Formal Schooling Influences Two- but Not Three-Dimensional Naming Skills

The modulatory influence of literacy on the cognitive system of the human brain has been indicated in behavioral, neuroanatomic, and functional neuroimaging studies. In this study we explored the functional consequences of formal education and the acquisition of an alphabetic written language on two- and three-dimensional visual naming. The results show that illiterate subjects perform significantly worse on immediate naming of two-dimensional representations of common everyday objects compared to literate subjects, both in terms of accuracy and reaction times. In contrast, there was no significant difference when the subjects named the corresponding real objects. The results suggest that formal education and learning to read and to write modulate the cognitive process involved in processing two- but not three-dimensional representations of common everyday objects. Both the results of the reaction time and the error pattern analyses can be interpreted as indicating that the major influence of literacy affects the visual system or the interaction between the visual and the language systems. We suggest that the visual system in a wide sense and/or the interface between the visual and the language system are differently formatted in literate and illiterate subjects. In other words, we hypothesize that the pattern of interactions in the functional-anatomical networks subserving visual naming, that is, the interactions within and between the visual and language processing networks, differ in literate and illiterate subjects.     

脑的感知觉无意识加工及其研究进展

该文从无意识加工与认知、脑结构,神经网络的关系等三个层面,阐述了近年来认知神经科学在无意识研究方面的进展。主要就无意识与意识的相互转化、无意识加工与认知层次、脑结构之间的关联性、突触的联结方式等问题进行了讨论,并对认知神经科学如何研究无意识与意识问题提出展望,     

The Genesis of Mind and Spirit

Spiritual life is made possible by the evolution of a human neuropsychology that requires social interdependence for its development. Extensive neuroplasticity requires experiential shaping throughout life. The evolution of frontal cortex hypertrophy suggests that much of this shaping is produced by a socially constructed virtual reality, extending beyond immediate experience. Prefrontal colonization makes possible the social scaffolding of neuroregulation, including the emotional attachments necessary for moral life. Cognitive independence from immediate environments enables symbioses with external memory systems, producing novel forms of socially constituted experience and making possible the transformative effect of religious systems upon individual biologies and psychologies.     

骨源性因子ucOCN在运动抗抑郁中的作用机制

羧化不全骨钙素(ucOCN)是骨中成骨细胞分泌的特异性蛋白,因其在调控神经发育、神经可塑性等中的重要角色而受到神经科学领域关注。"骨-脑"串联"对话"是骨内分泌-神经介导的应答系统,ucOCN透过血脑屏障后介导单胺类神经递质、神经内分泌、神经免疫、神经再生及基因表达等机制,进而作用于海马CA3区、扣带回等脑区功能发挥来调节抑郁发生及改善。而ucOCN作为骨源性力学刺激敏感基因,运动上调其表达后进入血液循环,通过介导5-HT/GABA分泌、HPA轴功能、炎症反应、神经营养因子(BDNF等)表达或信号途径(如GSK3β/β-catenin、TLR4/miR-223/NLRP3等)激活等来实现"骨串联脑",发挥运动抗抑郁作用。通过对骨源性因子ucOCN介导脑区功能变化从而实现运动抗抑郁的作用机制进行探讨、梳理,一方面有助于更深入了解骨内分泌功能,另一方面为抑郁发生、改善和运动抗抑郁研究提供新的理论基础和研究思路。     

脑外伤患者内隐记忆康复护理可行性研究

探讨脑外伤患者在高强度练习和准确反馈条件下,内隐学习知识效应和底层规则迁移易化能力。结果发现：①脑外伤患者在汉字整体偏好深加工的非显著特征学习与对照组一样有效;在笔划浅加工的显著特征学习,明显低于对照组;在自由回忆和再认的重复测验中,患者组与对照组存在显著性差异。②脑外伤患者学习记忆具有整体性、直观性、模糊抽象性、无意识性等特点。③脑外伤患者存在着内隐学习知识效应和内隐知识学习效应,且随着训练强化和训练方法的改进,有增强和外显记忆转化的趋势。     

The computer revolution and the problem of global ethics

The author agrees with James Moor that computer technology, because it is ‘logically malleable’, is bringing about a genuine social revolution. Moor compares the computer revolution to the ‘industrial revolution’ of the late 18th and the 19th centuries; but it is argued here that a better comparison is with the ‘printing press revolution’ that occurred two centuries before that. Just as the major ethical theories of Bentham and Kant were developed in response to the printing press revolution, so a new ethical theory is likely to emerge from computer ethics in response to the computer revolution. The newly emerging field of information ethics, therefore, is much more important than even its founders and advocates believe.     

CONSCIOUSNESS AND THE MACHINE

Abstract. We consider only the relationship of consciousness to physical reality, whether physical reality is interpreted as the brain, artificial intelligence, or the universe as a whole. The difficulties with starting the analysis with physical reality on the one hand and with consciousness on the other are delineated. We consider how one may derive from the other. Concepts of universal or pure consciousness versus local or ego consciousness are explored with the possibility that consciousness may be physically creative. We examine whether artificial intelligence can possess consciousness as an extension of the interrelationship between consciousness and the brain or material reality.     

GOD IS GREAT, GOD IS GOOD: JAMES ASHBROOK'S CONTRIBUTION TO NEUROETHICAL THEOLOGY

Abstract. James Ashbrook's work has not only clarified issues in brain and belief, it has offered intriguing suggestions for ethics. The relevance of neurotheology to ethics is evident if we assume that ethics entails, in part, concerns about character, responsibility, and the art of living.     

Evidence of the origin of specific spontaneous head turns during intertrial intervals

Direction and the frequency of spontaneous head movements during the ITIs following forward and backward paired trials were compared to an acquisition of a conditioned orienting (alpha) response directed to the side of the tone source. The head movements were analyzed from video recordings using classification of head turns to preferred and to nonpreferred directions. The results showed a significant increase in the alpha responses during the forward paired conditioning to the preferred direction and rapid extinction during the subsequent backward conditioning sessions. Spontaneous head movements during the ITIs increased to the same preferred direction as the conditioned alpha responses. The results of this experiment suggest that the response initially elicited by the CS can later appear as “spontaneous,” instrumental behavior, the form and the nature of which is determined by the characteristics of the conditioned alpha response developing as a result of classical conditioning.