Brain dopamine and kinematics of graphomotor functions

Three experiments were performed in an attempt to achieve a better understanding of the effect of dopamine on handwriting. In the first experiment, kinematic aspects of handwriting movements were compared between healthy participants and patients with Parkinson's disease (PD) on their usual dopaminergic treatment and following withdrawal of dopaminergic medication. In the second experiment, the writing performance of healthy participants with a hyperechogenicity of the substantia nigra as detected by transcranial sonography (TCS) was compared with the performance of healthy participants with low echogenicity of the substantia nigra. The third experiment examined the effect of central dopamine reduction on kinematic aspects of handwriting movements in healthy adults using acute phenylalanine and tyrosine depletion (APTD). A digitising tablet was used for the assessment of handwriting movements. Participants were asked to perform a simple writing task. Movement time, distance, velocity, acceleration and measures of fluency of handwriting movements were measured. The kinematic analysis of handwriting movements revealed that alterations of central dopaminergic neurotransmission adversely affect movement execution during handwriting. In comparison to the automatic processing of handwriting movements displayed by control participants, participants with an altered dopaminergic neurotransmission shifted from an automatic to a controlled processing of movement execution. Central dopamine appears to be of particular importance with regard to the automatic execution of well-learned movements.     

Psychophysiological assessment during exposure in driving phobic patients

A comprehensive assessment of fear or anxiety requires measurement of both self-report and physiological responses. Respiratory abnormalities have been rarely examined during real-life exposure, although they are an integral part of fear. Twenty-one women with a specific driving phobia and 17 nonphobic women were psychophysiologically monitored during 2 highway-driving sessions; phobic women completed an additional session. Respiratory movements, end-tidal partial pressure of carbon dioxide, an electrocardiogram, skin conductance, and skin temperature were recorded. Phobic patients differed from control participants both physiologically and experientially before, during, and after exposure. Effect size during exposure was large for the authors' measure of hyperventilation. Discriminant analysis indicated that multiple physiological measures contributed nonredundant information and correctly classified 95% of phobic and control participants. Thus, selected respiratory and autonomic measures are valid diagnostic and therapeutic outcome criteria for this situational phobia.     

Qualia im Knotenpunkt zwischen Leib und Seele: „Argumentatives“ Dilemma in der gegenwärtigen Diskussion über die Subjektivität mentaler Zustände

Qualia in the node-point between mind and body: Dilemma of present discussion about the subjectivity of mental states. The present discussion about qualia shows a bewildering variety of different positions. We show implicit assumptions about brain, subject, and qualia of this complex discussion. By means of three assumptions we divide the discussion about qualia into three different positions (proposition, opposition, intermediate solutions). These positions and their exemplaric authors are briefly presented along the lines of the three assumptions. The next step shows how each position solves the dilemma which arises if one relates all three assumptions by eliminating at least one of the three assumptions. Finally, general problems in the discussion of qualia are shown by means of which the dilemma of the relation between brain, subject and qualia may be brought closer to a solution without eliminating one assumption.     

Experimentelle Untersuchungen über simultane und sukzessive Gesichtswahrnehmungen

Zusammenfassung A. Lehmann hat in seiner Psychophysiologie ein allgemeines Gesetz aufgestellt, wonach gleichzeitige Erregungen sich hemmen, sukzessive dagegen sich bahnen. Die Schwelle für einen Schallreiz ist z. B. h?her, wenn gleichzeitig ein elektrischer Reiz einwirkt, wogegen, im allgemeinen von zwei einander folgenden gleich starken Reizen der zweite für st?rker gehalten wird. Wir führen hier diesen Satz an, um die Vermutung ausdrücklich abzuweisen, als ob unsere Prinzipien diesen oder einen ?hnlichen Sachverhalt ausdrückten. Wir sprachen nicht von einwirkenden Reizen oder physiologischen Erregungen, sondern von psychischen Inhalten, bzw. von deren gleichzeitigem oder sukzessivem Gegebensein. Und es war das Ergebnis unserer Versuche nicht, da? gleichzeitig erscheinende psychische Inhalte sich hemmen bzw. sukzessive sich bahnen, sondern es ergab sich nur,da? stückhafte Teile in einer einheitlichen simultanen Wahrnehmung in minderwertigerer Weise zur Geltung kommen als in zwei sukzessiven Wahrnehmungen, wo sie eben keine stückhaften Teile mehr sind, sondern selbst?ndige Gegebenheiten. Die Umkehrung dieses Satzes trifft aber auch zu und ist z. B. ableitbar aus unseren Versuchen über den Entfernungsvergleich der Diagonalen eines Quadrates. In jeder simultanen Wahrnehmung ergibt sich ein einheitlicher Gesamteindruck, und die diesem entsprechende Wahrnehmungsart ist eben die simultane, in welcher er auch besser verwirklicht wird, als wenn er aus einigen sukzessiven Wahrnehmungen zu entstehen h?tte. Mit 10 Figuren im Text. über einen Teil der nachfolgenden Experimente hat der Verf. schon auf dem Münchener Psychologenkongre? (April 1925) berichtet.     

Everyday temptations: an experience sampling study of desire, conflict, and self-control

How often and how strongly do people experience desires, to what extent do their desires conflict with other goals, and how often and successfully do people exercise self-control to resist their desires? To investigate desire and attempts to control desire in everyday life, we conducted a large-scale experience sampling study based on a conceptual framework integrating desire strength, conflict, resistance (use of self-control), and behavior enactment. A sample of 205 adults wore beepers for a week. They furnished 7,827 reports of desire episodes and completed personality measures of behavioral inhibition system/behavior activation system (BIS/BAS) sensitivity, trait self-control, perfectionism, and narcissistic entitlement. Results suggest that desires are frequent, variable in intensity, and largely unproblematic. Those urges that do conflict with other goals tend to elicit resistance, with uneven success. Desire strength, conflict, resistance, and self-regulatory success were moderated in multiple ways by personality variables as well as by situational and interpersonal factors such as alcohol consumption, the mere presence of others, and the presence of others who already had enacted the desire in question. Whereas personality generally had a stronger impact on the dimensions of desire that emerged early in its course (desire strength and conflict), situational factors showed relatively more influence on components later in the process (resistance and behavior enactment). In total, these findings offer a novel and detailed perspective on the nature of everyday desires and associated self-regulatory successes and failures.     

Gef?hrliche N?he

The author examines the association between trauma and psychosis. To illustrate this he presents clinical examples of active and passive experiences of violence by adult psychotic patients, for whom forerunners in the form of childhood experiences of violence were found in some psychoanalytical treatments. They take place in traumatic relationships. Recent empirical studies have shown that trauma plays an influential role in the pathogenesis of schizophrenia. Traumatic relationships have a contradictory structure which possesses an impressive similarity to the schizophrenic dilemma of adult psychotics. The author therefore considers the schizophrenic dilemma as an introspective manifestation of a traumatic relationship, a part of the violent nature of psychiatric institutions as re-enactment of the traumatic relationship.     

Analogical Reasoning in Ethics

In this article I am concerned with analogical reasoning in ethics. There is no doubt that the use of analogy can be a powerful tool in our ethical reasoning. The importance of this mode of reasoning is therefore commonly accepted, but there is considerable debate concerning how its structure should be understood and how it should be assessed, both logically and epistemically. In this paper, I first explain the basic structure of arguments from analogy in ethics. I then discuss the diversity of analogical arguments that can be found in ethics. I analyse their structure, assess them from a logical viewpoint, and show how they can be epistemically challenged and defended. The result of this investigation is that, contrary to a commonly held view, analogical reasoning can be a logically valid type of ethical reasoning that can provide reasons for action that are not worse than the reasons provided by any other kind of practical reasoning.