Emotional disturbances and their interaction with neuropsychological deficits

The interaction and relationships between neuropsychological tests (which are principally oriented to intellectual and cognitive abilities) and tests of personality and emotional status are complex, but nevertheless important in the clinical assessment of brain-damaged persons. Are indications of emotional disturbances to be expected as a direct consequence of brain damage? If so, how can the indications of emotional disturbances be differentiated from results obtained with psychiatrically disturbed (non-brain-damaged) subjects? Some authors have presumed that emotional disturbances, such as depression, acute anxiety, etc., in their own right cause impaired performances on neuropsychological tests, whereas other authors have proposed that brain damage predisposes the individual to demonstrate evidence of emotional disturbances. If emotional disturbances cause impairment on neuropsychological tests, why is it that so many emotionally disturbed persons without brain damage tend to perform normally on neuropsychological tests? This review of relevant publications considers (1) different general approaches to these questions and their implications for neuropsychology, (2) evidence of differential sensitivity to brain damage of neuropsychological and emotional instruments, (3) the sensitivity and specificity of self-assessments and complaints of head-injured subjects, (4) MMPI findings among head-injured subjects and in interaction with neuropsychological measurements, and (5) principles and guidelines that may be of value in clinical application of findings reported in the literature.     

Death, Badness, and the Impossibility of Experience

Some have argued (following Epicurus) that death cannot be a bad thing for an individual who dies. They contend that nothing can be a bad for an individual unless the individual is able to experience it as bad. I argue against this Epicurean view, offering examples of things that an individual cannot experience as bad but are nevertheless bad for the individual. Further, I argue that death is relevantly similar.     

Gyral morphology in the posterior Sylvian region in families affected by developmental language disorder

This study describes the family aggregation of gyral morphology in the posterior perisylvian region in families that contain one or more children with a developmental language disorder. The probands in these families were 8 male and 2 female children referred through therapy programs and schools for children with language and reading problems. Family members included both biological parents (10 m, 10 f) and all available siblings (6 m, 4 f). Gyral morphology in the members of these families was compared with control subjects (10 m, 10 f) who were without a personal or family history of developmental language disorders. Gyral morphology was evaluated using T1-weighted sagittal scans from a GE Signa 1.5T magnet, 5 mm consecutive slices through the full brain volume. A less common type of Sylvian fissure morphology was more frequently found in the hemispheres of language-disordered subjects and their first-degree relatives than in control subjects. In addition, the pattern of Sylvian fissure morphology across generations within the families suggests that this feature might be inherited from either parent. The elevated rate of extra gyri in the posterior perisylvian region in families affected by language disorder links an anomaly within a language-related brain region with familial risk for this disorder.     

A taxonomy of neurobehavioral functions applied to neuropsychological assessment after head injury

Neuropsychological dysfunctions after traumatic brain injury are classified into a taxonomy to plan a comprehensive examination, and organize and report findings for diagnosis and treatment: consciousness, information processing, sensorimotor, neurophysiological, cerebral personality disorders, intelligence, memory, language, stress, psychodynamic, identity and weltanschauung, adaptation, complex adaptive functions, and development of children. Widerange sampling enhances the detection of acute and late-developing dysfunctions, and diagnosis of complex syndromes. Historical, personality, and injury data are components of the assessment. Issues discussed include underestimation of brain injury, malingering, interaction of symptoms, symptom persistence, and noncerebral lesional contributors to impairment after mild head injury.     

TOWARD A NEW CREATION OF BEING

Abstract. The author traces the path from split brains to basic beliefs by linking the deautomatized pattern of spiritual masters, as reorted in Rorschach protocols, with subsymbolic, parallel, distriguted processing, The older brain structures constitute humanity's common heritage, while the new brain constitutes particular cultural heritages. Expanding levels of complexity move from the limbic system throuh conitive left-mind vigilance and right-mind responsiveness to %Pelie patterns of proclamation and manifestation to the world-integrating mysticism of limbic input and the world-fulfilling action of the new brain. Whole brain activity combines emotional meaning and propositional explanation. Analogically seaking, the brain provides clues to understanding God. A ialectical theology parallels the reciprocal integration of brain processes. Whole brain belief originates in the old brain's evolutionary adaptation to our genetic inheritance and in the new brain's conscious intention to fulfill the will of God through our cultural inheritances.     

WOMEN: A MORE BALANCED BRAIN?

Abstract. On the basis of knowledge prior to 1988, Ashbrook pointed out that whereas most men are primarily dependent on the left cerebral hemisphere (“dominant hemisphere”) for verbally related functions, women show a greater hemispheric balance in this respect. For men, he argues, their possession of a “speaking” and a “non-speaking hemisphere” results in a positive-negative, bipolar way of thinking that may be characterized as dualistic and dialectically hierarchical. In contrast, the greater balance of hemispheric function in women appears to promote greater generalization and synthesis in their thinking. In this article I cite more recent neuroanatomical and brain imaging studies that provide further evidence of disparities in structure and function of the brains of men and women. As background for an attempt to explain these differences, I give a brief review of the triune evolution of the mammalian brain leading up to the human cerebrum. It is of major significance that the female has played a central role in mammalian evolution for more than 180 million years and that the evolutionary transition from reptilian therapsids to mammals is characterized by the develoment of (1) nursing conjoined with maternal care; (2) audiovocal communication or aiding mother-offspring contact; and (3) play. In human beings, the infant-carrying hypothesis suggests one means by which, over generations, certain parts of a woman's right hemisphere could undergo functional and eventual anatomical expansion. The mother-infant communication of basic mammalian sounds with vowel and consonant components suggests a basis for the origination of speech. Finally, in an expansion of Ashbrook's original thesis, we arrive at the rovocative consideration that, unlike men, with their dialectical reasoning, women, with their more balanced brain, are provided with a trialectial ladder for climbing to achieve knowledge. In terms of quantum mechanics, the particle and wave would correspond to the substance and strength of the sides of the ladder, and the derived psychic information (which is neither matter nor energy) would compare to the rungs in between.     

THREE COMPARATIVE MAPS OF THE HUMAN

Abstract. This article is a response to the 1994 Star Island conference on the "Decade of the Brain" from a Jewish perspective. After a brief introduction about the logical function of models and maps, I compare and contrast three models of the human: Ezekiel's vision of the chariot in the Hebrew Scriptures, Franz Rosenzweig's geometry of the human face in Der Stern der Erlosung (the Star of Redemption), and a standard anatomical picture of the human brain. Whereas Rosenzweigs face is seen to be compatible with Ezekiel's chariot, both are seen to be radically distinct from the implicit conception of what a human being is in modern medical science. I conclude with a suggestion that the differences are to be understood in terms of their different intended functions and express my hope for some new kind of model that will incorporate the functional advantages of both.     

Heidegger's Brightness as a Responsibility of the Therapist in Existential Family Therapy

The author reflects upon the Heideggerian concepts of thrown-ness, death imagery, arrogance and brightness and their usefulness in existential family therapy. The article describes and illustrates with clinical material the process of helping a couple or family to move from an arrogance response to thrownness and death imagery to the response of brightness as attendants of Being. The responsibilities of the therapist in facilitating such a process are also described.Director of the Worthington Logotherapy Institute, co-director of Lantz and Lantz Counseling Associates, and a professor at The Ohio State University. College of Social Work     

The Human Meaning of the Brain

This study attempts to show that brain research brings to light religious meanings. There is a physical basis of religion in that the way the brain has evolved makes possible the religious meanings of human experience. The brain grows out of and reflects the universe. The brain is an icon of God. In the analysis of the brain's various parts and functions the relational dimensions of reality are uncovered in their physical basis. This points to ultimate reality as social and to a social God. As such, the structures of reality, experienced through the brain, reflect the reality of God.     

关于高龄恶性肿瘤与人类自然死亡

“天寿癌”指的是高寿者经历漫长和满足的生命历程后平和地几乎没有痛苦地死于恶性肿瘤。癌症在高龄人群中十分常见,故高龄者死于癌症亦可被认为是一种形式的生命自然终结过程。因此,“天寿癌”的提出可能有助于老年人较实际地面对致死性肿瘤性疾病。对“天寿癌”的概念、诊断、治疗及其医学伦理学的问题进行简要的讨论。