Shyness and emotion‐processing skills in preschoolers: a 6‐month longitudinal study

The present study utilized a short‐term longitudinal research design to examine the hypothesis that shyness in preschoolers is differentially related to different aspects of emotion processing. Using teacher reports of shyness and performance measures of emotion processing, including (1) facial emotion recognition, (2) non‐facial emotion recognition, and (3) emotional perspective‐taking, we examined 337 Head Start attendees twice at a 24‐week interval. Results revealed significant concurrent and longitudinal relationships between shyness and facial emotion recognition, and either minimal or non‐existent relationships between shyness and the other aspects of emotion processing. Correlational analyses of concurrent assessments revealed that shyness predicted poorer facial emotion recognition scores for negative emotions (sad, angry, and afraid), but not a positive emotion (happy). Analyses of change over time, on the other hand, revealed that shyness predicted change in facial emotion recognition scores for all four measured emotions. Facial emotion recognition scores did not predict changes in shyness. Results are discussed with respect to expanding the scope of research on shyness and emotion processing to include time‐dependent studies that allow for the specification of developmental processes. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

中枢肥大细胞在脑功能和行为调节中的作用

已知肥大细胞作为免疫细胞在过敏反应和炎性疾病中发挥重要作用。肥大细胞在中枢亦有表达, 但对其作用了解不足。新近的研究发现中枢肥大细胞在脑功能和行为调节中发挥重要的内源性平衡作用。一方面, 中枢肥大细胞在维持相关脑区发育, 正常神经活动, 以及动机, 情绪和认知等多种行为中发挥保护性作用, 各种应激条件诱导的中枢肥大细胞表达和活动改变参与脑和行为的适应性反应过程。另一方面, 中枢肥大细胞过度激活或者过度抑制都可导致脑功能和行为异常, 并参与某些免疫相关心身疾病的病理过程。体外神经解剖学和功能学研究证据提示中枢肥大细胞与神经系统间存在结构性和功能性相互作用网络。肥大细胞和神经组织间通过形成类似突触的结构性联系直接影响相邻细胞的活动。肥大细胞还可以通过脱颗粒释放多种生物活性介质调节神经活动, 同时表达多种受体接受脑内免疫性和神经性分子调节。但是目前对于中枢肥大细胞-神经系统相互作用的认识主要基于体外研究, 其在脑内相互作用方式及其与特定脑区功能和行为表型的关系所知甚少, 开展相关研究可以为认识脑与行为的神经免疫调节机制提供新的视角。     

视觉搜索任务中直视探测优势的眼动研究

已有研究发现在视觉搜索任务中对直视的探测比斜视更快且更准确, 该现象被命名为“人群中的凝视效应”。大多数研究者将该效应的产生归因于直视会捕获更多的注意。然而, 直视条件下对搜索项的匹配加工更容易也有可能导致对直视的探测比斜视快。此外,已有研究还发现头的朝向会影响对注视方向的探测, 但对于其产生原因缺乏实验验证。本研究采用视觉搜索范式, 运用眼动技术, 把注视探测的视觉搜索过程分为准备阶段、搜索阶段和反应阶段, 对这两个问题进行了探讨。结果显示：对直视的探测优势主要表现在搜索阶段和反应阶段; 在搜索阶段直视的探测优势获益于搜索路径的变短和分心项数量的变少以及分心项平均注视时间的变短; 头的朝向仅在搜索阶段对注视探测产生影响。该结果表明, 在直视探测中对搜索项的匹配加工比在斜视探测中更容易也是导致“人群中的凝视效应”的原因之一; 头的朝向仅仅影响了对注视方向的搜索并没有影响对其的确认加工。     

空间主方位判断的训练和方位效应

以20名区域管制员和20名大学生为被试,通过两种类型的空间主方位判断任务考察训练效应和方位效应。结果表明：管制员主方位判断的绩效(正确率和判断反应时)显着优于学生．拍摄方向朝北和目标刺激在上-下轴位置时,主方位判断的绩效显著优于其他条件。研究提示,训练能够有效地提高空间主方位判断的绩效,主方位判断存在朝北的方位效应和上-下轴位置效应。     

Rudolf Otto: The Idea of the Holy,viewed through the lenses of spiritual direction and psychoanalysis

Rudolf Otto’s work, The Idea of the Holy [Das Heilige], is both new and old: it puts the idea of the holy or numinous into the mainstream of Christian discourse, but does this in a way that is deeply embedded in Otto’s heritage. The psychoanalytic lens puts a spotlight on engaging with the numinous from the complete experience of being human. In terms of spiritual direction, that enables a deeply incarnational approach, which is also indebted to apophatic forms of spirituality that can easily be under-valued.     

How does reading direction modulate perceptual asymmetry effects?

Left-side bias effects refer to a bias towards the left side of the stimulus/space in perceptual/visuospatial judgments, and are argued to reflect dominance of right hemisphere processing. It remains unclear whether reading direction can also account for the bias effect. Previous studies comparing readers of languages read from left to right with those read from right to left (e.g., French vs. Hebrew) have obtained inconsistent results. As a language that can be read from left to right or from right to left, Chinese provides a unique opportunity for a within-culture examination of reading direction effects. Chinese participants performed a perceptual judgment task (with both face and Chinese character stimuli; Experiment 1) and two visuospatial attention tasks (the greyscales and line bisection tasks; Experiment 2) once before and once after a reading task, in which they read Chinese passages either from left to right or from right to left for about 20 min. After reading from right to left, participants showed significantly reduced left-side bias in Chinese character perceptual judgments but not in the other three tasks. This effect suggests that the role of reading direction on different forms of left-side bias may differ, and its modulation may be stimulus-specific.     

骨髓间充质干细胞移植治疗对心肌梗死后心功能的影响

目前心肌梗死常规治疗不能修复已死亡或者濒死的心肌,应用干细胞替代受损或死亡的心肌细胞来改善心功能,已成为近年来国内外研究的热点。骨髓间充质干细胞通过修复坏死心肌、促进血管新生等改善心梗后心功能,其移植治疗有望成为治疗心肌梗死的一个全新方法。     

唯物辩证法在院前心肺复苏实践中的指导作用

在院前心肺复苏实践中,我们会遇到很多矛盾的问题。本文从唯物辩证法的角度出发,分析了院前心肺复苏中一些比较棘手的问题,并为解决这些问题提出建议,对从事院前急救的医学专业人士以及非医学专业人士均具有一定的启发意义。     

生物自组织临界性与肿瘤

分析了局部组织由再生、化生和癌变呈现的各种宏观行为和性质,从生物自组织临界性的角度讨论了这类行为和性质的演化模式及机制,指出肿瘤实质是局部组织经历一系列临界状态下相变造成的。     

集体效能研究述评

从20世纪80年代中期开始,国外自我效能的研究表现出从个体效能向集体效能的转变,集体效能是自我效能在集体水平上的扩展。在效能内涵和效能形成上,集体效能与个体效能存在着密切的相互作用,但在效能的测量上,集体效能又有着许多不同于个体效能之处,与个体效能相比,集体效能的研究在整体上还存在着明显的不足。