Effects of situational demand upon social enjoyment and preference in schizotypy

The socioemotional functioning of schizophrenic and schizotypic individuals is marked by withdrawal, poor organization, and limited emotional displays. Such behavioral tendencies and lack of social enjoyment in schizotypy could be linked to the relative situational demands or role ambiguity inherent in specific social activities. To determine whether high-schizotypy individuals prefer more clearly role-defined social activities (e.g., visiting relatives) to more ambiguous, novel situations (e.g., going alone to a party), the authors gathered reports from 52 high-schizotypy and 60 low-schizotypy individuals on their enjoyment and frequency of engaging in social situations varying in relative situational demand. Parallel reports were obtained from knowledgeable others. Group x Situational Demand interactions revealed the hypothesized pattern of reduced frequency and enjoyment ratings for ambiguous or novel situations by the high-schizotypy participants in both self and others' reports. Groups were more comparable in their reported frequency and enjoyment of less ambiguous situations. Results suggest the importance of situational demands in the socioemotional experience and behavioral withdrawal in schizotypy.     

The brain is both neurocomputer and quantum computer

In their article, Is the Brain a Quantum Computer,? Litt, Eliasmith, Kroon, Weinstein, and Thagard (2006) criticize the Penrose–Hameroff “Orch OR” quantum computational model of consciousness, arguing instead for neurocomputation as an explanation for mental phenomena. Here I clarify and defend Orch OR, show how Orch OR and neurocomputation are compatible, and question whether neurocomputation alone can physiologically account for coherent gamma synchrony EEG, a candidate for the neural correlate of consciousness. Orch OR is based on quantum computation in microtubules within dendrites in cortex and other regions linked by dendritic–dendritic gap junctions (“dendritic webs”) acting as laterally connected input layers of the brain's neurocomputational architecture. Within dendritic webs, consciousness is proposed to occur as gamma EEG‐synchronized sequences of discrete quantum computational events acting in integration phases of neurocomputational “integrate‐and‐fire” cycles. Orch OR is a viable approach toward understanding how the brain produces consciousness.     

Care and the self: biotechnology,reproduction, and the good life

This paper explores a novel philosophy of ethical care in the face of burgeoning biomedical technologies. I respond to a serious challenge facing traditional bioethics with its roots in analytic philosophy. The hallmarks of these traditional approaches are reason and autonomy, founded on a belief in the liberal humanist subject. In recent years, however, there have been mounting challenges to this view of human subjectivity, emerging from poststructuralist critiques, such as Michel Foucault's, but increasingly also as a result of advances in biotechnology itself. In the face of these developments, I argue that the theoretical relevance and practical application of mainstream bioethics is increasingly under strain. Traditionalists will undoubtedly resist. Together, professional philosopher-bioethicists, public health policymakers, and the global commercial healthcare industry tend to respond conservatively by shoring up the liberal humanist subject as the foundation for medical ethics and consumer decision-making, appealing to the familiar tropes of reason, autonomy, and freedom.     

Determinants of Multiple Informant Agreement on Child and Adolescent Behavior

This study examined whether characteristics of behavioral items reported by parent and child are related to parent–child agreement. Data were collected from 20 judges rating 59 child behaviors on 11 dimensions hypothesized to affect parent–child agreement. Data from 675 parent–child dyads (85% female caregivers, 62% male children, aged 7–17) reporting on 59 child behaviors were used to examine agreement. Behavior characteristics accounted for 43% of variability in parent–child agreement. Three components, saliency to the parent, saliency to the child, and observability/willingness to report, contributed uniquely to prediction of agreement.     

Using full matching to estimate causal effects in nonexperimental studies: examining the relationship between adolescent marijuana use and adult outcomes

Matching methods such as nearest neighbor propensity score matching are increasingly popular techniques for controlling confounding in nonexperimental studies. However, simple k:1 matching methods, which select k well-matched comparison individuals for each treated individual, are sometimes criticized for being overly restrictive and discarding data (the unmatched comparison individuals). The authors illustrate the use of a more flexible method called full matching. Full matching makes use of all individuals in the data by forming a series of matched sets in which each set has either 1 treated individual and multiple comparison individuals or 1 comparison individual and multiple treated individuals. Full matching has been shown to be particularly effective at reducing bias due to observed confounding variables. The authors illustrate this approach using data from the Woodlawn Study, examining the relationship between adolescent marijuana use and adult outcomes.     

Mismatch negativity and P300 to behaviorally perceptible and imperceptible frequency and intensity contrasts

Mismatch negativity and the P300 have been investigated as electrophysiological indices of behavioral auditory discrimination of duration. Using an oddball paradigm, responses were evoked to stimuli that had been behaviorally demonstrated to be either perceptible or imperceptible. The results indicated P300 events were present with the perceptible contrast but absent for the imperceptible contrast with all participants, while mismatch negativities were present in approximately 80 and 20% of participants to the perceptible and imperceptible contrasts, respectively. The present study extended the findings by applying the same paradigm to the discrimination of spectral and amplitude contrasts. 10 young adults with normal hearing were participants. Assuming that auditory assessment should involve representation and processing in all acoustic domains (i.e., temporal/duration, spectral/frequency, and amplitude/intensity), the effects seen with temporal contrasts were predicted to be similar for spectral and amplitude contrasts. The findings generally illustrated that the P300 was more accurate than the mismatch negativity in reflecting behavioral discrimination. Together, these studies challenge the use of mismatch negativity as an electrophysiological correlate for behavioral discrimination of auditory perceptible contrasts.