Is There Really Mental Disorder?

Proponents of the reality of mental disorder claim that mental disorder is ontologically real in the same sense that the variola virus and smallpox are ontologically real. The chief architect of the DSM-III revolution, Robert Spitzer (Zimmerman & Spitzer, 2005 Zimmerman , M. , & Spitzer , R. , L. ( 2005 ). Psychiatric classification . In B. J. Sadock & V. A. Sadock (Eds.), Comprehensive textbook of psychiatry (pp. 1003 – 1033 ). Philadelphia , PA : Lippincott, Williams, and Wilkins . [Google Scholar]), candidly admits that a diagnosis of primary mental disorder present must be arbitrary because the distress or social impairment under consideration could well be a normal-range reaction to stressful events. Based on Jerome Wakefield's harmful dysfunction thesis, Spitzer hopes that research in evolutionary psychology can solve the perennial “false positive” problem in psychiatric diagnosis. Interestingly, in 1988 Wakefield , J. ( 1988 ). Hermeneutics and empiricism . In S. B. Messer , L. A. Sass & R. L. Woolfolk (Eds.), Hermeneutics and psychological theory (pp. 131 – 150 ). New Brunswick , CT : Rutgers University Press . [Google Scholar] Wakefield argued that the study of meaning (i.e., human behavior and the products of human behavior, such as art and literature) could not be assimilated to empiricism (science), but evidently he subsequently changed his mind. The present paper sides with the 1988 Wakefield , J. ( 1988 ). Hermeneutics and empiricism . In S. B. Messer , L. A. Sass & R. L. Woolfolk (Eds.), Hermeneutics and psychological theory (pp. 131 – 150 ). New Brunswick , CT : Rutgers University Press . [Google Scholar] Wakefield. It is an illusion to hope that research in evolutionary psychology will reveal how people are supposed to react to stressful events and thereby rescue psychiatric diagnosis from the false positive problem. The identification of mental disorder will remain akin to the identification of pornography, i.e., a case of reification based on interpretation and moral reasoning. The fiction that mental disorder is real turns attention away from past and present conditions of living. This may serve some interests, but it is not likely to serve the patient's interests.     

Relationships Between Cognitive and Behavioral Measures of Executive Function in Children With Brain Disease

This study addressed the clinical and construct validity of the Behavior Rating Inventory of Executive Function. (BRIEF: Gioia, Isquith, Guy, & Kenworthy, 2000), a questionnaire designed to tap behavioral aspects of executive functions in children. BRIEF profiles in early treated phenylketonuria (PKU; n = 44), early treated hydrocephalus (n = 45), frontal focal lesions (n = 20) and controls (n = 80) were examined. Clinical validity was supported through significant between-group comparisons, especially between the frontal focal lesion group and other groups. To examine construct validity, raw scores on cognitive executive function measures including the Contingency Naming Test (CNT), Rey Complex Figure (RCF), Tower of London (TOL), and Controlled Oral Word Association Test (COWAT), were correlated with BRIEF scale scores. Few significant correlations were found, indicating cognitive and behavioral measures appear to tap different constructs within the executive function domain. A dissociation was found between behavioral and cognitive impairments in the frontal as opposed to PKU and hydrocephalus groups. This is discussed in relation to underlying pathology, the cognitive measures used, and possible limitations in the BRIEF's usefulness for measuring behavioral executive dysfunction in groups only mildly affected by neurological compromise.     

Atrophy of the parietal lobe in preclinical dementia

Cortical grey matter atrophy patterns have been reported in healthy ageing and Alzheimer disease (AD), but less consistently in the parietal regions of the brain. We investigated cortical grey matter volume patterns in parietal areas. The grey matter of the somatosensory cortex, superior and inferior parietal lobule was measured in 75 older adults (38 cognitively stable and 37 individuals with cognitive decline after 3 years). Dementia screening 6 years after scanning resulted in nine AD cases from the cognitively stable (n=3) and cognitive decline group (n=6), who were assigned to a third group, the preclinical AD group. When regional differences in cortical volume in the parietal lobe areas were compared between groups, significant differences were found between either the cognitive decline or stable group on the one hand and preclinical AD individuals on the other hand in the inferior parietal lobule. Group membership was best predicted by the grey matter volume of the inferior parietal lobule, compared to the other parietal lobe areas. The parietal lobe was characterised by a differential atrophy pattern based on cognitive status, which is in agreement with the 'last-developed-first-atrophied' principle. Future studies should investigate the surplus value of the inferior parietal lobe as a potential marker for the diagnosis of AD compared to other brain regions, such as the medial temporal lobe and the prefrontal lobe.     

TMS effects on subjective and objective measures of vision: stimulation intensity and pre- versus post-stimulus masking

Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) can be used to mask visual stimuli, disrupting visual task performance or preventing visual awareness. While TMS masking studies generally fix stimulation intensity, we hypothesized that varying the intensity of TMS pulses in a masking paradigm might inform several ongoing debates concerning TMS disruption of vision as measured subjectively versus objectively, and pre-stimulus (forward) versus post-stimulus (backward) TMS masking. We here show that both pre-stimulus TMS pulses and post-stimulus TMS pulses could strongly mask visual stimuli. We found no dissociations between TMS effects on the subjective and objective measures of vision for any masking window or intensity, ruling out the option that TMS intensity levels determine whether dissociations between subjective and objective vision are obtained. For the post-stimulus time window particularly, we suggest that these data provide new constraints for (e.g. recurrent) models of vision and visual awareness. Finally, our data are in line with the idea that pre-stimulus masking operates differently from conventional post-stimulus masking.     

Depression

Abstract— The theory of clinical depression presented here integrates etiological factors, changes in specific structural and cellular substrates, ensuing symptomatology, and treatment and prevention. According to this theory, important etiological factors, such as stress, can suppress the production of new neurons in the adult human brain, thereby precipitating or maintaining a depressive episode. Most current treatments for depression are known to elevate brain serotonin neurotransmission, and such increases in serotonin have been shown to significantly augment the ongoing rate of neurogenesis, providing the neural substrate for new cognitions to be formed, and thereby facilitating recovery from the depressive episode. This theory also points to treatments that augment neurogenesis as new therapeutic opportunities.     

Nonfallacious Rhetorical Strategies: Lyndon Johnson’s Daisy Ad

The traditional concepts of rhetorical strategy and argumentative fallacy cannot be readily reconciled. Doing so requires escaping the following argument: All argumentation involves rhetorical strategies. All rhetorical strategies are violations of logical or dialectical ideals. All violations of logical or dialectical ideals are fallacies. Normative pragmatics provides a perspective in which rhetorical strategies can be seen to have the potential for constructive contributions to argumentation and in which fallacies are not simply violations of ideals. One kind of constructive contribution, framing moves, is illustrated with the case of Lyndon Johnson’s 1964 TV campaign commercial known as the Daisy ad.     

Planning and problem solving skills following focal frontal brain lesions in childhood: analysis using the Tower of London.

Problem solving skills were investigated in children with focal lesions using the Tower of London test (TOL; Shallice, 1982). The scoring procedure was elaborated from previous studies to delineate separate processes contributing to overall performance in children. Thirty-one children with focal frontal pathology, 18 children with focal pathology in other brain regions (extra-frontal), 17 children with generalized pathology and 38 healthy children participated in the study. Results suggest a distributed network for problem solving skills, particularly cognitive flexibility and goal setting skills. Within the frontal group, children with lesions involving the right pre-frontal cortex had greatest problems with self-regulation, with rule breaks most common among this group. As these skills develop relatively early in comparison to other aspects of executive function, right pre-frontal regions may play a particularly important role in the development of executive skills in childhood, with damage to these regions rendering children vulnerable to a range of cognitive and social deficits.     

The effects of experimentally induced stress on false recognition.

The fallibility of memory has become an issue of considerable practical and theoretical importance. Here we studied the impact of experimentally induced stress on the ability of human participants to accurately recognise words presented on a list. We found that stress selectively disrupted participants' ability to distinguish words that were presented for study from critical lure words that were semantically related, but not presented for study. This finding indicates that stress, possibly through its impact on the hippocampus and prefrontal cortex, can potentiate false memories.     

The extreme-right and enfranchisement of immigrants: Main issues in the public “debate” on integration in Belgium

In Belgium, the issue of (local) enfranchisement of foreign residents has without any doubt become the most salient topic of public debate on integration of immigrants and their descendants. Although debate about the issue dates back to the early 1970s, at the start of the 21st century it is still one of the hottest topics in Belgian politics. A second salient topic concerns the strategy against the Flemish extreme-right wing party the Vlaams Blok, or the debate about the so-called ‘cordon sanitaire’ since the 1990s. This contribution wants to discuss the public debate on voting rights for non-Belgians and the strategy against the Vlaams Blok as the most contentious issues in the wider debate about (the future of) immigrant incorporation in Belgian society. Thus, we hope to be able to clarify the (absence of) debate on integration and multiculturalism in Belgium.