Cardiac and electromyographic indices of attention: suggested situational adaptation effects.

Neck muscle action potentials and heart rate variability were recorded on 30 male hospital patients prior to and during performing on a short-lasting test of detecting auditory lateral shifts. A positive correlation (r = 0.49) was found during the second day but not during the first day of testing. The correlation is compatible with Obrist's somatic coupling hypothesis. Its absence during the first day suggests that subjects must adapt to the test situation before any reliable relations between physiological measures can be observed.     

The Death of Resistance

For any conceptual distinction to be useful ( 5 ) within the field of family therapy, it needs to lead to some clear answers to the question: What does this distinction mean for clinical practice? The distinction between (a) the family-as-a-system, and (b) family-therapy-as-a-system leads to a clinical perspective, or stance, that includes a focus on changing. Once this focus is clear, the therapist can help to create the expectation of changing and consequently promote changing. That is, techniques can be developed using positive feedback loops. ¹ 1 It is important to remember throughout this essay that “positive” and “negative feedback loops,”“deviation-amplifying,”“deviation-counteracting processes,” etc., are just heuristic devices or metaphors. Human systems do not have such things. Human systems are described by an observer “as if.”
Moreover, this distinction leads to a therapeutic stance in which not changing is a surprise.     

The nootropic properties of ginseng saponin Rb<Subscript>1</Subscript> are linked to effects on anxiety

Previous studies have shown that crude ginseng extracts enhance performance on shock-motivated tasks. Whether such performance enhancements are due to memory-enhancing (nootropic) properties of ginseng, or to other non-specific effects such as an influence on anxiety has not been determined. In the present study, we evaluated both the nootropic and anxiolytic effects of the ginseng saponin Rb₁. In the first experiment, 80 five-day-old male chicks received intraperitoneal injections of 0, 0.25, 2.5 or 5.0 mg/kg Rb₁. Performance on a visual discrimination task was uvaluted 15 minutes, 24 and 72 hours later. Acquisition of a visual discrimination task was unaffected by drug treatment, but the number of errors was significantly reduced in the 0.25 mg/kg group during retention trials completed 24 and 72 hours after injection. Animals receiving higher dosages showed trends towards enhancement initially, but demonstrated impaired performance when tested 72 hours later. Rb₁ had no effect on response rates or body weight. In the second experiment, 64 five-day-old male chicks received similar injections of Rb₁ (0, 0.25, 2.5 or 5.0 mg/kg) and separation distress was evaluated 15 minutes, 24 and 72 hours later. Rb₁ produced a change in separation distress that depended on the dose and environmental condition under which distress was recorded. These data suggest that Rb₁ can improve memory for a visual discrimination task and that the nootropic effect may be related to changes in anxiety.     

THE MYTH OF CARTESIAN QUALIA

Abstract:  The standard view of Cartesian sensations (SV) is that they present themselves as purely qualitative features of experience (or qualia). Accordingly, Descartes' view would be that in perceiving the color red, for example, we are merely experiencing the subjective feel of redness rather than seeming to perceive a property of bodies. In this paper, I establish that the argument and textual evidence offered in support of SV fail to prove that Descartes held this view. Indeed, I will argue that there are textual and theoretical reasons for believing that Descartes held the negation of SV. Qualia aren't Descartes' legacy.