Minority influence: the role of ambivalence toward the source

According to literature on social influence, a minority source may indirectly influence group members by fostering ambivalent reactions. Two studies were carried out in order to provide empirical support for this theoretical assumption. In Study 1 participants (n = 133), were exposed to a counter‐attitudinal minority message and ambivalence was manipulated by facilitating the accessibility of either ambivalent (positive and negative) or univalent (positive or negative) thoughts toward the source. We predicted and found more indirect influence in ambivalent condition than in univalent conditions. No effect of ambivalence on direct influence was found. In Study 2 (n = 127), ambivalence was measured and two possible antecedents of ambivalence, consistency of the minority and personal relevance of the topic for participants, were taken into account. Findings suggest that ambivalence mediates the effects of the two factors on indirect influence. In sum, these studies provide evidence of the importance of ambivalence in minority influence context, an early assumption that was still lacking in strong empirical support. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Neural correlates of transformational apparent motion

Transformational apparent motion (TAM) arises when a shape that is abruptly flashed on and off next to a static shape of similar color or texture appears as a protrusion that extends and retracts smoothly from the static object. Here we report that the strength of the TAM percept can be predicted from the waveform of visual evoked potentials (VEPs) measured while observers rated their percepts. The VEPs at pattern onset and offset are maximally symmetric when the static inducer and the flashing patches of the display are of the same contrast. VEP symmetry is affected by how the two patches can be matched as a single surface and may reflect the relative contribution of different motion and object detection systems in visual cortex.     

Intrapsychic-Interpsychic

The ‘interpsychic’ is an extended psychic dimension, regarding the joint functioning and reciprocal influences of two minds. The concepts of ‘subjectivity’ and ‘person’ can be included in the ‘interpsychic’. They can also overlap with each other, and sometimes all three can overlap together, but they do not necessarily coincide. In the different contemporary perspectives, how can we modify the intrapsychic ‘through’ (and ‘with’ and ‘by’) the interpsychic? Presenting four clinical vignettes, the author progressively moves from the theoretical positions that emphasise the exploration and the elaboration of the intrapsychic mainly through the intrapsychic, to the positions that emphasise the same operations mainly through the interpsychic. The last part of the paper deals with the technical use of the interpsychic dimension: the analytic dialogue, when interpsychically experienced (from inside), gains a new, more specific effectiveness, first in containing and then in symbolising. In an intense mental ‘cohabitation’ inside the analytic working pair, it is very often clearly experienced as ‘true’ (as in dreams).     

Facial Expressions and the Ability to Recognize Emotions from the Eyes or Mouth: A Comparison Between Children and Adults

The authors sought to contribute to the literature on the ability to recognize anger, happiness, fear, surprise, sadness, disgust, and neutral emotions from facial information. They aimed to investigate if—regardless of age—this pattern changes. More specifically, the present study aimed to compare the difference between the performance of adults and 6- to 7-year-old children in detecting emotions from the whole face and a specific face region, namely the eyes and mouth. The findings seem to indicate that, for both groups, recognizing disgust, happiness, and surprise is facilitated when pictures represent the whole face. However, with regard to a specific region, a prevalence for children was not found between the eyes and mouth. Meanwhile, for adults, would seem to detect a greater role of the eye region. Finally, regarding the differences in the performance of emotions recognition, adults are better only in a few cases, whereas children are better in recognizing anger from the mouth.     

Genetic Counseling Dilemmas for a Patient with Sporadic Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis,Frontotemporal Degeneration & Parkinson’s Disease

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), frontotemporal degeneration and Parkinson’s disease may be different expressions of the same neurodegenerative disease. However, association between ALS and parkinsonism-dementia complex (ALS-PDC) has only rarely been reported apart from the cluster detected in Guam. We report a patient presenting with ALS-PDC in whom pathological mutations/expansions were investigated. No other family members were reported to have any symptoms of a neurological condition. Our case demonstrates that ALS-PDC can occur as a sporadic disorder, even though the coexistence of the three clinical features in one patient suggests a single underlying genetic cause. It is known that genetic testing should be preferentially offered to patients with ALS who have affected first or second-degree relatives. However, this case illustrates the importance of genetic counseling for family members of patients with sporadic ALC-PDC in order to provide education on the low recurrence risk. Here, we dicuss the ethical, psychological and practical consequences for patients and their relatives.     

Day-Hospital Multifocal Integrated Treatment for Anorexia Nervosa in Adolescents: A One-Year Follow-Up

The current guidelines for treatment of Anorexia Nervosa (AN) in children and adolescents recommend an integrated multidisciplinary approach as the elective intervention for this disorder. Nevertheless, there is insufficient evidence on the results of an integrated approach for the treatment of AN adolescent patients, especially in a Hospital setting. This study aims to analyze clinical and psychological changes occurring in adolescent patients after completion of a Day-Hospital Multifocal Integrated Treatment (MIT) for Anorexia Nervosa. The sample consisted of 60 adolescents with AN or Eating Disorder Not Otherwise Specified (EDNOS) restrictive type, aged 11 to 18 years, and their parents. Clinical course was evaluated at 3, 6 and 12-month follow-up periods. Our results showed clinical remission in a good percentage of patients. In general, we found a significant reduction of the eating psychopathology, whereas we did not detect any significant improvement in body dissatisfaction, perfectionism, and relational difficulties. This positive trend was confirmed at 3, 6, and 12-month follow-up, despite the increase of drop-outs. These results suggest that the proposed treatment is reasonably effective, because it aims to contain and reduce the acute phase of the disease in a limited time and in a hospital setting, but it is necessary to continue the treatment with targeted psychotherapeutic interventions to address the deeper psychological discomfort underlying the eating disorder.     

Working memory in healthy aging and in Parkinson’s disease: evidence of interference effects

Focusing on relevant information while suppressing the irrelevant one are critical abilities for different cognitive processes. However, their functioning has been scarcely investigated in the working memory (WM) domain, in both healthy and pathological conditions. The present research aimed to study these abilities in aging and Parkinson’s disease (PD), testing three groups of healthy participants (young, older and elderly) and one of PD patients, employing a new experimental paradigm. Results showed that the transient storing of irrelevant information in WM causes substantial interference effects, which were remarkable in elderly individuals on both response latency and accuracy. Interestingly, PD patients responded faster and were equally accurate compared to a matched control group. Taken together, findings confirm the existence of similar mechanisms for orienting attention inwards to WM contents or outwards to perceptual stimuli, and suggest the suitability of our task to assess WM functioning in both healthy aging and PD.     

“Measuring up to Measure” Dysmorphophobia as a Language Game

We look into the transformation of meanings in psychotherapy and suggest a clinical application for Wittgenstein’s intuitions concerning the role of linguistic practices in generating significance. In post-modern theory, therapy does not necessarily change reality as much as it does our way of experiencing it by intervening in the linguistic-representational rules responsible for constructing the text which expresses the problem. Since “states of mind assume the truths and forms of the language devices that we use to represent them” (Foucault, 1963, p. 57), therapy may be intended as a narrative path toward a new naming of one’s reified experiences. The clinical problem we consider here, the pervasive feeling of inadequacy due to one’s excessive height (dysmorphophobia), is an excellent example of “language game” by which a “perspicuous representation” (the “therapy” proposed by Wittgenstein in the 1953) may bring out alternatives to linguistically-built “traps”, putting the blocked semiotic mechanism back into motion.     

Dreams that mirror the session1

Dreams in which the analyst appears undisguised almost always depict violations of the setting. Often experienced as special, epiphanic moments, they give a glimpse of an intense, emotional reaction to traumatogenic or otherwise signifi cant events that have occurred during the session or in the most recent previous ones. Probably, the essential aspect of these dreams can be found in the ‘form of their content’. This may be paralleled by the narrative technique of mise en abyme or mirror‐text. The dream appears as a story within the main story and the scene of the analysis is refl ected anti‐illusionistically. The fi ctional structure of the setting is emphasized. Its theatrical self‐consciousness quality is revealed at its best. The author postulates that the transformative therapeutic value of these dreams derives from denouncing the referential illusion of ‘concrete reality’ and of ‘what really happened’. For the analysand, they are an effective (i.e. emotionally intense) opportunity to discover the spatial articulations and the staggering refractions of the inside/outside, the textual/extra‐textual, the psychic reality/material reality. In the continual comings and goings from one term to another, the work of symbolization is reactivated and the subject is constructed. Dreams that mirror the session, from this point of view, provide a model for conceptualizing the analytic work, and their signifi cance goes beyond the specifi c phenomena referred to. A clinical case is given, in which some of one patient's dreams are considered as they occurred over a short period. In one of them, the dream‐within‐a‐dream phenomenon is present.     

In judo,Randori (free fight) and Kata (highly ritualized fight) differentially change plasma cortisol,testosterone, and interleukin levels in male participants

Two forms of competitive encounters namely Randori (free fight) and Kata (highly ritualized fight) were studied in 22 professional male judo fighters. The dyadic, symmetrical (in terms of body weight and fighting ability) encounters were videotaped to assess relationships between agonistic behavior and individual variations in plasma levels of testosterone (T), cortisol (C) and interleukins (IL‐6 and IL‐1β) measured before and after the competition. Unremarkably, winners showed longer attack but devoted less time to defensive behaviors when compared to losers. T increased only during Randori but the individual pre‐ and post‐competition T levels recorded in such fights were strongly correlated with the corresponding measures in the Kata for the same individuals. Interestingly, the pre‐ and post‐Randori competition T levels were higher in losers than in winners and T variations positively correlated with the frequencies of attacks and with the duration of defensive postures. The T response shows individual variation and seems to reflect evaluation of the likelihood of winning or losing. Both Randori and Kata induced a marked C increase, although the pre‐ and post‐Randori hormonal titers were higher than those found for the Kata. IL‐6 significantly increased between the pre‐ and the post‐Randori competition, but no such changes occurred during the Kata. No correlations were found between individual pre‐ and post‐competition C and IL‐6 and IL‐1β levels in either Randori or Kata. This suggests that C and cytokine release are unrelated to emotional or cognitive perception of the possible outcome of fighting but are a consequence of general motor activity. Martial arts appear to provide good human models to understand: (a) the relationships between conflict, hormones and the immune system and (b) the relationships between mood and physiological responses to competitive aggression. Aggr. Behav. 32:1–9, 2006. © 2006 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.