Open Field Motor Patterns and Object Marking, but Not Object Sniffing, Are Altered by Ibotenate Lesions of the Hippocampus

Objectmarking and object sniffing were assessed in an open field during six 5-min trials in unoperated Long-Evans rats and rats with ibotenate lesions of the hippocampus and/or neocortex. Object marking was higher in hippocampally lesioned rats than in unoperated rats. Object marking did not differ between neocortically lesioned rats and unoperated rats. Object sniffing durations and visits did not differ between unoperated and hippocampally lesioned rats nor between unoperated and neocortically lesioned rats. A new object elicited longer sniffing by both unoperated and hippocampally lesioned rats. Neocortically lesioned rats did not show this effect. There were no effects of the new object on marking. Computerized tracing of open field paths revealed a smaller perimeter track for hippocampally lesioned rats than for unoperated rats. This difference reflected distinct ambulatory patterns. Hippocampally lesioned rats made stereotyped hind-limb pivots at each corner, while normal rats used forelimb pivots or reared and reoriented adjacent to the wall. Rearing was lower in hippocampally lesioned rats, and higher in neocortically lesioned rats, than in unoperated rats. These data indicate that investigative object behavior (sniffing) is resistant to the effects of hippocampal damage, while object-elicited marking and motoric output may be profoundly altered. The data on sniffing suggest either that (1) the noticeability of the objects used elicited investigative behaviors in hippocampally damaged rats comparable to those of novelty-induced exploration in normal rats or (2) object exploration is not used to create a spatial map, and, hence, not disturbed by hippocampal loss. Object marking may require spatial locale information to be exercised normally, or may index the mediation of an olfactory-modulated behavioral pattern through the hippocampal system.     

Gender differences in acute and chronic stress in Wistar Kyoto (WKY) rats

While females are considered more susceptible to depressive behavior, this assertion is not strongly supported by the experimental literature. Since stress contributes to depressive behavior, male and female Wistar Kyoto (WKY) rats were exposed to either one session (acute stress) or 5 sessions (chronic stress) of restraint plus cold in order to study depressive behavior in male and female rats. After their respective treatment exposure, rats were tested in the open field test (OFT) and for retention of a passive-avoidance (P-A) task. One stress session resulted in significant immobility in the OFT for males, whereas 5 sessions were required to produce similar immobility in female rats. Acute stress interfered with the retention of the P-A response for males, while both acute and chronic stress produced poor P-A responses in female rats. Food consumption decresed, progressively, as a function of stress sessions, in female rats, whereas feeding in males returned to control levels after five stress days. Both acute and chronic stress exacerbated the stress ulcer response in male rats, but not in female rats. Chronic, but not acute, stress resulted in an increase in serotonin transporter mRNA levels in the dorsal raphe nucleus of both male and, female rats. The general consensus from these data suggested that female rats were more vulnerable to chronic stress and consequently supported the notion that females may be more susceptible to stress induced behavioral depression.     

Phonological processing of words in right- and left-handers

It is commonly accepted that phonology is the exclusive domain of the left hemisphere. However, this pattern of lateralization, which posits a right visual field advantage, has been questioned by several studies. In fact, certain factors such as characteristics of the stimuli and subjects' handedness can modulate the right visual field advantage. Thus, the goal of this study was to compare the hemispheric dynamics of right-handers and left-handers during a divided visual field presentation of words that varied in terms of their phonological transparency. For non-transparent words, the left hemisphere seems more competent in both handedness groups. With regard to transparent words, the right hemisphere of both groups also appears competent. Surprisingly, left-handers achieved optimal processing with a functionally isolated left hemisphere, whereas right-handers needed the participation of both hemispheres. The pattern of performance cannot be fully explained by either the callosal or the direct access model.     

不同认知方式个体图形一致性判断过程中的ERP研究

使用ERP技术对选取的27名右利手大学生（场独立14名,场依存13名）在图形一致性判断过程中的ERP进行分析,结果表明：1）在图形一致性的判断任务中,场依存者的前额叶与中央区在200ms之前的N85与P160峰-峰之差明显大于场独立者,在枕叶区的负波N120波幅明显高于场独立者,这说明场依存者在对图形一致性比较的视觉信息处理的早期阶段即进行了更深度的加工。2）场独立者的N290波幅高于场依存者,而N290潜伏期比场依存者明显的长,这说明场独立者在后期对图形进行了更深入的分析比对。     

Feeling Our Way Forward: Continuity and Discontinuity Within the Cosmic Process

Though their philosophical systems differed in many respects, both Charles Sanders Peirce and Alfred North Whitehead were united in their opposition to what they saw as the materialistic presuppositions of modern science and both urged instead a new psycho-physical approach to reality with emphasis on subjectivity/contingency as well as objectivity/necessity within all natural processes. This article reviews both systems and indicates how, taken in conjunction rather than seen as rival cosmologies, they offer a strong argument for rethinking the way Nature works both within us and around us.     

Emergent Monism and the Classical Doctrine of the Soul

Traditional Christian belief in the existence of human life after death within a transformed material universe should be capable of rational justification if one chooses carefully the philosophical scheme underlying those claims. One should not have to appeal simply to the power of a loving God to justify one's beliefs. A revision of Whitehead's metaphysical scheme is proposed that allows one to render these classical Christian beliefs at least plausible to a broad range of contemporary thinkers as a consequence of a cosmology based on the principle of universal intersubjectivity and the need for a common ground between opposing subjectivities.     

Veiled Reality and Structural Realism

Abstract

The noted philosopher of science, Bernard d'Espagnat, tries to mediate between objective reality and empirical reality via the notion of veiled reality: namely, while the laws proper to things in themselves are unknown, their existence and interrelated activity can be inferred from observation and analysis of human experience. The author claims that Whiteheadian creativity offers a better candidate for the notion of veiled reality because it is a transcendent activity, not a transcendent actuality. Likewise, a revision of the Whiteheadian category of society as a structured field of activity for its constituent actual entities indirectly confirms Henri Poincaré's notion of structural realism.     

THEOLOGICAL APPROPRIATION OF SCIENTIFIC UNDERSTANDINGS: RESPONSE TO HEFNER, WICKEN, EAVES, AND TIPLER

Abstract. Philip Hefner's focus on contingency and field as the guiding concepts in my thinking and his characterization of my theological enterprise as a Lakatosian research program are appropriate and helpful.
I welcome Jeffrey Wicken's holistic approach to the emergence of life. Theology can appropriate the language of self-organizing systems exploiting the thermodynamic flow of energy degradation for interpreting organic life as a creation of the Spirit of God.
However, I cannot sympathize with Lindon Eaves's equation of "hard science" with a reductionism which raises the double helix to the status of icon; the "meaning" of DNA derives from its place in the total phenomenon of life—not the reverse.
Frank Tipler's cosmology raises the prospect of a rapprochement between physics and theology in the area of eschatology. A Christian cosmology, however, would require at least three modifications: contingency in the history of creation; the uniqueness of Jesus' resurrection; and the relation of these to the problem of evil.     

Focal attention and the perception of pattern structure in extrafoveal vision

Several studies have shown that visual attention enhances the encoding of the positional relationships between pattern elements, i.e., the perception of pattern structure. This theoretical note discusses the possibility that the inferiority of extrafoveal vision in the perception of pattern structure results, at least partially, from less effective focal attention in the periphery. Hence, there may exist higher level differences between foveal and extrafoveal vision in information processing which cannot be explained by the spatial inhomogeneity of the retino-striate system.     

高中生认知方式特点及其与学绩关系的研究

采用认知方式图形测验,对94名普通高中生进行实验研究,探讨了当前普通高中生认知方式特点及其与学绩的关系。结果表明：随着年级的增高,高中生的场独立性增强。高中生的认知方式场依存性、场独立性与学习成绩的相关不显著。在初中毕业刚进入高中,学生的认知方式存在显著的性别差异,但随着年级增长、个体成熟,这种差异逐渐缩小。文理分科对高中生的认知方式发展没有明显的影响。