Beyond the Psychosexual: The Body–Mind Relationship Discussion of “Somatic Experiencing”

The author discusses the importance of focusing on the body in analytic work since it functions as an important springboard for the patient to discover his or her unique existence. It also helps develop a dialogue between the mind and the body’s sensory level. This is a more archaic domain than the more often emphasized psychoanalytic tradition of organizing our thinking psychosexually. The author also underscores the differences between psychoanalysis and Somatic Experiencing and the risks and advantages of modulating or heightening sensory experience.     

The deep versus the shallow: effects of co-speech gestures in learning from discourse

This study concerned the role of gestures that accompany discourse in deep learning processes. We assumed that co-speech gestures favor the construction of a complete mental representation of the discourse content, and we tested the predictions that a discourse accompanied by gestures, as compared with a discourse not accompanied by gestures, should result in better recollection of conceptual information, a greater number of discourse-based inferences drawn from the information explicitly stated in the discourse, and poorer recognition of verbatim of the discourse. The results of three experiments confirmed these predictions.     

Dopaminergic modulation of prospective memory in Parkinson's disease

Growing interest is present in literature on the study of prospective memory functioning in Parkinson's disease (PD). Current data indicate that prospective memory may be impaired in PD and a relationship with general executive dysfunctioning has been suggested. However, although the dopamine dependency of cognitive dysfunction in PD has been widely investigated, poor is known on the dopaminergic modulation of PM. In the present study we explored the effect of acute administration of levodopa on the performance of a PD sample (n=20) in a time-based prospective memory task. PD patients were evaluated in the morning after a 12-hour therapy wash-out in two experimental conditions: i) after levodopa assumption ("on"); ii) without drug administration ("off"). The experimental task required to execute three uncorrelated actions after 10' for three consecutive trials. Distinct scores for the spontaneous recall of the intention to perform the actions (prospective component) and for the correct execution of the actions (retrospective component) have been computed. Results showed that in the "off" condition PD patients were selectively impaired on the prospective component of the task. However, L-dopa administration significantly improved PD patients' performance actually restoring the prospective memory deficit. These results support a critical role of dopaminergic modulation in prospective memory processes in PD patients, possibly through the replacement of dopamine levels in fronto-striatal pathways.     

Knowledge and experience of time in primitive mental states2

The author proposes that time be considered an object of working through during the psychoanalysis of patients whose mental functioning reveals distinct primitive aspects. These so‐called ‘difficult patients’ are particularly intolerant of the temporal limits of analytic sessions and often attempt to undermine the analytic setting. He presents some hypotheses about time and the mind's depth levels. A series of clinical vignettes taken from the analysis of adolescent, borderline and psychotic patients shows several ways in which the analysand's perception of and relation to time surfaces and is worked through in the course of analysis. Analyzing the relationship with time and the conflict between denial and acceptance of temporality proved a significant catalyst in the development of cases that had tenaciously impeded progress. It thus became possible to bring about important changes in the ways such patients experienced affect in the analytic relationship and in object relations, not by acting directly upon these relationships but by working instead on the formal parameters that organize the mind–and primarily on its spatio‐temporal organization.     

Walking reduces the gap between encoding and sensorimotor alignment effects in spatial updating of described environments

Spatial updating allows people to keep track of the self-to-object relations during movement. Previous studies demonstrated that physical movement enhanced spatial updating in remote environments, but failed to find the same effect in described environments. However, these studies mainly considered rotation as a physical movement, without examining other types of movement, such as walking. We investigated how walking affects spatial updating within described environments. Using the judgement of relative directions task, we compared the effects of imagination of rotation, physical rotation, and walking on spatial updating. Spatial updating was evaluated in terms of accuracy and response times in different perspectives, and by calculating two indexes, namely the encoding and sensorimotor alignment effects. As regards response times, we found that in the imagination of rotation and physical rotation conditions the encoding alignment effect was higher than the sensorimotor alignment effect, while in the walking condition this gap disappeared. We interpreted these results in terms of an enhanced link between allocentric and sensorimotor representations, due to the information acquired through walking.     

A convenient and accurate parallel Input/Output USB device for E-Prime

Psychological and neurophysiological experiments require the accurate control of timing and synchrony for Input/Output signals. For instance, a typical Event-Related Potential (ERP) study requires an extremely accurate synchronization of stimulus delivery with recordings. This is typically done via computer software such as E-Prime, and fast communications are typically assured by the Parallel Port (PP). However, the PP is an old and disappearing technology that, for example, is no longer available on portable computers. Here we propose a convenient USB device enabling parallel I/O capabilities. We tested this device against the PP on both a desktop and a laptop machine in different stress tests. Our data demonstrate the accuracy of our system, which suggests that it may be a good substitute for the PP with E-Prime.     

Treating Traumatized Children: Somatic Memories and Play Therapy

Drawing on psychoanalytic theories of infant development and children’s preverbal memories, this article explores the somatic memories in young children who experienced trauma and the level interventions necessary to facilitate the transformation of these traumas from concrete to symbolic representations. The clinical case of a 3-year-old boy who experienced hospitalizations and multiple surgeries prior to the age of 2 is used to illustrate the efficacy of play therapy for traumatized children. We argue that children do remember traumas from their infancy, and interventions geared toward re-enacting the traumas through play are necessary to help these children symbolize their experiences and alleviate their trauma symptoms.     

“You Shouldn’t Look at Us Strangely”: An Exploratory Study on Personal Perspectives on Quality of Life of Adolescents with Emotional and Behavioral Disorders in Residential Youth Care

Applied Research in Quality of Life - Adolescents with Emotional and Behavioral Disorders (EBD) have complex needs and experience challenges in various developmental areas and life domains. The...