A role for the anterior insular cortex in the global neuronal workspace model of consciousness

According to the global neuronal workspace model of consciousness, consciousness results from the global broadcast of information throughout the brain. The global neuronal workspace is mainly constituted by a fronto-parietal network. The anterior insular cortex is part of this global neuronal workspace, but the function of this region has not yet been defined within the global neuronal workspace model of consciousness. In this review, I hypothesize that the anterior insular cortex implements a cross-modal priority map, the function of which is to determine priorities for the processing of information and subsequent entrance in the global neuronal workspace.     

自尊与人际互动：理论、研究与问题

基于自我确认理论开展的大量研究,有助于理解自尊对人际互动行为的调节作用。然而,研究者对自尊的测量工具不尽相同,筛选实验被试的标准也不尽一致,实验范式忽略了对实际人际互动情境的操纵,单纯采用人际选择反应作为测量自我确认的指标,因而难以形成具有整合性的理论模型。今后的研究有必要在编制合适的测量工具的基础上,将整体自尊与特殊自尊作为两个独立的变量置于整合性实验范式下开展研究,同时采用对人际评价信息的认知判断和对评价者的交往选择的双维指标,以全面揭示整体自尊与特殊自尊对自我确认过程的相对作用及其心理机制。     

慢性鼻窦炎治疗中的适宜技术和高新技术的最优化问题

鉴于对慢性鼻窦炎认识的转变和随之发生的治疗手段的改进,遵循循证医学的原则,灵活选用和组合适宜技术与高新技术十分必要,以期达到慢性鼻窦炎治疗的最优化.     

诊疗最优化原则的伦理学探析

讨论了诊疗最优化原则的伦理学意义:它充分体现了医学的宗旨、医学职业道德理想和对患者的无私关爱,有利于纠正医疗卫生行业的时弊,昭示着医疗卫生改革发展的方向.针对实践中遇到的阻力和困惑,作者提出了促进最优化原则实施的五点建议.     

适宜技术与诊疗最优化的可行性研究

在案例分析的基础上,作出了医生是临床诊疗中适宜技术的主要选择者的判断;论证了运用适宜技术实现诊疗最优化的可行性;认为适宜技术难以选择和实施的主要原因是利益关系、责任心不强和管理措施不到位;提出了必须着力培育适合于适宜技术生长的土壤的对策,即:实行政策引导与资金支持、进一步加大监管力度、营造良好的氛围、高度重视并加强医生道德素质的培养.     

食管癌内镜技术最优化原则的思考

随着消化内镜及其配件的不断更新和内镜医师操作技术的进步,消化内镜在食管癌的应用从诊断为主发展到诊断与治疗并重.回顾历史,医疗需求是医学科学进步的强大动力,科学技术进步推动医学的发展,内镜技术的发展促进了食管癌诊断与治疗水平的最优化.     

High regularities in eye-movement patterns reveal the dynamics of the visual working memory allocation mechanism

With only two to five slots of visual working memory (VWM), humans are able to quickly solve complex visual problems to near optimal solutions. To explain the paradox between tightly constrained VWM and impressively complex human visual problem-solving ability, we propose several principles for dynamic VWM allocation. In particular, we propose that complex visual information is represented in a temporal manner using only a few slots of VWM that include global and local visual chunks. We built a model of human traveling salesman problem solving based on these principles of VWM allocation and tested the model with eye-movement data. Exactly as the model predicted, human eye movements during traveling salesman problem solving have precise quantitative regularities with regard to both the general statistical pattern of attentional fixations and how they vary across individuals with different VWM capacities. Even though VWM capacity is very limited, eye movements dynamically allocate VWM resources to both local and global information, enabling attention to fine details without loss of the big picture.     

The direction of hemispheric asymmetries for object categorization at different levels of abstraction depends on the task

In this study hemispheric asymmetries for categorizing objects at the basic versus subordinate level of abstraction were investigated. As predictions derived from different theoretical approaches are contradictory and experimental evidence is inconclusive in this regard, we conducted two categorization experiments, where we contrasted two experimental paradigms. In the first experiment, subjects had to verify whether a word and a laterally presented picture matched or not. In the second experiment, subjects had to identify laterally presented pictures of animals either at the basic or subordinate level by pressing a corresponding response key. Whereas the first experiment revealed an advantage of the left hemisphere (LH) for categorizing objects at the basic level and of the right hemisphere (RH) for categorizing at the subordinate level, just the opposite brain asymmetry was found in the second experiment. As the stimuli were identical in both experiments, hemispheric asymmetries seem to be strongly task dependent.     

Duties and Responsibilities Towards the Poor

Thomas Pogge has argued that we have strong negative duties to assist the global poor because we harm them through our contribution to the global economic order. I argue that Pogge’s concept of harm is indeterminate. The resources of any group will typically be affected by at least two economic schemes. Pogge suggests that the responsibility for any affected group’s shortfall from a minimum standard ought to be shared between the contributing schemes. I argue that shared responsibility can be interpreted in two different ways. Unfortunately, both interpretations are problematic. Lastly, I suggest a strategy for amending this problem.