Elucidating the neural correlates of egoistic and moralistic self-enhancement

Self-enhancement is the biasing of one’s view of oneself in a positive direction. The brain correlates of self-enhancement remain unclear though it has been reported that the medial prefrontal cortex (MPFC) may be important for producing self-enhancing responses. Previous studies have not examined whether the neural correlates of self-enhancement depend on the particular domain in which individuals are enhancing themselves. Both moralistic and egoistic words were presented to participants while transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) was applied to the MPFC, precuneus or in a sham orientation. Participants were asked to make decisions as to the words describing themselves, some of which were positive and some of which were negative. It was found the MPFC TMS significantly disrupted egoistic self-enhancement when TMS was delivered to the MPFC. Judgments involving moralistic words were not influenced by TMS. These data provide further evidence that MPFC is involved in self-enhancement, and that the role of MPFC may be selective in this regard.     

Moral Imagination, Trading Zones, and the Role of the Ethicist in Nanotechnology

The societal and ethical impacts of emerging technological and business systems cannot entirely be foreseen; therefore, management of these innovations will require at least some ethicists to work closely with researchers. This is particularly critical in the development of new systems because the maximum degrees of freedom for changing technological direction occurs at or just after the point of breakthrough; that is also the point where the long-term implications are hardest to visualize. Recent work on shared expertise in Science & Technology Studies (STS) can help create productive collaborations among scientists, engineers, ethicists and other stakeholders as these new systems are designed and implemented. But collaboration across these disciplines will be successful only if scientists, engineers, and ethicists can communicate meaningfully with each other. The establishment of a trading zone coupled with moral imagination present one method for such collaborative communication.     

Functional Consequences of HIV-Associated Neuropsychological Impairment

This review focuses on the “real world” implications of infection with HIV/AIDS from a neuropsychological perspective. Relevant literature is reviewed which examines the relationships between HIV-associated neuropsychological impairment and employment, driving, medication adherence, mood, fatigue, and interpersonal functioning. Specifically, the relative contributions of medical, cognitive, psychosocial, and psychiatric issues on whether someone with HIV/AIDS will be able to return to work, adhere to a complicated medication regimen, or safely drive a vehicle will be discussed. Methodological issues that arise in the context of measuring medication adherence or driving capacity are also explored. Finally, the impact of HIV/AIDS on mood state, fatigue, and interpersonal relationships are addressed, with particular emphasis on how these variables interact with cognition and independent functioning. The purpose of this review is to integrate neuropsychological findings with their real world correlates of functional behavior in the HIV/AIDS population.     

Human patellar reflex and conditioned reflex compared electromyographically

Inspite of continued work on the stretch reflex and “voluntary” movement study of the conditioned stretch reflex declined early in this century. The present experiments surveyed seven classical conditioning regimens for the human rectus femoris EMG seen after a blow to the patellar tendon. It was possible to (1) rule out conditioning to a knee touch that occured together with the tap, (2) establish weak conditioned stimulus, Sc, control for a tape recorder click and subsequent fist clench that preceded the tap by variable elapsed times, and (3) establish strong Sc control for a tone that sounded an invariant 0.27 sec before the tap. There were large differences, however, in Sc power across subjects, as measured by amplitude, latency, and frequency of conditioned EMG activity that occured prior to tap or when the tap was omitted. Purely reflexive responses, especially later EMG segments, also varied in amplitude and frequency, to support a conclusion that numerous controlling stimuli added or competed from trial to trial. Further disclosure of Sc contributions, including those from movement-generated stimulation, is warranted, especially for behaviors whose rhythmic timings, as in locomotion, might favor Pavlovian conditioning.     

Linear representation of temporal location and Stevens’s law

Ss were asked to indicate points 1 week, 7 months, 3 years, and 9 years in the past and future on two time lines representing birth to present and present to death. Data for 90 college-age Ss fit a psychophysical power function following Stevens’s law. with negatively accelerated growth indicating proportionately greater linear representation of periods nearer to the present. Variability was greater for the representations of the future than of the past, with monotonic increases in variability as distance from the present increased.     

Vibrotactile magnitude production scaling: A method for studying sensory-perceptual responses of stutterers and fluent speakers

The method of vibrotactile mangitude production scaling was used to determine the tactile sensory-perceptual integrity for the dorsum of the tongue and thenar eminence of the right hand for 10 fluent speakers and 10 stutterers. It was discovered that both groups performed the task in a similar manner for the thenar eminence of the hand (a nonoral structure) but in a dissimilar manner for the tongue (an oral structure). From these data, it is suggested that the stutterers may maintain a different internal sensory-perceptual process for the tactile system involved in the speech process. The possibility exists that stuttering, for some, may be an “internal disorder” of the tactile-proprioceptive feedback mechanism that is directly involved in speech production.     

Individual differences in the orienting response: Nonresponding in nonclinical samples

The complete failure of the electrodermal orienting response (OR), although widely studied in clinical samples, has received little systematic attention in work with healthy adults. The published studies of nonresponding using nonclinical samples are reviewed, with data from three unpublished studies pertinent to the question, to identify the characteristics of nonresponders. The most durable findings to date are that nonresponding shows both trait and state characteristics, and that nonresponders are more likely to be female than male, to show hypoarousal in the electrodermal system but not complete unresponsiveness in this system or low arousal in other systems, and to show higher scores on measures of impulsiveness and antisociality but not to differ from responders in terms of sensation seeking. Most of these data can be reconciled with two different accounts of the OR mechanism. One is that proposed by I. Maltzman which postulates a difference between voluntary and involuntary ORs, and the other is that of J. A. Gray which proposes that the OR is a function of activity in a Behavioural Inhibition System. Taken together, these accounts imply that the OR reflects attentional and affective processes, and that both cognitive style and temperamental differences in the appraisal of threat can lead to electrodermal nonresponding.