Cowden Syndrome

Cowden syndrome is an autosomal dominant inherited cancer syndrome characterized by multiple hamartomas which may develop in any organ. Mucocutaneous papillomas and trichilemmomas are hallmarks of the syndrome. Affected individuals are at high risk of developing both benign and malignant disease of the thyroid and breast. Epithelial thyroid carcinoma occurs in 3–10% of affected individuals while women have a 25–50% lifetime risk of developing adenocarcinoma of the breast. Because of the cancer risk, it is imperative that health care providers recognize Cowden syndrome. The susceptibility gene has been localized to 10q22-23 and preliminary studies demonstrate no genetic heterogeneity.     

不同照明条件下中国青年女性彩色图片的喜爱肤色

本研究采用类例判断法,在不同光源下对22张图片肤色样本逐一地进行主观评价。使用的照明光源为D65、CWF和A三种标准光源,色温分别为6500K、4150K和2856K。垂直照明,45°观察．肤色样本的视角为2°。实验结果表明：观察者在A光源下比D65光源更容易地评价肤色样本的质量,即在D65光源下的满意样本,在A光源下其喜爱程度趋于提高,而对不满意样本的喜爱程度趋于降低或基本相同;在三种照明条件下,被评为最佳肤色的样本与真实肤色有些偏离,色调略为偏黄,亮度较高,饱和度则非常接近;在肤色的波长范围内,亮度较高而饱和度偏低的肤色样本往往是优选样本。     

The self in analysis

This paper develops a theoretical and clinical approach to the self which is non-essentialist and post-modem. Briefly, it offers a framework for theorizing Self based on hermeneutics and psychological constructivism. It then develops a critique of the essentialist Jungian theory of Self in which the Self is frequently described as a human subject with views, intentions and desires of its own. With this is background, a post-modern Jungian framework for Self is advanced, with a brief clinical account of the self in analysis.     

Attractiveness as a Function of Skin Tone and Facial Features: Evidence from Categorization Studies

Participants rated the attractiveness and racial typicality of male faces varying in their facial features from Afrocentric to Eurocentric and in skin tone from dark to light in two experiments. Experiment 1 provided evidence that facial features and skin tone have an interactive effect on perceptions of attractiveness and mixed-race faces are perceived as more attractive than single-race faces. Experiment 2 further confirmed that faces with medium levels of skin tone and facial features are perceived as more attractive than faces with extreme levels of these factors. Black phenotypes (combinations of dark skin tone and Afrocentric facial features) were rated as more attractive than White phenotypes (combinations of light skin tone and Eurocentric facial features); ambiguous faces (combinations of Afrocentric and Eurocentric physiognomy) with medium levels of skin tone were rated as the most attractive in Experiment 2. Perceptions of attractiveness were relatively independent of racial categorization in both experiments.     

Mentalizing eye contact with a face on a video: Gaze direction does not influence autonomic arousal

Recent research has revealed enhanced autonomic and subjective responses to eye contact only when perceiving another live person. However, these enhanced responses to eye contact are abolished if the viewer believes that the other person is not able to look back at the viewer. We purported to investigate whether this “genuine” eye contact effect can be reproduced with pre‐recorded videos of stimulus persons. Autonomic responses, gaze behavior, and subjective self‐assessments were measured while participants viewed pre‐recorded video persons with direct or averted gaze, imagined that the video person was real, and mentalized that the person could see them or not. Pre‐recorded videos did not evoke similar physiological or subjective eye contact effect as previously observed with live persons, not even when the participants were mentalizing being seen by the person. Gaze tracking results showed, however, increased attention allocation to faces with direct gaze compared to averted gaze directions. The results suggest that elicitation of the physiological arousal in response to genuine eye contact seems to require spontaneous experience of seeing and of being seen by another individual.     

Ego depletion improves insight

Initial acts of self-control can reduce effort and performance on subsequent tasks – a phenomenon known as ego depletion. Ego depletion is thought to undermine the capacity or willingness to engage executive control, an important determinant of success for many tasks. We examined whether ego depletion improves performance on a task that favours less executive control: insight problem solving. In two experiments, participants completed an ego-depletion manipulation or a non-depleting control condition followed by an insight problem-solving task (i.e., matchstick arithmetic). Participants in the depleting condition demonstrated greater insight problem-solving accuracy than those in the non-depleting control condition. Priming theories of willpower did not impact these results. Although ego depletion is widely regarded as a “state of impairment”, attendant decreases in executive control may foster insightful thinking.     

Breaking the Solid Ground of Common Sense: Undoing “Structure” with Michael Balint

Balint's great merit was to question what, in the classical perspective, was assumed as a prerequisite for analysis and thus located beyond analysis: the maturity of the ego. A fundamental premise of his work was Ferenczi's distrust for the structural model, which praised the maturity of the ego and its verbal, social, and adaptive abilities. Ferenczi's view of ego maturation as a trauma derivative was strikingly different from the theories of all other psychoanalytic schools and seems to be responsible for Balint's understanding of regression as a sort of inverted process that enables the undoing of the sheltering structures of the mature mind. Balint's understanding of the relation between mature ego and regression diverged not only from the ego psychologists, who emphasized the idea of therapeutic alliance, but also from most of the authors who embraced the object-relational view, like Klein (who considered regression a manifestation of the patient's craving for oral gratification), Fairbairn (who gave up the notion of regression), and Guntrip (who viewed regression as a schizoid phenomenon related to the ego weakness). According to Balint, the clinical appearance of a regression would depend also on the way the regression is recognized, is accepted, and is responded to by the analyst. In this respect, his position was close to Winnicott's reformulation of the therapeutic action. Yet, the work of Balint reflects the persuasion that the progressive fluidification of the solid structure could be enabled only by the analyst's capacity for becoming himself or herself [unsolid].     

Brain asymmetry and autonomic conditioning: Sensitization control

In the present experiment we report effects of cerebral asymmetry, or laterality, during classical conditioning to facial emotional stimuli. Twenty-five female subjects were presented with slides of a happy face in one visual half-field (VHF), and simultaneously a slide of an angry face in the other VHF, followed by shock as the unconditioned stimulus (UCS). To control for effects of sensitization, a new stimulus, never associated with the UCS, was introduced in the extinction phase. Dependent measures were phasic heart rate responses (HR) and skin conductance responses (SCR). The HR results showed a significant right hemisphere effect for the CS-UCS association, that was not attributable to UCS sensitization. No significant effects were found for the SCRs. The basic HR finding was a right hemisphere superiority for learning of a conditioned association.     

年轻成年人昼夜体温“钟”的研究

年轻成年被试在现代人类觉醒期间“标准环境温度”(standard ambient tem-perature)(～20℃)和人体产生和散发热量保持最佳平衡状态的睡眠期间“热中性”(thermal neutrality)环境温度(～30℃)条件下。24-h昼夜测量体(口腔)和皮肤(中背,耳后,肘,手背,足背)温度。皮肤温度借助特制WMSX-01巡回检测温度仅远距离连续测温和自动打印。结果表明;(1)在“标准环境温度”(～20℃)和“热中性”环境温度[～30℃间可见四肢(特别足部)]皮肤温度呈现显著相位性倒转。(2)“非午睡组”和“午睡组”均可见在14:00左右呈现一个体温“钟”的“次要低谷”(Minor nadir),从而表示成年人的体温“钟”也可能具有“半24-h昼夜节律”(Circasemidian rhythm)的内源性特征。     

自我损耗降低决策理性:心理机制与边界条件

处于自我损耗状态时, 个体在意愿上偏好即时利益和目标, 并且会做出许多非理性决策行为。在梳理自我损耗对行为决策的影响基础上, 指出自我损耗降低决策理性的注意机制和执行机制:一方面, 损耗使个体注意力更容易为即时利益所捕获, 进而重视短期利益而忽视长远利益, 即降低个体关注未来的能力; 另一方面, 损耗导致个体缺少计划性和行为实施的执行力, 即降低个体坚守未来的能力。此外, 损耗对决策理性的影响存在个体和情境两个方面的重要边界。未来可结合眼动技术验证损耗降低决策理性的注意机制, 进一步探究潜在边界条件以及寻找助推理性决策的方法。