Michael Balint: An Introduction

Michael Balint, who used to be known the world over, no longer gets either the fame or the influence that he deserves, and the three special issues of the journal devoted to him are meant to contribute to make him better known. I intend to draw a portrait of Balint—it will necessarily be only an outline, within the limits of the present issue—and to follow his path as a man and as a scholar.     

Monocular deprivation in adult mice alters visual acuity and single-unit activity

It has been discovered recently that monocular deprivation in young adult mice induces ocular dominance plasticity (ODP). This contradicts the traditional belief that ODP is restricted to a juvenile critical period. However, questions remain. ODP of young adults has been observed only using methods that are indirectly related to vision, and the plasticity of young adults appears diminished in comparison with juveniles. Therefore, we asked whether the newly discovered adult ODP broadly reflects plasticity of visual cortical function and whether it persists into full maturity. Single-unit activity is the standard physiological marker of visual cortical function. Using a more optimized protocol for recording single-units, we find evidence of adult ODP of single-units and show that it is most pronounced in deep cortical layers. Furthermore, using visual evoked potentials (VEP), we find that ODP is equally robust in young adults and mature adults and is observable after just one day of monocular deprivation. Finally, we find that monocular deprivation in adults changes spatial frequency thresholds of the VEP, decreasing the acuity of the deprived pathway and improving the acuity of the non-deprived pathway. Thus, in mice, the primary visual cortex is capable of remarkable adaptation throughout life.     

Quelques éléments de comparaison entre les politiques «d’intégration» de l’allemagne, du canada, de la france, de la grande bretagne, de l’italie et des pays-bas

In this article the author compares integration policies in some European countries and Canada. Despite the varying political or ideological wordings and histories all countries reviewed face similar social problems in the integration of migrants. Because public authorities act with pragmatism and without any strict theoretical model, policies are more comparable that one might suppose, although sometimes differences are marked. The article first points out the similarities in the policies of each country. Cultures and languages of origin, migrants’ associations, and unemployment are discussed briefly, as well as trianing of public servants, and struggle against racism, and urban segregation. A second section shows clear distinctions between the countries’ policies in two respects: politicization and relationships between searchers and policy-makers. The author then discusses several initiatives to improve integration using pre-existing programmes in other countries as examples. These include: welcome programmes for new immigrants, preschool programmes, dropout prevention programmes, globally conceived urban projects, as well decentralization of local authority, active local participation, and strong links with research work. The article concludes by supporting the thesis that no efficient integration policy can succeed if it does not strengthen the overall social link.     

Charting the map metaphor in theories of religion

The idea that scholars of religion produce ‘maps’ that represent the ‘territories’ of religion(s) is common and influential. This paper first discusses the role of the metaphor, with special reference to the work of J.Z. Smith, and some of the problems raised by the map metaphor (above all, its implicit reliance on a naive correspondence view of truth). It then draws two important distinctions: between different levels of representation; and between the representing and guiding function of maps (truth and use). It ends by comparing issues in the philosophy of science and the theory of religion in order to highlight some promising directions for more defensible semantic and epistemological groundwork in theory of religion.     

Minimal spectral contrast of formant peaks for vowel recognition as a function of spectral slope

In four experiments we investigated whether listeners can locate the formants of vowels not only from peaks, but also from spectral “shoulders”—features that give rise to zero crossings in the third, but not the first, differential of the excitation pattern—as hypothesized by Assmann and Summerfield (1989). Stimuli were steady-state approximations to the vowels [a, i, з, u, ?] created by summing the first 45 harmonics of a fundamental of 100 Hz. Thirty-nine harmonics had equal amplitudes; the other 6 formed three pairs that were raised in level to define three “formants.” An adaptive psychophysical procedure determined the minimal difference in level between the 6 harmonics and the remaining 39 at which the vowels were identifiably different from one another. These thresholds were measured through simulated communication channels, giving overall slopes to the excitation patterns of the five vowels that ranged from ?1 dB/erb to +2 dB/erb. Excitation patterns of the threshold stimuli were computed, and the locations of formants were estimated from zero crossings in the first and third differentials. With the more steeply sloping communication channels, some formants of some vowels were represented as shoulders rather than peaks, confirming the predictions of Assmann and Summerfield’s models. We discuss the limitations of the excitation pattern model and the related issue of whether the location of formants can be computed from spectral shoulders in auditory analysis.