Fifty Shades of Grace: The Crafting of Sexual Wisdom

Abstract

Each of us has lived sexual experience that gives us embodied knowledge. This embodied knowledge is a primary source for the creation of practical sexual wisdom. We learn by doing, bumping up against others and mining the consequences to create a personal ethic. Grace accompanies us along the way. In this article a model of sexual-spiritual integration is proposed in which embodied knowledge is in critical-liminal conversation with other sources of knowledge to create practical sexual wisdom in a poetic and phronetic process. Such integration is an example of the moral creativity of the human being and derives from the function of sexuality in the person, the story-telling tendency of the brain to create identity, and the narrative intelligibility of human life. Implications for theological education (providing safe space, information, and invitations to critical and liminal reflection) are briefly discussed before particular graces (desire, vulnerability, honesty and wrestling) are explored and illustrated by stories and poems.     

Utilizing probabilities as decision weights in closed and open information boards: A comparison of children and adults

Decisions in preschoolers (6 years), elementary schoolers (9.7 years), and adults (21 years) were studied with an information board crossing three probabilistic cues (validities: .83, .67, .50) with two options. Experiment 1 (n = 215) applied a standard version of the information board (closed presentation format), in which information must be searched sequentially and kept in mind for the decision. Experiment 2 (n = 217) applied an open format (Glöckner & Betsch, 2008), in which all information was visible during decision making. Elementary schoolers but not preschoolers benefited from an open format — indicated by an increase in using probabilities as decision weights. In the open but not closed format, choices were biased by normatively irrelevant information (the lure). Variations in the prediction patterns of the cues influenced decisions in all age groups. Effects for presentation format, pattern, and lure jointly indicate that even children are capable of considering multiple information in their decisions.     

Touching words is not enough: How visual experience influences haptic–auditory associations in the “Bouba–Kiki” effect

Since Köhler’s experiments in the 1920s, researchers have demonstrated a correspondence between words and shapes. Dubbed the “Bouba–Kiki” effect, these auditory–visual associations extend across cultures and are thought to be universal. More recently the effect has been shown in other modalities including taste, suggesting the effect is independent of vision. The study presented here tested the “Bouba–Kiki” effect in the auditory–haptic modalities, using 2D cut-outs and 3D models based on Köhler’s original drawings. Presented with shapes they could feel but not see, sighted participants showed a robust “Bouba–Kiki” effect. However, in a sample of people with a range of visual impairments, from congenital total blindness to partial sight, the effect was significantly less pronounced. The findings suggest that, in the absence of a direct visual stimulus, visual imagery plays a role in crossmodal integration.     

面孔表情和声音情绪信息整合对返回抑制的影响

返回抑制(inhibition of return, IOR)与情绪刺激都具有引导注意偏向、提高搜索效率的特点, 但二者间是否存在一定的交互作用迄今为止尚不明确。研究采用“线索-目标”范式并在视听双通道呈现情绪刺激来考察情绪刺激的加工与IOR的交互作用。实验1中情绪刺激以单通道视觉面孔或一致的视听双通道呈现, 实验2通过在视听通道呈现不一致的情绪刺激进一步考察视听双通道情绪一致刺激对IOR的影响是否是由听觉通道一致的情绪刺激导致的, 即是否对听觉通道的情绪刺激进行了加工。结果发现, 视听双通道情绪一致刺激能够削弱IOR, 但情绪不一致刺激与IOR之间不存在交互作用, 并且单双通道的IOR不存在显著差异。研究结果表明仅在视听双通道呈现情绪一致刺激时, 才会影响同一阶段的IOR, 这进一步支持了IOR的知觉抑制理论。     

儿童理解监控的即时加工过程

理解监控在口语和阅读信息的交流中起关键作用。即时加工研究为揭示儿童理解监控发展特点及内在机制提供了新途径。本文结合已有口语理解监控和阅读理解监控成果,对儿童理解监控的特点及其可能的影响因素进行了全面综述。未来研究应在儿童理解监控的时间进程、口语理解监控及理论模型等方面进一步深化,积极开展脑机制研究,并从视听跨通道整合角度探索儿童理解监控过程的发展。     

多感觉整合范式中潜在的跨通道转换效应

大脑可以对来自不同感觉通道的信息进行处理与整合。与单一感觉通道相比, 个体对同时呈现在不同感觉通道的目标信号的响应会更快。对于这种现象的一种主要理论解释是共同激活模型, 该模型认为来自不同通道的刺激在特定的脑区汇聚整合, 比如顶叶内沟、颞上沟和前额叶皮层区域。整合后的信号强度更大, 可以更快地触发反应, 但是信号的整合发生在认知加工的哪一阶段目前尚未有明确结论。当个体对出现在不同感觉通道之间的任务转换进行加工时, 产生与感觉通道相关的任务转换的损失小于跨感觉通道转换损失与任务转换损失的总和, 这为与感觉通道相关的转换代价来源于任务设置的惯性和干扰提供了证据。而在单通道和多通道之间发生转换时, 跨通道转换代价会减小甚至消失, 这是由于同时发生的多感觉整合抵消了一部分损失, 这种现象支持了共同激活模型理论。然而, 多感觉信号整合对任务转换的神经加工过程产生怎样的影响并不清楚, 在未来的研究中可以把多感觉整合范式同经典的任务转换范式结合改进, 进而确定跨通道转换的加工机制和多感觉信号整合的发生阶段。     

Equilibrium and Harmony of Emotional Conflicts in Cooperation: Between Chinese Traditional Culture and Modern Artificial Intelligence

Equilibrium and harmony elevate human emotions like pleasure, anger, sorrow, and joy to the highest ontological level. We are puppets of our emotions and feelings, without the possibility of parole. By implanting complex emotional reactions in the operating system of sex robots, we have created a virtual relationship that mimics human intimacy. In this way, a thing—in this case, a machine—takes on human characteristics. This could be called the humanization of things. Not only can things be humanized, humans can also be reified. If, by imitating neural networks and deep learning, intelligent robots are to make great strides in their ability to think, they may come into the possession of emotions and feelings. In traditional Chinese culture, equilibrium and harmony form the highest and most pervasive principle, value, and morality for nature, society, and life. The state of equilibrium (zhong 中 ) and harmony (he 和 ) is the fundamental root from which springs the world and the universal path that it must pursue. When we view emotional equilibrium and harmony in light of the theoretical doctrine of harmony and cooperation, the emotional lives of humans and machines are integrated and combined with the state of equilibrium and harmony to achieve the greatest good. Moreover, this can resolve all kinds of crises amid the emotions and feelings of humanoids created by humans, notably by leveraging the outstanding intelligence of humans to maintain the emotions of humanoids in a state of equilibrium and harmony. To this end, we must perform regulatory actions in several aspects. First, we must modulate emotions and feelings. Second, we must achieve a state of equilibrium, which can put all things in the right positions, allowing them to be nourished and flourish. Third, we must strive for mutual empathy between humans and machines, which can pave the way for collaborative creation in harmony, as well as their integration, camaraderie, emotional understanding, mutual respect and harmonious love.     

Specific and nonspecific thalamocortical functional connectivity in normal and vegetative states

Recent theoretical advances describing consciousness from information and integration have highlighted the unique role of the thalamocortical system in leading to integrated information and thus, consciousness. Here, we examined the differential distributions of specific and nonspecific thalamocortical functional connections using resting-state fMRI in a group of healthy subjects and vegetative-state patients. We found that both thalamic systems were widely distributed, but they exhibited different patterns. Nonspecific connections were preferentially associated with brain regions involved in higher-order cognitive processing, self-awareness and introspective mentalizing (e.g., the dorsal prefrontal and anterior cingulate cortices). In contrast, specific connections were prevalent in the ventral and posterior part of the prefrontal and precuneus, known involved in representing externally-directed attentions. Significant reductions of functional connectivity in both systems, especially the nonspecific system, were observed in VS. These data suggest that brain networks sustaining information and integration may be differentiated by the nature of their thalamic functional connectivity.     

Fantasized recipient-donor relationships following lung transplantations: a qualitative case analysis based on patient narratives

The present study examines the relationships between lung transplant recipients and their unknown, deceased donors. Out of 20 semi-structured interviews, eight narratives, by three female and three male recipients respectively, were identified in which the figure of the donor played a role. These narratives were examined using JAKOB, a qualitative research tool that analyses relational configurations and diagnoses psychodynamic conflicts. Analysis revealed a broad range of varying themes and relationships with equally varying wish and fear themes. All the narrators dealt either explicitly or implicitly with whether and how they are connected to their donors. In five narratives, specific personality traits were attributed to the figure of the donor; in four narratives, latent feelings of guilt concerning the donor's death were expressed. Indeed, the figure of the donor was not always perceived as an independent person, separate from the narrator's self: in two cases, the donor appears as part of the recipient's self, while in another case, the donor is presented as a transitional object for the recipient. The findings of the narrative analysis are discussed within a theoretical model of psychical organ integration.     

Effective connectivity hierarchically links temporoparietal and frontal areas of the auditory dorsal stream with the motor cortex lip area during speech perception

A left-hemispheric cortico-cortical network involving areas of the temporoparietal junction (Tpj) and the posterior inferior frontal gyrus (pIFG) is thought to support sensorimotor integration of speech perception into articulatory motor activation, but how this network links with the lip area of the primary motor cortex (M1) during speech perception is unclear. Using paired-coil focal transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) in healthy subjects, we demonstrate that Tpj → M1 and pIFG → M1 effective connectivity increased when listening to speech compared to white noise. A virtual lesion induced by continuous theta-burst TMS (cTBS) of the pIFG abolished the task-dependent increase in pIFG → M1 but not Tpj → M1 effective connectivity during speech perception, whereas cTBS of Tpj abolished the task-dependent increase of both effective connectivities. We conclude that speech perception enhances effective connectivity between areas of the auditory dorsal stream and M1. Tpj is situated at a hierarchically high level, integrating speech perception into motor activation through the pIFG.