Frontal EEG alpha band asymmetry as a predictor of reasoning deficiency in depressed people

Cognitive deficits in depression are mostly apparent in executive functions, especially when integration of information and reasoning is required. In parallel, there are also numerous studies pointing to the frontal alpha band asymmetry as a psychophysiological marker of depression. In this study, we explored the role of frontal alpha asymmetry as a potential factor explaining the cognitive problems accompanying depression. Twenty-six depressed and 26 control participants completed a reasoning task and underwent 5 minutes of electroencephalography recording. In line with the previous studies, depressed people showed difficulties with reasoning but we did not observe the relationship between frontal asymmetry in the alpha band and depression. However, we found that in the depressed group the frontal alpha asymmetry index was characterised by larger variance than in the control group, and it was also a strong predictor of cognitive functioning exclusively in the depressed group. Our results point to the disruption of a psychophysiological balance, reflected in changed frontal alpha asymmetry (into more left-sided frontal asymmetry in the alpha band, reflecting more right-sided cortical activity) as a possible brain correlate of cognitive disturbances present in depressive disorders.     

Freedom as praxis: a comparative analysis of August Cieszkowski and Nikolaj Berdjaev

This essay attempts to elaborate a first thorough comparative analysis of August Cieszkowski and Nikolaj Berdjaev. Although the latter is well known as one of the most important Russian philosophers, the former is hardly known beyond the Polish borders. This general lack of recognition contrasts with the fact that Cieszkowski played a significant role in nineteenth century philosophy in Germany, France, Poland and Russia. A comparative analysis of Cieszkowski and Berdjaev will undergird the idea that Cieszkowski was not merely a ‘marginal’ figure in the history of philosophy. This essay has sought the reasons why Berdjaev considered himself to a large extent as a disciple of Cieszkowski. The stress is put on the central aspects of both philosophers’ thinking: freedom, praxis and the way they relate to morality in general.     

Socio-Medical and Personality Correlates of Psychological Well-Being among People Living with HIV: a Latent Profile Analysis

Applied Research in Quality of Life - The aim of this study was to examine the heterogeneity of the sample of people living with HIV (PLWH) in terms of psychological well-being (PWB) using the...     

A Loop-Free Decision Procedure for Modal Propositional Logics K4, S4 and S5

The aim of this paper is to present a loop-free decision procedure for modal propositional logics K4, S4 and S5. We prove that the procedure terminates and that it is sound and complete. The procedure is based on the method of Socratic proofs for modal logics, which is grounded in the logic of questions IEL.     

On the Complexity of Nonassociative Lambek Calculus with Unit

Nonassociative Lambek Calculus (NL) is a syntactic calculus of types introduced by Lambek [8]. The polynomial time decidability of NL was established by de Groote and Lamarche [4]. Buszkowski [3] showed that systems of NL with finitely many assumptions are decidable in polynomial time and generate context-free languages; actually the P-TIME complexity is established for the consequence relation of NL. Adapting the method of Buszkowski [3] we prove an analogous result for Nonassociative Lambek Calculus with unit (NL1). Moreover, we show that any Lambek grammar based on NL1 (with assumptions) can be transformed into an equivalent context-free grammar in polynomial time.