The neural, evolutionary, developmental, and bodily basis of metaphor

We propose that there are four fundamental kinds of metaphor that are uniquely mapped onto specific brain “networks” and present preliterate (i.e., evolutionary, including before the appearance of written language in the historical record), prelinguistic (i.e., developmental, before the appearance of speech in human development), and extralinguistic (i.e., neuropsychological, cognitive) evidence supportive of this view. We contend that these basic metaphors are largely nonconceptual and entail (a) perceptual-perceptual, (b) cross-modal, (c) movement-movement, and (d) perceptual-affective mappings that, at least, in the initial stages of processing may operate largely outside of conscious awareness. In opposition to our basic metaphor theory (B_mT), the standard theory (S_mT) maintains that metaphor is a conceptual mapping from some base domain to some target domain and/or represents class-inclusion (categorical) assertions. The S_mT captures aspects of secondary or conceptual metaphoric relations but not primary or basic metaphoric relations in our view. We believe our theory (B_mT) explains more about how people actually recognize or create metaphoric associations across disparate domains of experience partly because they are “pre-wired” to make these links.     

为了更好地工作：工作恢复的内涵及实现机制

工作恢复是保障员工持续有效应对工作要求,支撑员工“更好地工作”的资源补充机制,也是近年来职业健康心理学研究中的一个热点主题。本文在澄清工作恢复概念的界定和梳理工作恢复影响因素的基础上,着重围绕工作恢复的实现机制进行了分析和探讨。最后,围绕工作恢复相关研究的现状及未来方向进行了总结和展望。     

Confirmation of correlation between brain nerve conduction velocity and intelligence level in normal adults

In 1992, Reed and Jensen [Intelligence 16 (1992) 259–272] reported a positive correlation (.26; p=.002; .37 after correcting for restricted intelligence range) between a brain nerve conduction velocity (NCV) and intelligence level in 147 normal male students. In the first follow-up of their study, we report on a study using similar NCV methodologies, but testing both male and female students and using more extensive measures of cognitive abilities. One-hundred eighty-six males and 201 females, aged 18–25 years, were tested in three different NCV conditions and with nine cognitive tests, including Raven Progressive Matrices as used by Reed and Jensen. None of the 27 independent correlations in either the males or in the females are significant at Bonferroni-corrected probability levels, but 25 of 27 correlations in males and 20 of 27 correlations in females have positive signs. The exact binomial probabilities for these results are 5.6×10⁻⁶ and .002, respectively. We discuss possible reasons for the differences between the results of Reed and Jensen and our results. We also find that males have four percent faster NCVs than females with each of the three test conditions, probably due to their faster increase of white matter in the brain during adolescence.     

慢性心力衰竭与恶性肿瘤发病机制的理论比较

阐明慢性心力衰竭的病理生理机制对制定防治策略具有重要的作用.根据"内因"与"外因"的辩证关系,借鉴时肿瘤发病机制的一些认识,从另外一个角度对慢性心力衰竭的发病机制进行细致的剖析,以期为临床防治提供一个全新的方向.     

休谟的同情原则探析

休谟认为同情是人性中强有力的原则 ,同情在表现形式上是自然的 ,而同情感的实际内容是人为的。同情是道德区别和道德判断的心理机制 ,是沟通他的心理学和伦理学的桥梁。但由于同情原则建立在抽象人性论的基础上 ,休谟调和个体情感的特殊性与道德原则的普遍性的努力不可能成功。     

实验性恶心与呕吐——大脑皮层与内脏相关研究的新途径

大脑皮层与内脏关系的脑机制是揭示心身疾病和心理疾病的重要依据。本文综述了经典条件学习与期待性恶心与呕吐的关系以及实验性恶心与呕吐的研究方法。作者认为,实验性恶心与呕吐结合脑成像技术是研究大脑皮层与内脏关系神经机制的重要途径。     

Emergence from brain architectures: a new cognitive science?

The way in which artificial intelligence has developed over the last 50 years has had a major role in shaping cognitive science as it is today. This has generated computational models of behaviour. The connectionist revival of the 1980s added a tinge of neurodynamics to this. Here I suggest that some post-connectionist work in artificial intelligence is turning towards an understanding and formalisation of the mechanisms of brain architectures which contribute to an emergence of cognition providing a closer link between brain mechanisms and experienced brain states. This even addresses the neurological basis of consciousness.     

短时记忆的一生发展研究

短时记忆的发展一直是认知发展领域的一个重要课题。近年来一生发展的思想给短时记忆的发展研究又注入了新的内容。文章介绍了关于从婴儿到老年各个时期中短时记忆发展状况及其机制的研究进展。对短时记忆在一生发展中是否存在真正的容量变化、个体差异原因与发展变化原因的关系、短时记忆的一生发展过程等基本问题进行了讨论。     

Smoking reduces language lateralization: a dichotic listening study with control participants and schizophrenia patients

Schizophrenia has been associated with deficits in functional brain lateralization. According to some authors, the reduction of asymmetry could even promote this psychosis. At the same time, schizophrenia is accompanied by a high prevalence of nicotine dependency compared to any other population. This association is very interesting, because sex-dependent effects of smoking in auditory language asymmetries have been reported recently, and the verbal domain is also one major focus in cognitive deficit studies of schizophrenia. Thus, the altered laterality pattern in schizophrenia could, at least in part, result from secondary artefacts due to smoking rather than being a pure cause of the disease itself. To test this hypothesis, the present study examined auditory language lateralization in 67 schizophrenia patients and in 72 healthy controls in a phonemic and an emotional dichotic listening task. Our findings replicate previous research, in that smoking reduces language lateralization in men in phonemic dichotic listening. In addition, we show that smoking also reduces laterality in women in the emotional dichotic listening task. Thus, smoking alters phonemic and emotional language asymmetries differentially for men and women, with a stronger effect for men in the left hemisphere phonemic task, and a stronger effect for women in the right hemisphere emotional task. Together, these findings point towards an effect of smoking which is possibly independent of sex and hemisphere. Importantly, by testing equal numbers of smoking and non-smoking patients and controls, we found no schizophrenia-associated asymmetry effect. Possible neurobiological mechanisms with which smoking may alter auditory microcircuits and thereby diminish left-right differences are discussed.     

安全基地启动及其脑机制

近几年,安全基地启动已成为拓展依恋理论的重要实验方法。安全启动能够改善情绪及情绪调节策略、增进人际关系、促进自我实现和利他等。安全启动下,研究者得以考察成人依恋与母婴依恋的神经基础及它们之间的区别与联系。该文分析了安全启动实验的不足,如生态效度和重复率不高,应用范围局限,缺乏启动效应持续性的研究等。未来的安全启动研究应突破现有实验室情境研究局限,拓展应用领域,加强对其心理机制与神经机制的探讨等。