Apparent rotation and jazzing in Leviant's Enigma illusion

In 1981 Leviant devised Enigma, a figure that elicits perceived rotary motion in the absence of real motion. However, despite its striking appearance there is no good explanation for this motion illusion to date. Gregory (1993 Proceedings of the Royal Society of London B 253 123) pointed out a similarity to MacKay's 'complementary' afterimage in his ray pattern and suggested accommodative fluctuations and small eye movements as a potential origin for these phenomena. Furthermore, Zeki et al (1993 Proceedings of the Royal Society of London B 252 215-222) found PET-activation in response to Enigma in visual area V5 and immediately surrounding areas (called V5 complex) suggesting that the illusory motion could be mediated by the same neurons as real motion. In the experiments reported here, I show that the rotary motion is perceived on coloured as well as achromatic annuli intercepting the radial lines. More importantly, the illusory streaming motion continues to be seen with a cycloplegic lens as well as through a pinhole (ie ruling out transient changes of accommodation), and in the positive after-image (ie in the absence of eye movements). Apparent rotation is strongest with radial inducers impinging at right angles onto the annuli, but persist, although to a lesser degree, when the inducing lines are tilted in opposite directions, non-collinear, or replaced by dotted lines or lines with rounded terminators. For an explanation, the Enigma illusion requires a neural mechanism that uses lines abutting an empty annulus to elicit orthogonal streaming motion in one or the other direction.     

Last but not least

A central tenet of Gestalt psychology is that the visual scene can be separated into figure and ground. The two illusions we present demonstrate that Gestalt processes can group spatial contrast information that cuts across the figure/ground separation. This finding suggests that visual processes that organise the visual scene do not necessarily require structural segmentation as their primary input.     

论现代传染病防治中医患关系的特点

现代传染病防治中传统的医患关系的内涵和外延都发生了一定的变化,无论是医方还是患方都体现出强烈超医学性和社会性,在社会大防治的概念下医患之间出现一定的界限模糊甚至角色重叠.现代传染病的发展给我们提供了审视医患关系的新视角,引发人们关于医学发展、社会道德的深层次的思考.     

纪念老子诞辰2578周年系列活动在河南鹿邑隆重举行

2007年4月2日(农历二月十五),是伟大的哲学家、道家学派创始人、道祖老子诞辰2578周年纪念日。当日早上7:30,来自海内外的道教界代表、各级领导和当地群众近二万人参加了纪念活动。中国道教协会任法融会长,黄信阳、张金涛副会长、袁炳     

Why don't health professionals check patient understanding? A questionnaire-based study

Checking patient understanding, by asking questions about information presented in a medical consultation, is a core communication skill but its use is not frequently assessed. The newborn hearing screening commenced in England with a pilot of its implementation in January 2002. Because it is a new screening test, it provided an opportunity for studying the effective communication of novel information. A randomized controlled trial of training newborn hearing screeners to present information about the screening test and to ask questions to check understanding was commenced but had to be prematurely ended as the majority of the screeners did not ask the questions. The aim of this study was to understand why the screeners did not ask questions to check understanding of the information provided. Questionnaires were sent to screeners who participated in the study to elicit their responses to the use of the questions to check understanding. A response rate of 87% (26/30) was achieved. Screeners who reported not asking the questions were more likely to express a lack of confidence in their ability to ask questions, and to perceive asking questions as an ineffective way of increasing patient understanding. The study suggests that the ability and willingness of healthcare professionals to use simple communication skills may have been overestimated and training needs to target skills as well as beliefs about the effectiveness of using them.     

FOK判断与可接近信息之间的关系

通过三个实验,用语义联想集大小不同的中文单字词研究了靶项目联想集的大小与FOK判断等级和准确性的关系。实验一通过两种不同联想集大小的靶子,比较外显的、提取出的信息和内隐的、语义网络中固有的被激活信息量对FOK判断等级和FOK判断准确性是否有不同的影响。实验二和实验三通过不同的靶子呈现时间和学习遍数,比较不同的识记强度对不同大小联想集的靶子的FOK判断等级和FOK判断准确性的影响。实验结果表明：FOK判断等级随外显的、提取出的信息总量的增多而增高,随内隐的、语义网络中固有的被激活信息量的增多而降低。FOK判断准确性随靶子本身的激活强度的增强而增高,随内隐的、语义网络中固有的被激活信息的激活强度的增强而降低,FOK判断准确性取决于这两种激活强度的综合作用。     

走神的理论假设、影响因素及其神经机制

围绕“为什么会走神”这一问题, 文章首先介绍了走神的两个理论假设：解耦合假设和执行控制失败假设。接着论述了影响走神的各种因素, 并探讨了走神的神经机制。最后指出未来研究应着眼于走神的潜在功能来发展理论假设; 整合影响走神的各种因素到一个模型中, 从而更好地发现各因素对走神的综合影响; 应用同步脑电和功能磁共振成像技术以更精确地探索走神的神经机制。此外, 对特殊群体的走神研究以及走神的跨文化研究也是很有必要的。     

情绪调节自我效能感与主观幸福感：情绪调节方式的中介作用

本研究的目的在于探讨青少年情绪调节自我效能感与主观幸福感之间的关系及情绪调节方式在其中的中介作用。采用《情绪调节自我效能感量表》、《情绪调节方式量表》和《主观幸福感量表》对1128名中学生进行测查,结果表明：(1) 情绪调节自我效能感与情绪调节方式、生活满意度、积极情感、消极情感关系紧密;(2) 情绪调节自我效能感和情绪调节方式可显著预测主观幸福感;(3) 减弱调节在情绪调节自我效能感与主观幸福感间起部分中介作用。     

疏离与关怀:传染病患者的社会交往伦理探析

现代社会围绕传染病涉及医学、伦理、社会文化等多因素相互影响和作用,整个社会呈现出不同的道德认识、评价、情感选择方式,构成了传染病患者与医生、与社会其他人之间的复杂道德关系和张力互动。关注传染病患者伴随生活世界转换而与社会的疏离及自我放逐,在社会人道关怀和个体社会责任强化中,完善社会控制,重建公共交往伦理,对于保持社会和谐和公正意义重大。     

Aroused at Home: Basic Autonomic Regulation during Orthostatic and Physical Activation is Altered in Children with Social Anxiety Disorder

Previous research has documented altered autonomic nervous system (ANS) reactivity to laboratory-based social stress tasks in children with social anxiety disorder (SAD). It is unclear, however, whether these alterations are caused by the unfamiliar and possibly threatening lab environment or whether they generalize to other, more representative contexts. Sympathetic and parasympathetic autonomic functioning was assessed in the home (minimizing environmental threat) during a supine baseline phase and two physical activation phases (orthostatic stress, stair stepping) in children (9–13 years) with SAD (n?=?27) and healthy control children (n?=?27). Relative to controls, children with SAD showed tonic autonomic hyperarousal as indicated by higher heart rate and electrodermal activity during the supine baseline phase. Further, there was evidence for stronger cardiac and vascular sympathetic reactivity (T-wave amplitude, pulse wave transit time) to moderate physical activation in children with SAD. Higher autonomic arousal during rest was related to measures of trait social anxiety and general psychopathology. Groups did not differ on parasympathetic parameters. Our results extend previous laboratory findings and provide the first evidence for alterations in children with SAD during basal autonomic regulation and in the absence of explicit social evaluative threat. They may further help to clarify conflicting study results from previous laboratory studies. The findings underline the importance of psychophysiological assessment using different environments and tasks to elucidate the physiological bases of SAD.