Mood stability versus mood instability in bipolar disorder: a possible role for emotional mental imagery

A cognitive model of bipolar disorder suggests that mental imagery acts as an emotional amplifier of mood and may be heightened in bipolar disorder. First, we tested whether patients with bipolar disorder would score higher on mental imagery measures than a matched healthy control group. Second, we examined differences in imagery between patients divided into groups according to their level of mood stability. Mood ratings over approximately 6-months, made using a mobile phone messaging system, were used to divide patients into stable or unstable groups. Clinician decisions of mood stability were corroborated with statistical analysis. Results showed (I) compared to healthy controls, patients with bipolar disorder had significantly higher scores for general mental imagery use, more vivid imagery of future events, higher levels of intrusive prospective imagery, and more extreme imagery-based interpretation bias; (II) compared to patients with stable mood, patients with unstable mood had higher levels of intrusive prospective imagery, and this correlated highly with their current levels of anxiety and depression. The findings were consistent with predictions. Further investigation of imagery in bipolar disorder appears warranted as it may highlight processes that contribute to mood instability with relevance for cognitive behaviour therapy.     

Fidélité inter juge d’une mesure du stress par échelle visuelle analogique

The use of a visual analogue scale (VAS) for the assessment of stress during occupational health examination could be an useful tool. However, psychometrics features of the VAS have to be assessed. The aim of this study is to test the inter judge reliability of the VAS in a psychological dimension assessment. Two occupational physician have used the VAS in a worker group. There is no significant difference in the distribution of VAS values. This result supports the hypothesis of a satisfactory inter judge reliability of the VAS in stress measurement.     

How persuasive messages can influence behavior without awareness

A persuasive message that favors one option in a binary choice can enhance the apparent value of its target by biasing the interpretation of subsequent information. The message installs its target as the initial leader in preference and lets the predecisional distortion of information defend that leadership position. An experiment that contrasts showing TV commercials before and after objective product information demonstrates this process. Ratings of the importance of the commercials to the choice indicate that people are aware of advertising's direct effect on their choice but not of its indirect effect through the biased evaluation of the product information.     

Multisensory integration in multiple reference frames in the posterior parietal cortex

Spatial information processing takes place in different brain regions that receive converging inputs from several sensory modalities. Because of our own movements—for example, changes in eye position, head rotations, and so forth—unimodal sensory representations move continuously relative to one another. It is generally assumed that for multisensory integration to be an orderly process, it should take place between stimuli at congruent spatial locations. In the monkey posterior parietal cortex, the ventral intraparietal (VIP) area is specialized for the analysis of movement information using visual, somatosensory, vestibular, and auditory signals. Focusing on the visual and tactile modalities, we found that in area VIP, like in the superior colliculus, multisensory signals interact at the single neuron level, suggesting that this area participates in multisensory integration. Curiously, VIP does not use a single, invariant coordinate system to encode locations within and across sensory modalities. Visual stimuli can be encoded with respect to the eye, the head, or halfway between the two reference frames, whereas tactile stimuli seem to be prevalently encoded relative to the body. Hence, while some multisensory neurons in VIP could encode spatially congruent tactile and visual stimuli independently of current posture, in other neurons this would not be the case. Future work will need to evaluate the implications of these observations for theories of optimal multisensory integration.Edited by: Marie-Hélène Giard and Mark Wallace     

Imagination links with schizotypal beliefs,not with creativity or learning

Imagination refers to creating mental representations of concepts, ideas, and sensations that are not contemporaneously perceived by the senses. Although it is key to human individuality, research on imagination is scarce. To address this gap, we developed here a new psychometric test to assess individual differences in imagination and explored the role of imagination for learning, creativity, and schizotypal beliefs. In a laboratory‐based (N = 180) and an online study (N = 128), we found that imagination is only weakly associated with learning achievement and creativity, accounting for 2–8% of the variance. By contrast, imagination accounted for 22.5% of the variance in schizotypal beliefs, suggesting overall that imagination may be more indicative of cognitive eccentricities rather than benefit the accumulation of knowledge or production of novel and useful ideas.     

Comparison of task interspersal ratios on efficiency of learning and problem behavior for children with autism spectrum disorder

The current study extends the literature on task interspersal (TI) by comparing the effects of four different TI ratios on the efficiency of skill acquisition and on levels of problem behavior in children with autism spectrum disorder and related disorders. The four ratios of TI were 3:1, 1:1, 1:3, and 0:1 mastered‐to‐acquisition tasks. An adapted alternating treatments design was implemented to compare the cumulative number of stimuli mastered, mean training time to mastery, rate of acquisition, and the level of problem behavior. The results showed that the 0:1 condition was the most efficient intervention procedure for all four participants. In addition, TI did not lead to a greater reduction in levels of problem behavior.     

The Disappearance of Change: Towards a Process Account of Persistence

This paper aims to motivate a new beginning in metaphysical thinking about persistence by drawing attention to the disappearance of change in current accounts of persistence. I defend the claim that the debate is stuck in a dilemma which results from neglecting the constructive role of change for persistence. Neither of the two main competing views, perdurantism and endurantism, captures the idea of persistence as an identity through time. I identify the fundamental ontological reasons for this, namely the shared commitment to what I call ‘thing ontology’: an ontology that gives the ontological priority to static things. I conclude by briefly indicating how switching to a process ontological framework that takes process and change to be ontologically primary may allow for overcoming the dilemma of persistence.