“Avoiding or approaching eyes”? Introversion/extraversion affects the gaze-cueing effect

We investigated whether the extra-/introversion personality dimension can influence processing of others’ eye gaze direction and emotional facial expression during a target detection task. On the basis of previous evidence showing that self-reported trait anxiety can affect gaze-cueing with emotional faces, we also verified whether trait anxiety can modulate the influence of intro-/extraversion on behavioral performance. Fearful, happy, angry or neutral faces, with either direct or averted gaze, were presented before the target appeared in spatial locations congruent or incongruent with stimuli’s eye gaze direction. Results showed a significant influence of intra-/extraversion dimension on gaze-cueing effect for angry, happy, and neutral faces with averted gaze. Introverts did not show the gaze congruency effect when viewing angry expressions, but did so with happy and neutral faces; extraverts showed the opposite pattern. Importantly, the influence of intro-/extraversion on gaze-cueing was not mediated by trait anxiety. These findings demonstrated that personality differences can shape processing of interactions between relevant social signals.     

Short-term memory and verbal learning with auditory phonological coding defect: a neuropsychological case study.

A patient is described with a rarely reported linguistic syndrome: he could repeat words but not nonwords. The patient produced semantic paraphasias in repetition and could read both words and nonwords flawlessly. His basic difficulties were localized in auditory phonological coding, identifying a clinical picture called "phonemic deafness." Short-term memory and verbal learning results suggested that a standard, selective short-term memory defect can be induced by auditory phonological coding deficits as well as by "pure" short-term memory capacity limitation and other phonological deficits. Findings also provided evidence that lexical-semantic code can allow normal verbal learning.     

On the syndrome of the "spare limb": one case

We describe a case of a brain-damaged patient who had a peculiar bodily illusion which could not be labelled an hallucination but seemed somatognosically and phenomenologically similar to the phantom limb without amputation. The patient, who showed left hemiplegia, felt a third upper limb (without seeing it) which he himself defined as "spare." The spare limb was not deformed; it could be moved and controlled by the patient, and there was no sensation of pain. The patient did not show psychopathological or cognitive disorders. A possible interpretation of the phenomenon is as a "phantom movement" of the paralysed limb: the mental representation of the movement of the limb was dissociated from the bodily representation of his own limb and so was still present in his consciousness despite the paralysis.     

Recognition and mental manipulation of body parts dissociate in locked-in syndrome

Several lines of evidence demonstrate that the motor system is involved in motor simulation of actions, but some uncertainty exists about the consequences of lesions of descending motor pathways on mental imagery tasks. Moreover, recent findings suggest that the motor system could also have a role in recognition of body parts. To address these issues in the present study we assessed patients with a complete damage of descending motor pathways (locked-in syndrome, LIS) on the hand laterality task, requiring subjects to decide whether a hand stimulus in a given spatial orientation represents a left or a right hand. LIS patients were less accurate than healthy controls in judging hand laterality; more importantly, LIS patients’ performance was modulated by spatial orientation of hand stimuli whereas it was not affected by biomechanical constraints. These findings demonstrate a dissociation between spared hand recognition and impaired access to action simulation processes in LIS patients.     

生活医学化与健康恐慌的关系及其反思*--论Michael Fitzpatrick《健康的暴政：医生及生活方式的控制》

迈克尔·菲茨帕特里克的《健康的暴政：医生及生活方式的控制》一书,以健康干预为主线,以健康政治化、生活医学化、疾病道德化为主题,论述了生活医学化的不同方面和形成过程,并力图揭示医学化背后隐含着的医学对社会的干预和控制。其中作者关于生活医学化和健康恐慌的一些哲学思考,尤其是生活医学化与健康恐慌的内涵及特点、生活医学化与健康恐慌的关系以及对生活医学化的审视与反思,在一定程度上蕴涵着对当今社会发展的启示。     

Psychophysiological correlates of organizational change and threat of unemployment among police inspectors

The study examined psychosocial work-conditions and physiological reactions among thirty-six police inspectors (median age 45 years, 81% males) who participated in a reorganization. At this time, subjects were threatened by unemployment and had to reapply for their positions in a new police district. Data were collected during the reorganization and at three years follow-up, by means of questionnaires (Stress Profile) and blood samples. The blood samples were used to determine serum levels of gammaglutamyltransferase (GGT), glucose, lipids, prolactin, testosterone and cortisol. The results show a positive association betweenworry about employment and symptoms ofburnout during the reorganization. Mean scores for the Stress Profile sub-scalesworry about employment (p<.01) andwork-load (p<.05) decreased between measurements but an impairment inrelationships with management was noticed (p<.05). No significant changes were observed in terms of self-rated health complaints. Significant decreases in total cholesterol (p<.0001), LDL-cholesterol (p<.0001), LDL/HDL-ratio (p<.01), prolactin (p<.0001), as well as increases in testosterone (p<.01) and cortisol (p<.001) were observed for the whole sample. Glucose decreased with marginal significance (<.07). Controlling for age and gender, multivariate regression analyses showed that subjects who reported deteriorations insatisfaction with work manifested the most modest decreases in prolactin (p<.05). Also, the decrease in glucose was larger for subjects who experienced impairments in,satisfaction with work (p<.05), information (p<.05), task-oriented leadership, (p<.05), andrespect and dignity (p<.05). Subjects who perceived deteriorations in theethical and moral standards of the organization increased their cortisol level to a lower degree than their counterparts (p<.05). Favorable changes in employment status and psychosocial work environment seem to be related to improved physiological functioning.