自闭症碎镜理论之迷思:缘起、问题与前景

自闭症患者在社会沟通和交往障碍上主要涉及社会情感互动缺陷、非语言行为交流缺陷、发展维持和理解人际关系的缺陷。该群体在社会认知过程中潜在自动的直觉成分受损被视为其独特的临床症状。鉴于镜像神经元系统在社会认知的直觉成分上扮演的重要角色,该系统的功能障碍假说(或称"碎镜"理论)被提出并用以解释自闭症的成因及其异常表现。然而,在经历了10年的发展与证据检验后,该理论潜在的问题逐渐暴露。当前的研究显示,迄今为止人类镜像神经元系统的研究存在内在缺陷,镜像神经元系统至多是社会认知的附带原因,该系统功能障碍也并非自闭症患者社会认知障碍的必要条件。碎镜理论面临来自临床行为研究与认知神经科学实验证据的广泛质疑。未来,伴随自闭症研究对象的变化,镜像神经元的社会响应学说的提出,双个体范式、第二人称神经科学范式与计算精神病学的兴起,镜像神经元与自闭症的真正关系将有望得以阐明。     

奖赏环路与阿片成瘾:喙内侧被盖核的调节作用

喙内侧被盖核(RMTg)位于腹侧被盖区(VTA)的尾部, 富含抑制性的γ-氨基丁酸(GABA)能神经元.RMTg是中脑边缘多巴胺系统的一个综合调节器.它的GABA能神经元接受外侧缰核(LHb)的输入, 然后投射到VTA多巴胺能神经元, 进而抑制多巴胺的释放.这三个脑区是奖赏环路的重要组成部分, 其中RMTg在阿片类物质激活的奖赏环路中尤为重要.阿片类物质主要通过抑制RMTg GABA能神经元使VTA多巴胺能神经元去抑制, 进而激活奖赏系统.因此, RMTg有望成为治疗药物成瘾(尤其是阿片成瘾)的一个重要靶点.此外, 胆碱类物质作用于RMTg的毒蕈碱受体能够抑制阿片类物质诱导的奖赏效应.未来研究应深入探讨RMTg调控的负性奖赏环路, 这对弱化觅药动机,促进消退和戒断具有重要意义.     

Preserving integrity against colonization

Genuine reconciliation between first- and third-person methodologies and knowledge requires respect for both phenomenological and scientific epistemologies. Recent pragmatic, theoretical, and verbal attempts at reconciliation by cognitive scientists compromise phenomenological method and knowledge. The basic question is thus: how do we begin reconciling first- and third-person epistemologies? Because life is the unifying concept across phenomenological and cognitive disciplines, a concept consistently if differentially exemplified in and by the phenomenon of movement, conceptual complementarities anchored in the animate properly provide the foundation for reconciliation. Research by people in neuroscience and in dynamic systems theory substantiate this thesis, providing fundamental examples of conceptual complementarity between phenomenology and science.     

Walking dreams in congenital and acquired paraplegia

To test if dreams contain remote or never-experienced motor skills, we collected during 6 weeks dream reports from 15 paraplegics and 15 healthy subjects. In 9/10 subjects with spinal cord injury and in 5/5 with congenital paraplegia, voluntary leg movements were reported during dream, including feelings of walking (46%), running (8.6%), dancing (8%), standing up (6.3%), bicycling (6.3%), and practicing sports (skiing, playing basketball, swimming). Paraplegia patients experienced walking dreams (38.2%) just as often as controls (28.7%). There was no correlation between the frequency of walking dreams and the duration of paraplegia. In contrast, patients were rarely paraplegic in dreams. Subjects who had never walked or stopped walking 4–64 years prior to this study still experience walking in their dreams, suggesting that a cerebral walking program, either genetic or more probably developed via mirror neurons (activated when observing others performing an action) is reactivated during sleep.     

Numeral Classifiers and the White Horse Paradox

This paper presents an interpretation of Gongsun Long＇s white horse paradox. The Chinese sentence he uses to state his main thesis （Bai ma fei ma） has two potential readings： （a） The white horses are not horses. （b） The white horses are not the horses Although （a） gives the usual and correct reading of the sentence, according to the interpretation, Gongsun Long takes it to state （b）. He gives good arguments for （b） while taking them to establish （a） as well, for he fails to distinguish between the two different theses. In presenting this interpretation, the paper gives an account of the function of numeral classifiers and discusses the semantics of count nouns in languages with no grammatical number system, including classical Chinese and classifier languages （e.g., contemporary Chinese）.     

语言伴随性手势是否和语言共享同一交流系统?

语言伴随性手势是人类语言交流的一个普遍的特征, 它可以发挥信息交流的功能。依据产生目的以及适用范围的不同, 手势可以分成表象性手势和非表象性手势。多数研究者认为, 语言和手势动作是“近亲”, 具有“家族相似性”。来自语言发展、认知心理学和认知神经科学的证据均表明, 手势和语言共享同一个交流系统。当手势动作和发音单词意义相同时, 手势动作受到单词发音的干扰, 同时引发发音共振峰2 (F2)的放大。手势和言语之间遵循互相作用理论, 它们作用的基础是语义一致性, 镜像神经系统完成了两者语义一致性的传递。由于语言伴随性手势和语言之间的关系是语言和行为结合良好的特例, 因此, 对语言伴随性手势的研究将有助于对人类心智有一个更深层次的认识和理解。     

观念运动理论：内涵与证据

人类日常动作有两种类型, 一是是对外界刺激的反应, 是一种自下而上的动作模式, 即感觉运动(sensorimotor)模式; 二是以人们头脑中的观念意图为基础, 由观念引导, 为了实现一个特定的目标而执行特定的动作, 是一种自上而下的动作模式, 即观念运动(ideomotor)模式。观念运动理论(ideomotor theory)所解释的就是以基于意图的动作。该理论经历了长期的演变, 一般动作执行与动作模仿领域内的行为与神经科学研究的证据初步证实了观念运动的理论构想与主要机制：共同编码机制与镜像神经机制。观念运动理论在贯通感知觉与动作方面具有重大意义, 由此还产生了共享环路模型(shared circuits model, SCM)等新近观点。此外, 观念运动理论还强调了目标和预期的重要地位。未来还需加强对动作与意图之间的通路, 以及动作的本体性效果等方面的研究。     

Recent Innovative Studies of Memory in Temporal Lobe Epilepsy

Investigations of patients with temporal lobe epilepsy continue to result in significant advancements in the neuroscience of human memory, as they have for over 50 years. Recent reviews describing the state of the art in the clinical neuropsychology of TLE generally have emphasized (1) lateralization of cognitive deficits and the material-specific model of memory and/or (2) the relationships among pre- and post-surgery performance on standardized measures of anterograde memory, demographic and epilepsy variables and neuroimaging, neuropathology, and neurosurgery data. As information continues to accumulate about the pattern of performance on standard laboratory memory tests and the implications of these data before and after anterior temporal lobectomy for the treatment of TLE, innovative assessment techniques also are increasingly being applied. This review focuses on English language publications that addressed selected novel topics in adult TLE memory research. These topics are: (1) remote memory; (2) accelerated forgetting or long term amnesia; and (3) lateral versus mesial temporal lobe contributions to memory.