FEDERATIVE GLOBAL DEMOCRACY

Abstract: In this essay a set of principles is defended that yields a determinate allocation of sovereign competences across a global system of territorially nested jurisdictions. All local sovereign competences are constrained by a universal, justiciable human rights regime that also incorporates a conception of cross-border distributive justice and regulates the competence to control immigration for a given territory. Subject to human rights constraints, sovereign competences are allocated according to a conception of global democracy. The proposed allocation scheme can accommodate substantial local autonomy while at the same time ensuring that everyone has a voice in the political decisions that affect his or her interests. The relevant class of affected interests is fully specified. Relevant affects are of two kinds: those that impose norms of governance on individuals, and those that impose external costs on them. The favored sense of "an external cost" is developed and defended.     

动、名词词类特异性损伤的研究现状

词汇的各类知识信息（如,语法信息）在人脑中的表征和加工方式是当前学者们研究的热点之一,以患者为研究对象已成为了其中一种重要的研究手段。期间,人们发现脑损伤使得一些患者对动词或名词表现出选择性认知加工障碍,即出现了动、名词词类特异性损伤。通过探讨这一现象发生的机理,将为揭示词类的语法信息在人脑中的表征和加工方式提供了契机。文章介绍了这一现象的表现形式,即一些脑损伤患者对有关动词的知识比有关名词的知识丧失得更严重,而有些患者的损伤模式却与其恰好相反。另外,文中也阐述了对该现象的3种理论解释：语法解释、语义－概念解释和词典解释。     

Characteristics of finger force production during one- and two-hand tasks

Relations among finger forces were studied during one-hand and two-hand isometric maximal force production tasks in right- and left-handers. We particularly focused on the phenomena of force deficit during one-hand multi-finger tasks and of bilateral force deficit during two-hand tasks. Ten healthy subjects (five of them left-handed) performed maximal voluntary force production tasks with different finger combinations involving fingers of one of the hands or of both hands together. In one-hand tasks, finger enslaving (forces produced by fingers that were not instructed to produce force) was larger in the dominant hand, while force deficit (drop in individual finger peak force during multi-finger tasks) showed no differences between the hands. An additional drop in finger forces was seen in two-hand tests (bilateral deficit). The magnitude of the bilateral deficit for a hand was larger for tasks involving fewer fingers within the hand and more fingers in the other hand, with a ceiling effect. Smaller bilateral deficit was seen in tasks involving symmetrical finger combinations. In two-hand tasks that could potentially lead to the generation of large total moments in the frontal plane, the hand that was expected to generate larger moments showed larger bilateral deficit, so that the magnitude of the total moment was reduced. These observations suggest that force deficit within a hand and bilateral deficit have different origins but their effects are combined at a certain level of the multi-finger control hierarchy. Bilateral deficit may display task dependence reflecting, in particular, the principle of minimization of secondary moments. A double-representation, mirror-image hypothesis is suggested to provide a neurophysiological basis for the observed patterns of bilateral deficit.     

The interplay among temperament,neuropsychological abilities,and global functioning in young hyperactive/inattentive children

Cognition and emotion have been shown to interact and influence psychological functioning. However, to date these interactions have only been examined cross‐sectionally among inattentive and/or hyperactive/impulsive children. This study investigated the moderating effects of neuropsychological functioning at age 3–4 years on the relation between negative emotionality at age 3–4 years and global functioning 1 year later, at age 4–5 years. Hyperactive/inattentive (H/I; n = 114) preschoolers entered the study (BL: baseline) and were seen again 1 year later (F1). Children's BL scores on a neuropsychological test (NEPSY) and their temperament as rated by parents (Child Behavior Questionnaire) and teachers (Temperament Assessment Battery for Children‐Revised) were obtained, as were clinicians’ ratings of their global functioning (Children's Global Assessment Scale) at F1. Hierarchical linear regression analyses revealed that BL temperament variables accounted for significant variance in F1 Global Functioning. Significant interactions indicated that higher Verbal Executive abilities were associated with better child functioning when parent‐rated Effortful Control was high, but not when Effortful Control was low. Additionally, high levels of Nonverbal Executive skills were associated with higher child global functioning when both parent‐ and teacher‐rated negative affect was low, but not when negative affect was high.     

Brain structure mediates the association between socioeconomic status and attention‐deficit/hyperactivity disorder

Low socioeconomic status (SES) is associated with greater risk for symptoms of attention‐deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). One mechanism through which SES may confer risk for ADHD is by influencing brain structure. Alterations to cortical thickness, surface area and subcortical volume have been associated with low SES and with the presence of ADHD across multiple studies. The current study examined whether cortical thickness, surface area or subcortical volume mediate the associations between SES and ADHD in youth 3–21 years old (N = 874) from the Pediatric Imaging, Neurocognition and Genetics Study. Freesurfer was used to estimate cortical thickness, surface area and subcortical volume from structural magnetic resonance imaging. Parents reported on demographics, family SES, ADHD diagnoses and the presence of child attention problems. Statistical mediation was assessed using a bootstrap resampling procedure. Controlling for parental ADHD, child age, gender, birth weight and scanner, children in low SES families were more likely to be in the ADHD group. Consistent with previous reports in this sample, low SES was associated with reduced surface area across the frontal lobe and reduced subcortical volume in the amygdala, cerebellum, hippocampus and basal ganglia. Of these regions, a significant indirect effect of SES on ADHD status through subcortical volume was observed for the left cerebellum (95% confidence interval: 0.004, 0.022), the right cerebellum (95% confidence interval: 0.006, 0.025), and the right caudate (95% confidence interval: 0.002, 0.022). Environmentally mediated changes in the cerebellum and the caudate may be neurodevelopmental mechanisms explaining elevated risk of ADHD in children in low SES families.     

Brain activity patterns of phonemic representations are atypical in beginning readers with family risk for dyslexia

There is an ongoing debate whether phonological deficits in dyslexics should be attributed to (a) less specified representations of speech sounds, like suggested by studies in young children with a familial risk for dyslexia, or (b) to an impaired access to these phonemic representations, as suggested by studies in adults with dyslexia. These conflicting findings are rooted in between study differences in sample characteristics and/or testing techniques. The current study uses the same multivariate functional MRI (fMRI) approach as previously used in adults with dyslexia to investigate phonemic representations in 30 beginning readers with a familial risk and 24 beginning readers without a familial risk of dyslexia, of whom 20 were later retrospectively classified as dyslexic. Based on fMRI response patterns evoked by listening to different utterances of /bA/ and /dA/ sounds, multivoxel analyses indicate that the underlying activation patterns of the two phonemes were distinct in children with a low family risk but not in children with high family risk. However, no group differences were observed between children that were later classified as typical versus dyslexic readers, regardless of their family risk status, indicating that poor phonemic representations constitute a risk for dyslexia but are not sufficient to result in reading problems. We hypothesize that poor phonemic representations are trait (family risk) and not state (dyslexia) dependent, and that representational deficits only lead to reading difficulties when they are present in conjunction with other neuroanatomical or—functional deficits.     

普萘洛尔修复即刻消退产生的二次创伤

恐惧消退能力的受损是创伤后应激障碍(posttraumatic stress disorder, PTSD)的标志之一。以往的研究表明, 相较于延迟消退, 恐惧获得后短时间内进行的消退训练不能形成长时程的消退记忆, 这一现象被称为即刻消退缺损。然而, 目前并不清楚这种缺损是一次性的, 还是会继续影响其后的重消退。实验1中, 大鼠在恐惧习得后1小时(即刻消退)或24小时(延迟消退)开始进行消退训练, 24小时后进行重消退, 再24小时后进行消退记忆的测试。结果显示, 与延迟消退相比, 即刻消退效果缺损, 并引起第二天的重消退也出现效果缺损。实验2中, 恐惧获得后立即给予大鼠盐水或β-肾上腺素受体阻断剂普萘洛尔(10 mg/kg, i.p.), 然后测试即刻消退和重消退的效果。结果显示, 普萘洛尔虽没有阻止即刻消退的缺损, 但避免了重消退出现缺损。总之, 严重创伤后的即刻消退不但无法有效抑制恐惧反应, 还可能造成二次创伤, 会损害恐惧消退能力, 而普萘洛尔可修复即刻消退引起的重消退缺损。这些结果将有助于我们加深对PTSD病理机制和早期干预后果的认识。     

Measuring Parental Treatment Adherence in a Multimodal Treatment Program for Children with ADHD: A Preliminary Investigation

This study evaluated the clinical significance of measuring between session parental adherence on child and parent outcomes for 51 children (age 4 to 8.5 years) with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in a multimodal group training program. Three group treatment conditions: (a) child-only treatment (C1), (c) child and parent training (C2), and (c) C2 + Parent Adherence Measure [PAM (C3)] were compared to assess the clinical significance of measuring parental adherence on child behavioral problems, socialization skills, and parental efficacy. Parents administered the PAM (C3) displayed, in general, better outcomes on child and parent measures than the other two conditions. Results suggest that a multimodal group training program for young children with ADHD is favorable to child group training only. This study offers preliminary support for the clinical utility of measuring parental adherence in a child ADHD multimodal group training program.     

Creative Thinking in Adolescents with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)

A widened attentional focus, that is typically associated with ADHD, has been postulated to be accompanied by enhanced creative ability. However, creativity has been only limitedly examined in ADHD. Performance across several creativity measures were investigated in three groups: adolescents with ADHD, those with conduct disorder, and a healthy control sample. The ADHD group exhibited selective cognitive advantages and disadvantages by demonstrating an enhanced ability in overcoming the constraining influence of examples, but a reduced capacity to generate a functional invention during an imagery task. These findings are interpreted with reference to inhibitory control mechanisms and the contextual modulation of creative cognition.