Saccades reveal that allocentric coding of the moving object causes mislocalization in the flash-lag effect

The flash-lag effect is a visual misperception of a position of a flash relative to that of a moving object: Even when both are at the same position, the flash is reported to lag behind the moving object. In the present study, the flash-lag effect was investigated with eye-movement measurements: Subjects were required to saccade to either the flash or the moving object. The results showed that saccades to the flash were precise, whereas saccades to the moving object showed an offset in the direction of motion. A further experiment revealed that this offset in the saccades to the moving object was eliminated when the whole background flashed. This result indicates that saccadic offsets to the moving stimulus critically depend on the spatially distinctive flash in the vicinity of the moving object. The results are incompatible with current theoretical explanations of the flash-lag effect, such as the motion extrapolation account. We propose that allocentric coding of the position of the moving object could account for the flash-lag effect.     

The session of the two dreams

Abstract :  Through the discussion of the clinical material the author tries to show how numerous aspects of traditional Jungian analysis are close to several theoretical and clinical developments of Relational Psychoanalysis. A short introduction about relational psychoanalysis is given. The relational aspects of Jungian theory and praxis are underlined. If we refer to these theoretical constructs, it becomes possible to work in an original way and think of the clinical setting as different from the classical Freudian one, without abandoning Jungian tradition.     

Microsaccadic responses in a bimodal oddball task

In a visual oddball task the presentation of rare targets induces a prolonged microsaccadic inhibition as compared to standards. Here, we replicated this effect also in the auditory modality. In addition, although auditory standards induced a more limited modulation of microsaccadic frequency as compared to visual standards, auditory oddballs induced a prolonged microsaccadic inhibition. With bimodal standard stimuli the microsaccadic response was determined by the attended modality, resembling that produced by attended unimodal stimuli. The present findings support the idea that the microsaccadic response to oddball and standard stimuli is partly driven by cognitive mechanisms common to both the visual and the auditory modality, and that microsaccades can be used as an implicit behavioral measure of ongoing cognitive processes.     

Role-Reversal: A Somewhat Neglected Mirror of Heritages of the Past

Within a clinical–theoretical framework focused on transference–countertransference dynamics, the authors reflect on role-reversal and on the reasons it has been neglected for a long time in literature. This primitive inter- and intra-psychic process, often at the forefront in our practice, will be discussed in its principal aspects (patient's unconscious identification with parents’ psychic culture and concomitant dissociation of the infant part of the self), signaling how the enactment can be an inevitable element which, putting into play the past dissociated object relationships, becomes a source of mutative understanding.     

Social support, sense of community in school, and self-efficacy as resources during early adolescence: an integrative model

Influences of different sources of social support (from parents and friends), school sense of community, and self-efficacy on psychosocial well being (as measured by self-reported life satisfaction and psychological symptoms) in early adolescence were investigated in an integrative model. The model was tested using structural equation modeling. Multi-group comparisons were used to estimate differences between sex and age groups. The survey sample was composed of 7,097 students in Northern Italy (51.4% male) divided into three age cohorts (equivalent to 6th, 8th, and 10th grades with median ages of 11, 13, and 15). Findings obtained using SEM were consistent with self-efficacy and school sense of community mediating effects of social support on psychosocial adjustment. The multi-group comparison indicates a need for more complex developmental models and more research on how changing forms of support interact with each other as their effects also change during this important stage of the life. Implications for primary prevention and cross-cultural comparisons are discussed.     

Small-sample characterization of stochastic approximation staircases in forced-choice adaptive threshold estimation

Despite the widespread use of up-down staircases in adaptive threshold estimation, their efficiency and usability in forced-choice experiments has been recently debated. In this study, simulation techniques were used to determine the small-sample convergence properties of stochastic approximation (SA) staircases as a function of several experimental parameters. We found that satisfying some general requirements (use of the accelerated SA algorithm, clear suprathreshold initial stimulus intensity, large initial step size) the convergence was accurate independently of the spread of the underlying psychometric function. SA staircases were also reliable for targeting percent-correct levels far from the midpoint of the psychometric function and performed better than classical up-down staircases with fixed step size. These results prompt the utilization of SA staircases in practical forced-choice estimation of sensory thresholds.     

Epistemological premise, developmental idea, main motivation in Jung's and Kohut's psychoanalysis: looking for some analogies

We are living the passage from the positivistic ideal to a new cultural climate which may be called post-modernism, subjectivism or perspectivism and in which we have lost the conviction that it is possible to reach an absolute knowledge. This climate can become a strong stimulus to a dialogue and a comparison among different psychoanalytical schools and between psychoanalysis and empirical research to find some of the reference points we need in our work. In my paper I will compare self psychology and analytic psychology in order to point out several strong analogies. Firstly, they are based on the same methodological option which gathers knowledge through an empathic understanding 'from within'. According to both Jung and Kohut the individual has within himself a psycho-biological potential, an individual pre-formed core that asks to evolve completely: the central motivation of human beings is the realization of their own individuality. This shared theoretical and epistemological ground conveys convergences in the clinical field between the two disciplines (interpretation of dreams, respect of resistance, diminishing attitude regarding sexual drives, etc.) and specifically determines an attitude of the analyst, which respects the individual process of development, which pays attention to the inner experience, and which gives importance to the analyst's and the patient's subjective experience.     

Intermittent exposure to social defeat and open-field test in rats: acute and long-term effects on ECG,body temperature and physical activity

This study investigated the effects of exposure to an intermittent homotypic stressor on: (i) habituation of acute autonomic responsivity (i.e. cardiac sympathovagal balance and susceptibility to arrhythmias), and (ii) circadian rhythmicity of heart rate, body temperature, and physical activity. After implantation of a transmitter for the radiotelemetric recording of electrocardiogram (ECG), body temperature and physical activity, adult male rats (Rattus norvegicus, Wild Type Groningen strain) were repeatedly exposed (10 consecutive times, on alternate days) to either a social stressor (defeat by a con-specific, n = 15) or an open-field, control challenge (transfer to a new cage; n = 8). ECGs, body temperature and physical activity were continuously recorded in baseline, test and recovery periods (each lasting 15 min), at the 1st and 10th episodes of both defeat and open-field challenge. The circadian rhythms of heart rate, body temperature and physical activity were monitored before (5 days), during (16 days) and after (21 days) the intermittent stress protocol. This study indicates that there is no clear habituation of either acute cardiac autonomic responsivity (as estimated by means of time-domain indexes of heart rate variability) or arrhythmia occurrence to a brief, intermittent, homotypic challenge, regardless of the nature of the stressor (social or non-social). On the other hand, rats exposed to social challenge also failed to show adaptation of acute temperature and activity stress responsiveness, whereas rats facing open-field challenge developed habituation of activity and sensitization of temperature responses. Repeated social challenge produced remarkable reductions of the heart rate circadian rhythm amplitude (this effect being significantly greater than that produced by intermittent open-field), but only minor changes in the daily rhythms of body temperature and physical activity.