Muslim–Paulician Encounters and Early Islamic Anti-Christian Polemical Writings

This article investigates the portrayals of the Paulicians in early Islamic sources and specifically analyses the role that Paulician religious views play in Islamic anti-Christian writings. The study also gives insights into the nature of materials that were available to Muslim scholars and the strategies they applied in constructing coherent arguments to refute certain Christian religious beliefs. In doing so, the study touches upon Muslims’ religious needs and scholarly curiosity, which sheds light on their intellectual interactions with non-Islamic religious beliefs and philosophical ideas. The article demonstrates that references to Paulician religious beliefs can be found primarily in early Christian–Islamic polemics. Muslim polemicists, most of whom were Mu?tazilites, attempted to demonstrate the soundness and the coherence of Islamic tenets vis-à-vis inadequacies and contradictions in Christian doctrines. The reliance of Muslim polemicists on heresiographical discourse therefore constituted an important strategy to substantiate their polemical arguments. Two major issues stand out in Islamic portrayals of Paulician doctrines: the centrality of Paul of Samosata in the history of the sect, and his association with the view that Jesus was a human being devoid of divinity.     

Infant cry as a graded signal: Experimental modifications of durations of pauses and expiratory sounds alter mothers' perceptions

The purpose of this study was to examine experimentally the effects of the temporal structure of infant crying on mothers' perceptions. Eighteen mothers of young infants rated variations of a 10-sec cry in which durations of all expiratory sounds and pauses were digitally lengthened and shortened by 50%. Results showed a general monotonic effect in which cries with increasingly shorter pauses were perceived to be more arousing, aversive, informative, and rough. Similarly, cries with short expirations were perceived to be more rhythmic and rough than cries with long expirations. The strength of the monotonic effect for pause duration on ratings of urgency interacted with the duration of expiratory sounds such that the combination of short pauses and short expirations created the greatest perceived urgency. This study replicates and extends previous findings which show that gradations in acoustic features of crying are associated with gradations in the intensity of adults' perceptions.     

Time stamp in conditioned place avoidance can be set to different circadian phases

We have reported that the expression of conditioned place avoidance (CPA) in the golden hamster is regulated in a circadian pattern such that the preference is exhibited strongly at the circadian time of prior training but not at other circadian times [Cain, S. W., Chou, T., & Ralph, M. R. (2004a). Circadian modulation of performance on an aversion-based place learning task in hamsters. Behavioural Brain Research, 150(1–2), 201–205]. In that study, animals that were trained at a specific circadian time to discriminate between a “safe” context and one paired with foot shock, showed strong avoidance of the paired context at 24 and 48 h following the last training session, and showed no avoidance at 32 and 40 h following training. In the present study, we hypothesized that this “time stamp” effect is settable to any circadian phase. This was tested by training animals at one of two times of day (ZT13 or ZT4) and testing whether a time stamp would be observed, with avoidance occurring only when training and testing times match. Results confirmed our hypothesis, suggesting that the time stamp in the performance of learned tasks can be set to any circadian phase. Such an ability may allow animals in nature to predict the recurrence of 24 h events, regardless of the time of day the event was encountered.     

关于《上清经》

本文探讨《上清经》与上清派的命名、《上清原统经目注序》的撰作时间和作者以及东晋《上清经》的成书等问题。着重考察了华侨、杨羲、许谧、许翽等制作的首批上清经、传、诰的情况,并列书名、篇目;同时指出《上清经》的某些复杂性质。本文对与经书相关的道教分派标准问题也提出了自己的见解。     

Why night owls are more intelligent

The origin of values and preferences is an unresolved theoretical problem in social and behavioral sciences. The Savanna–IQ Interaction Hypothesis suggests that more intelligent individuals are more likely to acquire and espouse evolutionarily novel values and preferences than less intelligent individuals, but general intelligence has no effect on the acquisition and espousal of evolutionarily familiar values and preferences. Individuals can often choose their values and preferences even in the face of genetic predisposition. One example of such choice within genetic constraint is circadian rhythms. Survey of ethnographies of traditional societies suggests that nocturnal activities were probably rare in the ancestral environment, so the Hypothesis would predict that more intelligent individuals are more likely to be nocturnal than less intelligent individuals. The analysis of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health) confirms the prediction.     

Time of Day Affects Episodic Memory in Older Adults*

ABSTRACT

The neuropsychological test scores of 2,030 cognitively normal older adults were examined to evaluate performance patterns as they related to time of day (TOD) at which testing was initiated. Multiple regression analyses were used to examine the association of TOD with scores on seven neuropsychological tests used in the clinical evaluation of dementia. Episodic memory performance was significantly related to TOD, while memory span and verbal fluency were not. Best performance occurred during early morning hours and late afternoon; worst performance occurred mid-day (i.e., noon). These findings may have implications for clinical assessment, the design of research on dementia, and the daily functioning of older adults.     

北宋两刘牧再考

本文在笔者以前考证的基础上,又以读书所得新证据对北宋两刘牧的问题进行了不同角度的考证。并以考证结果为根据,对诸多已成“事实”进行了商榷,指出：三衢刘牧无任何易学著作存世;朱震等有关“河洛”图书的传承代次,全是瞎说,不可再引以为据;“河洛”图书内容出于彭城刘牧著一卷本《易数钩隐图》之后,很可能是其弟子窜人;范谔昌的“象学”并不讲“河洛”图书,以此溯及陈抟之“象学”亦非“河洛”内容;范氏晚于彭城刘牧,并非其师等。最后指出：彭城刘牧讲太极大道,理应在“宋明理学”的研究领域中占有一席之地。     

Morningness–eveningness and intelligence: early to bed, early to rise will likely make you anything but wise!

Research examining various psychological correlates of circadian type (also known as diurnal preference) has been, over the years, quite expansive. A notable omission within this research program would appear a systematic exploration of the relation between intelligence and morningness-eveningness. The present study redressed this imbalance. 420 participants performed two self-report inventories assessing circadian type, as well as measures of intelligence from two psychometric batteries: CAM-IV and the ASVAB. The results indicate that, contrary to conventional folk wisdom, evening-types are more likely to have higher intelligence scores. This result is discussed in relation to current theories concerning the nature of human cognitive abilities.     

EEG mu rhythm and imitation impairments in individuals with autism spectrum disorder

Imitation ability has consistently been shown to be impaired in individuals with autism. A dysfunctional execution/observation matching system has been proposed to account for this impairment. The EEG mu rhythm is believed to reflect an underlying execution/observation matching system. This study investigated evidence of differential mu rhythm attenuation during the observation, execution, and imitation of movements and examined its relation to behaviorally assessed imitation abilities. Fourteen high-functioning adults with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and 15 IQ- and age-matched typical adults participated. On the behavioral imitation task, adults with ASD demonstrated significantly poorer performance compared to typical adults in all domains of imitation ability. On the EEG task, both groups demonstrated significant attenuation of the mu rhythm when executing an action. However, when observing movement, the individuals with ASD showed significantly reduced attenuation of the mu wave. Behaviorally assessed imitation skills were correlated with degree of mu wave attenuation during observation of movement. These findings suggest that there is execution/observation matching system dysfunction in individuals with autism and that this matching system is related to degree of impairment in imitation abilities.