Lateralized cognition: asymmetrical and complementary strategies of pigeons during discrimination of the "human concept"

This study was aimed at revealing which cognitive processes are lateralized in visual categorizations of "humans" by pigeons. To this end, pigeons were trained to categorize pictures of humans and then tested binocularly or monocularly (left or right eye) on the learned categorization and for transfer to novel exemplars (Experiment 1). Subsequent tests examined whether they relied on memorized features or on a conceptual strategy, using stimuli composed of new combinations of familiar and novel humans and backgrounds (Experiment 2), whether the hemispheres processed global or local information, using pictures with different levels of scrambling (Experiment 3), and whether they attended to configuration, using distorted human figures (Experiment 4). The results suggest that the left hemisphere employs a category strategy and concentrates on local features, while the right hemisphere uses an exemplar strategy and relies on configuration. These cognitive dichotomies of the cerebral hemispheres are largely shared by humans, suggesting that lateralized cognitive systems already defined the neural architecture of the common ancestor of birds and mammals.     

Benefits of negative thinking and negative affect: analyses of answers to an open-ended question by Japanese undergraduates

What are the benefits of negative thinking and negative affect? Although previous studies in evolutionary psychology, social psychology, and clinical psychology have clarified the question, there has been no definitive study asking people directly about the perceived benefits. In the present study, 119 Japanese undergraduates were asked how they recognized the benefits of negative thinking and negative affect. Their answers were analyzed qualitatively. The answers were arranged into 30 smaller categories and 12 superordinate ones. The benefits were divided into "benefits to the self" and "benefits to interpersonal relations". Finally, the conditions necessary for the negative thinking and negative affect being benign, and possible cultural differences, were discussed.     

Rapid acceleration of the lower arm correlates with agonist EMGs during the initial phase

Fifty-eight healthy subjects made rapid elbow extensions to a target over 54 degrees. Angular acceleration was measured and surface electromyograms (EMGs) were recorded from the antagonistic muscles using monopolar rather than bipolar electrode configurations. Marked individual differences were found in the peak value of the first derivative of acceleration (dAcc/dt_Pk). The dAcc/dt_Pk correlated with both quantitative and qualitative properties of the agonist EMGs, but not with those of the antagonist EMG. The agonist EMGs, integrated until the moment of dAcc/dt_Pk, were positively correlated with dAcc/dt_Pk. The interval between EMG onset and EMG peak decreased with increasing dAcc/dt_Pk. The duration of the initial negative phase in the EMGs, which was considered to index the time required to recruit high-threshold MUs, decreased with increasing dAcc/dt_Pk. The results indicate that the ability to rapidly accelerate the lower arm varies across subjects, probably due in part to individual differences in the neural capacity to drive the agonists.     

Young children produce categorical false recall without activation of the lure items

Individuals who study a list of words that are all related to another word that is not presented (a lure word) sometimes produce a false memory of having studied the lure word. The false memories are observed in lists of words that are in the same category as (category list) or associated with (associative list) a word that was not presented in an attempt to elicit false recall. The present study investigated whether young children create these types of false recall. Following the study of a categorical list, false recall was elicited in young children to the same degree as in adults, but studying an associative list elicited false recall only in adults. Furthermore, categorically related lure words did not have a priming effect in young children. These results suggest that the categorical false recall is produced via a different mechanism from the associative false recall.     

Retrospective diagnosis of a famous historical figure: ontological,epistemic, and ethical considerations

The aim of this essay is to elaborate philosophical and ethical underpinnings of posthumous diagnosis of famous historical figures based on literary and artistic products, or commonly called retrospective diagnosis. It discusses ontological and epistemic challenges raised in the humanities and social sciences, and attempts to systematically reply to their criticisms from the viewpoint of clinical medicine, philosophy of medicine, particularly the ontology of disease and the epistemology of diagnosis, and medical ethics. The ontological challenge focuses on the doubt about the persistence of a disease over historical time, whereas the epistemic challenge disputes the inaccessibility of scientific verification of a diagnosis in the past. I argue that the critics are in error in conflating the taxonomy of disease (nosology) and the act of diagnosing a patient. Medical diagnosis is fundamentally a hypothesis-construction and an explanatory device that can be generated under various degrees of uncertainty and limited amount of information. It is not an apodictic judgment (true or false) as the critics presuppose, but a probabilistic (Bayesian) judgment with varying degrees of plausibility under uncertainty. In order to avoid this confusion, I propose that retrospective diagnosis of a historical figure be syndromic without identifying underlying disease, unless there is justifiable reason for such specification. Moreover it should be evaluated not only from the viewpoint of medical science but also in a larger context of the scholarship of the humanities and social sciences by its overall plausibility and consistency. On the other hand, I will endorse their concerns regarding the ethics and professionalism of retrospective diagnosis, and call for the need for situating such a diagnosis in an interdisciplinary scope and the context of the scholarship of the historical figure. I will then enumerate several important caveats for interdisciplinary retrospective diagnosis using an example of the retrospective diagnosis of Socrates for his life-long intermittent neurologic symptoms. Finally, I will situate the present argument in a larger context of the major debate among the historians of medicine and paleopathologists, and discuss the similarities and differences.     

How Single Older Men Reach Poverty and Its Relationship with Help-Seeking Preferences1

This study aimed to clarify patterns of poverty among single older men and examine this population's help-seeking preferences. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 83 older single men in poverty. Three main patterns of poverty were identified: lifelong, job turnover, and retirement. A common characteristic among these patterns indicated that they did not recognize their difficulties as problems. Furthermore, we identified five groups of help-receiving preferences: independent, resignation, mutual-aid, other-oriented, and seeking. Among these, the independent and resignation groups were influenced by past experiences of failing to seek help, which was characteristic of the lifelong pattern type. Furthermore, the mutual-aid and seeking groups were oriented toward positive help-seeking, which was characteristic of the job turnover and retirement pattern types. However, neither group actively sought help for social isolation or lack of social support, suggesting that it would have been challenging to establish social relationships early on in life. Thus, it is important to establish initiatives that enable older people to understand their current state and to think about their future depending on three patterns of poverty.