Theologies of pastoral leadership

The disestablishment of mainline Protestantism as the default religiosity and public theological voice, lamented by many of its members, presents new opportunities for conceiving of pastoral leadership in faithful ways. The pastor as public leader is better imagined as a visionary possibilizer and convener of public conversations, exerting influence in indirectly persuasive ways, rather than as spokesperson for an institution.     

目标焦点监控下目标信息的建构与整合

探讨文本阅读过程目标焦点监控下读者对目标信息的建构与整合。采用移动窗口技术,要求被试阅读24篇含有主人公目标的记叙文,设计了子目标未实现、子目标曲折实现或子目标直接实现三种条件,对不同条件下目标启动句阅读时间进行分析。实验1对子目标曲折实现与子目标未实现两种条件下目标启动句阅读时间进行比较,结果表明,曲折实现条件下目标启动句阅读时间长于未实现条件下目标启动句的阅读时间,说明在没有共振的情况下,目标启动句也可以激活先前的目标信息引发目标整合。实验2比较在子目标曲折实现与子目标直接实现条件对目标启动句阅读时间,以探讨在目标焦点条件下是否对相关信息进行追随性建构,结果表明,曲折实现条件下目标启动句阅读时间与直接实现条件下目标启动句的阅读时间差异不显著,说明在目标焦点监控下可以发生阅读信息的追随性建构。本实验结果初步证明,阅读不同文本信息可能会引发不同的信息加工活动,建构主义理论与记忆基础文本加工理论都只是说明了文本阅读信息加工的一个侧面。     

默读汉字词的脑功能偏侧化成像研究

采用读词名的方法 ,对 12名正常大学生 ,运用功能性磁共振成像技术 (fMRI) ,研究了汉字词及假词视觉识别时的脑功能偏侧化现象。实验结果表明 ,汉字词激活左下额区 (BA4 5 )以及右颞叶 (BA2 1、2 2 )、右枕叶 (BA18) ,而假词除额区外表现出广泛的激活。此结果显示除左脑半球与汉字词加工密切相关外 ,右脑半球在汉字词加工中有一定参与但其确切作用有待进一步研究     

Bilateral comparison of occipital lobe sulci: A sulcus identifying algorithm

A procedure for automatic identification of sulci of cerebral hemispheres in magnetic resonance images is presented. The algorithm departs from information of the spatial location of a given feature (e.g., sulcal contour) in one hemisphere and automatically defines its course in the other hemisphere. The automatic tracing of sulci was successfully performed in the mesial aspect both hemispheres in 18 normal individuals. The sulcal location in the target hemisphere was first approximated by assuming an affine transformation between hemispheres, and then refined by local edge analysis. The method produced reliable results in comparing the intersulcal areas (the cuneus), sulcal length, their complexity, and the angle between the pariteooccipital and retrocalcarine fissures.     

Is the mind-body interface microscopic?

This paper puts forward the hypothesis that consciousness might be linked to matter in a way which is more sophisticated than the traditional macroscopic Cartesian hypothesis suggests.Advances in the biophysics of the nervous system, not only on the level of its macroscopic functioning but also on the level of individual ion channels, have made the question of how finely consciousness is tied to matter and its dynamics more important. Quantum mechanics limits the attainable resolution and puts into doubt the idea of an infinitely fine-woven attachment. A recent approach to physics rekindles such a rationalist hope. Endophysics focuses on the global implications of microscopic computer simulations of chemical and biophysical processes. A complete artificial universe can be set up in the computer. It produces non-classical and nonlocal effects inside — on the interface that exists between an internal observer (fluid neuron) and the rest of the world. This interface is finer than any brain property to which the status of the mind-body interface has been attributed hitherto. A new class of experiments becomes possible in the artificial world and, by analogy, in the real world. Magnetic resonance imaging experiments, routinely performed under open-loop conditions, can be repeated under psychophysical (closed-loop) conditions — in search for microscopically induced changes in the perceived and measured structure of the world.     

Brain imaging techniques in the diagnosis of dementia

Various recently developed brain imaging techniques used to assist in the diagnosis of dementia are reviewed. The methods reviewed are x-ray computed tomography scan imaging, magnetic resonance imaging, positron emission tomography, and the older techniques of pneumoencephalography and radioisotope cisternography. It was concluded that while these techniques often offer excellent diagnostic information, none of them provides a definitive characteristic image for Alzheimer's disease.     

When confessing sin feels good

This paper draws on a qualitative study of how young people engaged in two youth ministries in the Church of Norway reflect on sin and shame in relation to their existential dilemmas . The authors analyze this practice through the lens of Hartmut Rosa's concept of resonance, arguing that there is consonance between how young people in the study express shame and the Lutheran understanding of sin as being curved in on oneself. Both sin and shame prevent the subject from being open to the world, thus constituting resistance to resonance. Yet, the practice of confessing sin may be a remedy to this closing in on oneself, as confession affords a resonant space, countering feelings of existential inadequacy caused by both sin and shame. Bringing the concept of vulnerability into the discussion, the paper further argues that confessing sin may prove healing and liberating also for experiences of shame as long as it does not violate the subject's ability to speak with her own voice or involve harmful god-images or harmful power dynamics.     

艺术设计中创造性思维的fMRI研究：一项基于智能CAD的探索

本项工作尝试将人类思维的神经生物学基础研究与人工智能的研究成果相结合, 利用类比生成模型的原理, 开发了一个计算机辅助设计系统“多源类比人脸生成系统”, 并运用此平台开展了fMRI实验, 对人类大脑创造性思维的神经生物学机制进行了探索。实验采用open-ends模式下的“design task”和problem solving模式下的“control task”作为对照, 共采得15名健康成人被试的有效数据。数据结果显示design task与control task相比更为显著地激活了内侧前额叶、额中回、右侧颞上回、前扣带回、双侧海马、楔前叶这些脑区。综合以往研究推测, 内侧前额叶可能更多地与即兴自由创作中对自我信息的表征有关, 颞叶可能与不断产生和输出新颖性的观点有关, 边缘系统则可能主要与创造性活动中的动力驱动作用有关。总的来说, 创造性思维是多个脑区同时参与的高度分布式加工的结果。     

青老年组不同难度下心算活动的脑功能磁共振成像研究

应用功能磁共振成像技术研究不同心算难度下脑区的活动以及年龄的影响。14名志愿者（20～29岁青年和60～69岁老年被试各7名）参加了该实验。实验任务为2个难度水平的连续减法心算,分别为1000—3和1000—17。结果表明：（1）心算加工激活了额叶和顶叶的许多脑区;（2）大脑左半球是心算加工的优势半球,但随着心算难度加大,大脑一侧化程度下降,而年老加剧了这一趋势;（3）青年组进行简单心算（1000—3）时,额中回未见明显激活,而老年组进行简单心算时,该脑区被明显激活。总体上,额叶和顶叶在心算活动中起着重要作用,而任务难度和年龄对心算加工时脑活动的影响以额中回区最为明显。     

The levels of perceptual processing and the neural correlates of increasing subjective visibility

According to the levels-of-processing hypothesis, transitions from unconscious to conscious perception may depend on stimulus processing level, with more gradual changes for low-level stimuli and more dichotomous changes for high-level stimuli. In an event-related fMRI study we explored this hypothesis using a visual backward masking procedure. Task requirements manipulated level of processing. Participants reported the magnitude of the target digit in the high-level task, its color in the low-level task, and rated subjective visibility of stimuli using the Perceptual Awareness Scale. Intermediate stimulus visibility was reported more frequently in the low-level task, confirming prior behavioral results. Visible targets recruited insulo-fronto-parietal regions in both tasks. Task effects were observed in visual areas, with higher activity in the low-level task across all visibility levels. Thus, the influence of level of processing on conscious perception may be mediated by attentional modulation of activity in regions representing features of consciously experienced stimuli.