BDNF serum levels in subjects developing or not post-traumatic stress disorder after trauma exposure

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a syndrome resulting from exposure to a severe traumatic event that poses threatened death or injury and produces intense fear and helplessness. The neural structures implicated in PTSD development belong to the limbic system, an important region for emotional processing. Brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) is a neurotrophin that serves as survival factor for selected populations of central nervous system (CNS) neurons and plays a role in the limbic system by regulating synaptic plasticity, memory processes and behavior. Impaired BDNF production in the brain can lead to a variety of CNS dysfunctions including symptoms associated with PTSD. However, so far fewer studies have investigated this neurotrophin in patients with PTSD. Furthermore, given the multiple role of BDNF in various CNS disorders, it cannot be excluded that traumatic events per se may influence neurotrophin levels, without a direct association to the PTSD syndrome.     

Psychoanalysis and empirical research

At the beginning of the nineteenth century, the idea of reason began to lose its universal and absolute value, undermining the view of science as a form of objective knowledge that reveals a fundamental reality. These changes have also had an impact on psychoanalysis, leading to a proliferation of theories and the end of a positivistic approach, epitomized by a 'neutral' analyst who knows the contents of the patient's mind. Hermeneutic philosophy provides a tool with which to explore both theoretical multiplicity and the contribution of the analyst's subjectivity to the analytic process. Furthermore, a hermeneutic approach does not have to be hostile to empirical science, but can be integrated with it in a 'scientific-hermeneutic model' in which historical and biological principles are given equal value.     

Microswitch-based programs for persons with multiple disabilities: an overview of some recent developments

Persons with multiple disabilities are often unable to interact with their environment due to their limited response repertoire. Microswitch programs are designed to help them control environmental events, generally preferred stimulation, through simple (feasible) responses. To make microswitch programs a more widely usable and relevant resource for intervention with these persons, a number of new developments were pursued in recent years. This paper examines three of those developments as specifically addressed in our research activity, namely, (a) assessment of new, nontypical responses and matching microswitches, (b) fostering of multiple responses and exercise of choice, and (c) targeting of habilitative and clinical (therapeutic) objectives. The encouraging outcomes of these developments are reviewed in relation to their potentially wide implications for daily practice and the need of additional developments in the area.     

“Metaphysics Without Ethics is Blind”: The Legacy of Hilary Putnam

Two convictions underlie the following article. The first is that Hilary Putnam has been one of the greatest thinkers of our time, a philosopher who was able to propose groundbreaking ideas in virtually every area of philosophy. As the reader will see, the topics he tackled in his writings included questions of philosophy of science, philosophy of language, philosophy of mathematics and logic, philosophy of mind, metaethics, the fact-value dichotomy, the interpretation of Wittgenstein’s later thought, the question of relativism, the analysis of rationality, the analysis of religious experience, the character of Jewish philosophy, the interpretation of pragmatism, the elucidation of the concept of truth, the question of realism, the relationship between mind and the world. The second is that the changes some of his positions underwent, far from being a point of weakness—as some critics have sometimes felt compelled to claim—reveal the freshness and genuineness of Putnam’s way of philosophising and at the same time the essence of philosophical discussion itself.     

Redundant visual signals boost saccade execution

The redundant signal effect (RSE) refers to the fact that human beings react more quickly to a pair of stimuli than to only one stimulus. In previous studies of the RSE in the oculomotor system, bimodal signals have been used as the goal of the saccade. In consistency with studies using manual response times (RTs), saccadic RTs have been shown to be shorter for redundant multimodal stimuli than for single unimodal stimuli. In the present experiments, we extended these findings by demonstrating an RSE in the saccadic system elicited only by unimodal visual stimuli. In addition, we found that shorter saccadic RTs were accompanied by an increased saccadic peak velocity. The present results are of relevance for neurophysiological models of saccade execution, since the boost of saccades was elicited by two visual transients (acting as a “go” signal) that were presented not at the goal of the saccade but at various other locations.     

The Realist Wager: Challenging Rorty on His Home Ground

Philosophia - The paper is devoted to Richard Rorty’s thought, with the aim of exploiting a certain contention of his and directing it, as it were, against Rorty himself. Here is the...     

Deeper attentional masking by lateral objects in children with autism

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is often associated with a detail-oriented perception and overselective attention in visual tasks, such as visual search and crowding. These results were obtained manipulating exclusively the spatial properties of the stimuli: few is known about the spatio-temporal dynamics of visual processing in ASD. In this study we employed an attentional masking (AM) paradigm comparing children with ASD and IQ-matched typically developing (TD) controls. The AM effect refers to an impaired identification of a target followed by a competitive masking object at different proximities in space and time. We found that ASD and TD groups did not differ in the AM effect provoked by the competitive object displayed in the same position of the target. In contrast, children with ASD showed a deeper and prolonged interference than the TD group when the masking object was displayed in the lateral position. These psychophysical results suggest that the inefficient attentional selection in ASD depends on the spatio-temporal interaction between competitive visual objects. These evidence are discussed in the light of the ASD altered neural connectivity hypothesis and the reentrant theory of perception.     

Fairness,self-deception and political obligation

I offer a new account of fair-play obligations for non-excludable benefits received from the state. Firstly, I argue that non-acceptance of these benefits frees recipients of fairness obligations only when a counterfactual condition is met; i.e. when non-acceptance would hold up in the closest possible world in which recipients do not hold motivationally-biased beliefs triggered by a desire to free-ride. Secondly, I argue that because of common mechanisms of self-deception there will be recipients who reject these benefits without meeting the counterfactual condition. For this reason, I suggest that those who reject non-excludable benefits provided by the state have a duty to support their rejection with adequate reasons. Failing that, they can be permissibly treated as if they had fair-play obligations (although in fact they might not have them). Thus, I claim that there is a distinction, largely unappreciated, between the question of whether we have a duty of fairness to obey the law and the question of whether we can be permissibly treated as if we had one.