyadic task setting, on three occasions. In the training, it was explained that teachers could elicit more initiative from children by being less dominant and more friendliness by being more affiliative. Independent observers rated teachers' and children's interactive behaviors in 5-second episodes. Teachers reported on children's social inhibition. Multilevel analyses showed that the training elicited a decrease in teacher control at follow-up. Unexpectedly, the training increased teachers' complementarity on the affiliation dimension, especially in interactions with highly inhibited children. Implications for theory and practice are discussed.     

Responsivity to stress in chronic posttraumatic stress disorder due to childhood sexual abuse

The purpose of this study was to investigate psychological, cardiovascular, and neuroendocrine reactivity to standardized stress tests (orthostatic challenge, Stroop Color Word Test) in drug-free adult women with chronic PTSD due to repetitive childhood sexual abuse. At baseline, the 11 patients showed significantly higher mean scores on the Symptom Check List-90 and the Profile of Mood States than 13 healthy female controls, whereas baseline cardiovascular or hormonal parameters showed no differences between the groups. Also, no significant differences were found between the two groups in cardiovascular and hormonal responsivity to the stress tests. Thus, in the presence of robust psychological differences, the patients with chronic PTSD due to childhood sexual abuse did not show alterations in baseline values of neurobiological parameters, nor did they react differently to a physical and mental stress test when compared to healthy controls.     

Attention speeds binocular rivalry

During binocular rivalry, incompatible images presented dichoptically compete for perceptual dominance. It has long been debated whether binocular rivalry can be controlled by attention. Most studies have shown that voluntary control over binocular rivalry is limited. We sought to remove attention from binocular rivalry by presenting a concurrent task. Diverting attention slowed the rivalry alternation rate, and did so in proportion to the difficulty of the concurrent task. Even a very demanding distractor task, however, did not arrest rivalry alternations completely. Given that diverting attention was equivalent to lowering the contrast of the rival stimuli, the ability of attention to speed binocular rivalry is most likely due to an increase in the effective contrast of the stimuli through boosting the gain of the cortical response. This increase in effective contrast will ultimately lead to a perceptual switch, thereby limiting voluntary control. Thus, attention speeds rivalry alternations, but has no inherent control over the rivalry process.     

The mother-offspring relationship as a template in social development: reconciliation in captive brown capuchins (Cebus apella)

Mother-offspring (MO) relationship quality was investigated to determine its influence on the development of reconciliation--affiliation between opponents shortly after a fight--because it influenceswhat distressed youngsters learn about calming down. Data were longitudinal and cross-sectional observational samples of 38 MO pairs of monkeys across 24 months. An MO relationship quality index (RQI) classified each pair as secure or insecure. Reconciliation emerged in infancy.Secure youngsters had an appeasing conciliatory style, and insecure youngsters had an agitated conciliatory style. Conclusions are that reconciliation develops from the attachment behavior system and MO RQI is related to the particular conciliatory style youngsters develop by affecting how aroused they are by conflict and the subsequent socializing they seek to calm down.     

Collective memory,martyrdom monument,and Christian-Muslim reconciliation in Seko,North Luwu,Indonesia

This study explores the collective memory of the DI/TII (Darul Islam/The Indonesian Islamic Army) case between 1951 and 1965, the martyrdom monument, and Christian-Muslim reconciliation in Seko, Nort Luwu, and South Sulawesi. The monument portrays the interaction between Christians and Muslims during times of conflict and pushes society to construct a better developed civilization. Data collection is conducted using a qualitative approach. We adopt a bottom-up approach, conducting interviews with perpetrators, their descendants, and the monument's creator. The aims of this study were (a) to analyze the collective memory of the Seko people about the DI/TII incident, (b) to find out why Christians in Seko erected a monument to the martyrs, and (c) to seek reconciliation between Christians and Muslims in Seko. We argue that the Seko community's use of sallombengang--a philosophy promoting harmony and peace despite diversity--can deter Seko parties from pursuing confrontation between Christians and Muslims.     

The Making of Argumentation Theory: A Pragma-dialectical View

In ‘The making of argumentation theory’ van Eemeren and van Haaften describe the contributions made to the five components of a full-fledged research program of argumentation theory by four prominent approaches to the discipline: formal dialectics, rhetoric/pragmalinguistics, informal logic, and pragma-dialectics. Most of these approaches do not contribute to all components, but to some in particular. Starting from the pragma-dialectical view of the relationship between dialectical reasonableness and rhetorical effectiveness – the crucial issue in argumentation theory – van Eemeren and van Haaften explain the positions taken by representatives from the approaches discussed and indicate where they differ from the pragma-dialectical approach. It transpires that approaches focusing on dialectical reasonableness are, next to pragma-dialectics, formal dialectics and informal logic; approaches focusing on rhetorical effectiveness are, next to pragma-dialectics, rhetoric and pragmalinguistics, and the informal logician Tindale. When it comes to the relationship between dialectical reasonableness and rhetorical effectiveness, some interest in it is shown in rhetoric and pragmalinguistics, but only in pragma-dialectics and in Tindale’s work is it a real focus. The main difference between Tindale’s view and the pragma-dialectical view is that in pragma-dialectics the decisive role in deciding about reasonableness is assigned to a code of conduct for reasonable argumentative discourse and in Tindale’s approach this role is assigned to Tindale’s interpretation of the Perelmanian universal audience.

     

Speech act conditions as tools for reconstructing argumentative discourse

According to the pragma-dialectical approach to argumentation, for analysing argumentative discourse, a normative reconstruction is required which encompasses four kinds of transformations. It is explained in this paper how speech act conditions can play a part in carrying out such a reconstruction. It is argued that integrating Searlean insights concerning speech acts with Gricean insights concerning conversational maxims can provide us with the necessary tools. For this, the standard theory of speech acts has to be amended in several respects and the conversational maxims have to be translated into speech act conditions. Making use of the rules for communication thus arrived at, and starting from the distribution of speech acts in a critical discussion as specified in the pragma-dialectical model, it is then demonstrated how indirect speech acts are to be transformed when reconstructing argumentative discourse.     

Visual attention and objects: New tests of two-object cost

Baylis and Driver (1993) proposed that the positions of object parts are coded relative to the position of the object they belong to and that parts of different objects are not directly coded relative to each other. This theory predicts that it is easier to judge a difference in height of parts belonging to a single object (one-object condition) than of parts belonging to two objects (two-object condition). This two-object cost has been reported in several articles (Baylis, 1994; Baylis & Driver, 1993, 1995). However, in all these experiments, the method that was used favored the one-object condition. In the present experiments we obtained, for the first time, evidence for the existence of two-object cost without such a bias.