Electroencephalography-neurofeedback has become a valuable tool in the field of psychology, e.g., to improve cognitive function. Nevertheless, a large percentage of NF users seem to be unable to control their own brain activation. Therefore, the aim of this study was to examine whether a different kind of visual feedback could positively influence NF performance after one training session. Virtual reality seems to have beneficial training effects and has already been reported to increase motivational training aspects. In the present study, we (...) tested 61 young healthy adults to investigate, whether 3D VR-based NF training has a more beneficial effect on the sensorimotor rhythm power increase than a mere 2D conventional NF paradigm. In the 3D group, participants had to roll a ball along a predefined path in an immersive virtual environment, whereas the 2D group had to increase the height of a bar. Both paradigms were presented using VR goggles. Participants completed one baseline and six feedback runs with 3 min each, in which they should try to increase SMR power over Cz. Half of the participants received real feedback whereas the other half received sham feedback. Participants receiving 3D VR-based feedback showed a linear increase in SMR power over the feedback runs within one training session. This was the case for the real as well as for the sham 3D feedback group and might be related to more general VR-related effects. The 2D group receiving the conventional bar feedback showed no changes in SMR power over the feedback runs. The present study underlines that the visual feedback modality has differential effects on the NF training performance and that 3D VR-based feedback has advantages over conventional 2D feedback. (shrink)

Modulating connectivity measures in EEG-based neurofeedback studies is assumed to be a promising therapeutic and training tool. However, little is known so far about its effects and trainability. In the present study, we investigated the effects of up- and down-regulating SMR coherence by means of neurofeedback training on EEG activity and memory functions. Twenty adults performed 10 neurofeedback training sessions in which half of them tried to increase EEG coherence between Cz and CPz in the SMR frequency range, while the (...) other half tried to down-regulate coherence. Up-regulation of SMR coherence led to between- and within-session changes in EEG coherence. SMR power increased across neurofeedback training sessions but not within training sessions. Cross-over training effects on baseline EEG measures were also observed in this group. Up-regulation of SMR coherence was also associated with improvements in memory functions when comparing pre- and post-test results. Participants were not able to down-regulate SMR coherence. This group did not show any changes in baseline EEG measures or memory functions comparing pre- and post-test. Our results provide insights in the trainability and effects of connectivity-based neurofeedback training and indications for its practical application. (shrink)

In two studies, we explored the frequency and phenomenology of musical imagery. Study 1 used retrospective reports of musical imagery to assess the contribution of individual differences to imagery characteristics. Study 2 used an experience sampling design to assess the phenomenology of musical imagery over the course of one week in a sample of musicians and non-musicians. Both studies found episodes of musical imagery to be common and positive: people rarely wanted such experiences to end and often heard music that (...) was personally meaningful. Several variables predicted musical imagery, including personality, musical preferences, and positive mood. Musicians tended to hear musical imagery more often, but they reported less frequent episodes of deliberately-generated imagery. Taken together, the present research provides new insights into individual differences in musical imagery, and it supports the emerging view that such experiences are common, positive, and more voluntary than previously recognized. (shrink)

From governments to the general public, one may ask about the possible contributions of historians, if any, to the understanding and management of global disasters, as e.g. the ongoing coronavirus disease 2019. Given the confuse situation at the onset of the pandemic in terms of diagnosis, treatment, and prevention, a look into past experience with nonconventional medicine seemed relevant. In the present study I surveyed secondary literature on the role of Chinese medicine, Āyurveda, and homeopathy over time. The quantitative results (...) were disappointing: nothing on Āyurveda, and one single study each on Chinese medicine and homeopathy. The quality of the former compensates for the numerical short age. The case of homeopathy is rather sui generis, since this medical system was born and blossomed during epidemics and pandemics. I conclude with a short comment on reference sources, which might serve as point of departure for future studies of Āyurveda in epidemics. (shrink)

The situation caused by the 2019 coronavirus disease has been representing a great source of concern and a challenge to the psychological well-being of many individuals around the world. For couples in particular, this extraordinary rise in concern, combined with the stress posed by the virus containment measures, such as prolonged cohabitation and lack of support networks, may have increased the likelihood of couple problems. At the same time, however, COVID-19 concerns may have been a stimulus to activate couples’ stress (...) management processes. A couple’s resource, which may have an important role in dealing with COVID-19 concerns and stress, is dyadic coping, i.e., the process through which partners face stress together. Drawing on a sample of 1,823 Italian individuals involved in a couple relationship, the current study tested a serial mediation model in which concerns about COVID-19 predicted psychological well-being, through both explicit stress communication and perceived partner dyadic coping responses. In addition, the study explored whether this dyadic coping process functioned the same way in satisfied and dissatisfied couples. Results showed that concerns about the situation related to COVID-19 significantly threatened individuals’ psychological well-being. However, these concerns positively predicted explicit stress communication, which in turn positively predicted perceived partner’s dyadic coping responses, which finally positively predicted psychological well-being. In addition, in the group of dissatisfied individuals, the association between explicit stress communication and perceived partners’ dyadic coping responses was not significant. The present study adds to the research on couples’ coping by testing for the first time the whole theoretical model of dyadic coping and does so during a global emergency situation. The study also suggests key components of preventive interventions for individuals in couples. (shrink)

RESUMO O trabalho apresenta uma discussão polêmica, complexa e enigmática para a teoria do conhecimento: a elaboração da dialética negativa na concepção da teoria crítica frankfurtiana – sobretudo, adorniana – na interface com a dialética materialista, do marxismo. Do estudo emerge uma proposta de reestruturação do universo objetivo no sentido de indicar elementos subjetivos – por intermédio da teoria psicanalítica – como possibilidade de superação do estado da alienação ampla: intelectual, política, cultural e humana. Trata de confrontar aspectos metodológicos, teóricos (...) e subjetivos em âmbito social amparado por uma perspectiva crítica. As contribuições, para além dos embates entre o idealismo clássico e o materialismo moderno, atravessam, entre outras, as perspectivas heideggeriana, hegeliana, kantiana, freudiana, marxiana e adorniana, visando apresentar fundamentos epistemológicos e teóricos que embasam a teoria crítica ao tempo que identifica diferenças e convergências entre o materialismo sócio-histórico dialético e a dialética negativa; componentes relevantes para compreender a incursão desta teoria no âmbito das diversas áreas do conhecimento. ABSTRACT This paper presents a controversial, complex and enigmatic discussion for knowledge theory: the development of the concept of negative dialectic Frankfurtian critical theory – especially Adornian – on the interface with the materialist dialectics of Marxism. From this study emerges a restructuring proposal of the objective universe as to indicate subjective elements – through psychoanalytic theory – as a possibility to overcome the alienation state: intellectual, political, cultural and human. It is about confronting methodological, theoretical and subjective aspects of the social field supported by a critical perspective. The contributions, beyond the clashes between classical idealism and modern materialism cross, among others, the Heidegger, Hegel, Kant, Freud, Marx and Adorno's perspectives, aiming to present epistemological and theoretical foundations that underlie critical theory at the time that it identifies differences and convergences between historical social dialectic materialism and the negative dialectic; relevant components to understand the incursion of this theory in the context of various areas of knowledge. (shrink)

Este artigo tem por objetivo destacar a presença feminina nos relatos sobre mártires cristãos nos séculos II e III d.C. Utiliza os pressupostos teóricos e metodológicos da história das mulheres. Destaca as experiências e as ações das mulheres como sujeitos ativos num contexto histórico específico. A documentação contém uma substancial presença de mulheres que ultrapassaram barreiras sociais e religiosas e confessaram publicamente a sua opção de fé. Mais do que uma descrição e um registro da participação feminina, alguns problemas são (...) analisados e explicados a partir da delimitação de aspectos específicos da vida das mulheres, incluindo a presença de um universo simbólico fortíssimo. O documento principal é a “Paixão de Perpétua e Felicidade”, que trata da prisão e condenação ao suplício de um grupo de homens e mulheres que confessaram e reafirmaram seu credo religioso cristão, no século III, na cidade de Cartago, na África do Norte. O documento é considerado um arquétipo dos atos dos mártires cristãos e, do mesmo modo, um registro documental que trata diretamente de duas mulheres. A análise demonstra a construção de modelos de resistência e liberdade, apontando características mais profundas e inerentes ao mundo feminino da época. Palavras-chave: História das mulheres; Mártires; Perpétua e Felicidade; Memória; Resistência. ABSTRACT The aim of this article is to emphasize woman’s presence in Christian martyrs’ descriptions during the 2nd and 3rd centuries, making use of theoretical and methodological fundamentals of the history of women. It highlights their experiences and actions as active subjects in a specific historical context. The documentation refers to a considerable number of women who crossed social and religious barriers and confessed their option of faith in public. More than describing and recording woman’s participation, it analyzes and explains some situations with basis on the delimitation of specific aspects of the women’s life, including the remarkable presence of a symbolic universe. The most important document is the Passion of Perpetua and Felicitas, which deals with the arresting, condemnation and martyrdom of a group of men and women who had confessed and reaffirmed their Christian creeds. The fact took place in the city of Cartago, in North Africa, in the 3rd century. The document is considered an archetype of Christian martyrs’ acts and a documentary record of the two women. The analysis demonstrates the construction of models of resistance and freedom that characterize the depth of the feminine world at the time. Key words: History of the women; Martyrs; Perpetua and Felicitas; Memory; Resistance. (shrink)

La pregunta inicial relacionada con este artículo es: ¿cómo el arte ha ido asimilando los procedimientos lógicos de los algoritmos computacionales? Nuestra hipótesis es que estamos siendo entrenados por procedimientos lógicos que conforman, informan y forman nuestro pensamiento, tales como simulaciones, modelos, patrones, códigos y conjuntos de códigos, algoritmos, dispositivos, interfaces, y estos son el núcleo de lo que llamamos de «pensamiento conformado». Es importante resaltar que al decir que un pensamiento está conformado no se limita a formas, aspectos físicos, (...) expresiones de patrones, sino que es un conjunto de hábitos o costumbres comunes y socialmente definidos, determinados por la sociedad, comunidad o grupo. Por lo tanto, el pensamiento conformado provoca cambios significativos e impulsa nuestro pensamiento, lenguaje y, en consecuencia, nuestro comportamiento. El objetivo es comprender cómo la lógica de los algoritmos, especialmente de la inteligencia artificial, que están presentes en los modelos conceptuales y perceptuales de las obras de arte actuales, puede generar un desmembramiento estético. La premisa es que la comprensión de los procedimientos tecnológicos aumenta las posibilidades creativas y el potencial expresivo de los proyectos de arte. Esto se verá reflejado de alguna manera en la experiencia estética, porque, cambiando conceptos y técnicas, también cambian el pensamiento y las formas de acción y, en consecuencia, los procesos creativos y los resultados estéticos. Este es el resultado de un estudio que busca comprender cómo estos procedimientos afectan los sistemas sensoriales y cognitivos, cómo nuestra mente procesa esta información y consecuentemente interactuamos en el mundo. Nuestro punto de vista es que los artistas tienen el papel crítico no solo de aplicar estos principios lógicos en sus obras de arte, sino también de intervenir en estos procesos de manera disconforme. (shrink)

Hybride der Romantik: Frankenstein, Olimpia und das künstliche Leben. Dieser Beitrag untersucht Vorstellungen über die Möglichkeit der Erzeugung künstlicher Lebewesen in der Zeit der Romantik und die damit verbundenen Ängste am Beispiel zweier fiktionaler Texte: Mary Shelleys Frankenstein und Ernst Theodor Amadeus Hoffmanns Sandmann. Dr. Franksteins Monster und Dr. Spalanzanis Automat verkörpern – auf unterschiedliche Weise – die Möglichkeit einer Wendung wissenschaftlicher Produkte und insbesondere künstlicher Hybride ins Monströse. Ihre Geschichten thematisieren das Grauen, das vom drohenden Kontrollverlust ausgeht und als (...) der modernen Wissenschaft innewohnende Gefahr selbst nach der Zerstörung der monströsen Kreaturen bestehen bleibt. Der Begriff des Unheimlichen, von Ernst Jentsch und Sigmund Freud mit Bezug auf Hoffmanns Sandmann formuliert und 1970 von dem japanischen Robotiker Masahiro Mori als Phänomen „des unheimlichen Tals“ (Uncanny Valley) weiterentwickelt, erlaubt weitere Einblicke in die Frage nach künstlichen Lebewesen und ihre Interaktion mit Menschen. Summary: Hybrids of the Romantic: Frankenstein, Olimpia, and Artificial Life. This essay analyzes fantasies and fears related to the possible creation of artificial humans in two influential pieces of Romantic literature, namely E.T.A. Hoffmann's Der Sandmann and Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. Both the automaton Olimpia and Dr. Frankenstein's monster are hybrid creatures. These dystopian figures represent the Romantic fear of the loss of control over the outcome of human endeavour, they symbolize the dangers immanent in modern science and technology. As hybrids, Olimpia and Frankenstein's monster are capable of breaking apparently unpenetrable boundaries, such as those between human and non‐human, and between life and death. As such, these creatures become “unheimlich” (uncanny), a critical term developed by Ernst Jentsch and Sigmund Freud, who directly referred to Hoffmann's Sandman. The term “uncanny” was further developed by the Japanese roboticist Masahiro Mori in the 1970s. Mori's investigation of human responses to androids (“Uncanny Valley”), shows the persistence of doubts and fears surrounding artificial humans far beyond the Romantic times, and opens new questions related to the issues of creation, reproduction, hybrids, hubris and gender. (shrink)

U ovom radu bavicemo se eticko-pravnom analizom pravne regulacije genetskog testiranja u razlicitim oblastima kao sto su: medicinska istrazivanja, terapija, pravna medicina itd. Cilj nam je da istaknemo vrednosti koje u ovom kontekstu nadahnjuju neke od pravnih akata. Stoga ce se u radu porediti odredjena internacionalna, evropska i nacionalna pravna akta, kako bi se ukazalo na ona pravna resenja koja su u stanju da osiguraju vrednosti koje su neophodne za samo?opredeljenje i jednakost pojedinaca. Analiza ce dokazati da nisu sva tekuca (...) pravna akta kojima se regulise genetsko testiranje u saglasju sa osnovnim ljudskim pravima koja vaze za sve individue. (shrink)

U ovom radu bavicemo se eticko-pravnom analizom pravne regulacije genetskog testiranja u razlicitim oblastima kao sto su: medicinska istrazivanja, terapija, pravna medicina itd. Cilj nam je da istaknemo vrednosti koje u ovom kontekstu nadahnjuju neke od pravnih akata. Stoga ce se u radu porediti odredjena internacionalna, evropska i nacionalna pravna akta, kako bi se ukazalo na ona pravna resenja koja su u stanju da osiguraju vrednosti koje su neophodne za samo?opredeljenje i jednakost pojedinaca. Analiza ce dokazati da nisu sva tekuca (...) pravna akta kojima se regulise genetsko testiranje u saglasju sa osnovnim ljudskim pravima koja vaze za sve individue. (shrink)

Researchers have wondered how the brain creates emotions since the early days of psychological science. With a surge of studies in affective neuroscience in recent decades, scientists are poised to answer this question. In this target article, we present a meta-analytic summary of the neuroimaging literature on human emotion. We compare the locationist approach (i.e., the hypothesis that discrete emotion categories consistently and specifically correspond to distinct brain regions) with the psychological constructionist approach (i.e., the hypothesis that discrete emotion categories (...) are constructed of more general brain networks not specific to those categories) to better understand the brain basis of emotion. We review both locationist and psychological constructionist hypotheses of brain–emotion correspondence and report meta-analytic findings bearing on these hypotheses. Overall, we found little evidence that discrete emotion categories can be consistently and specifically localized to distinct brain regions. Instead, we found evidence that is consistent with a psychological constructionist approach to the mind: A set of interacting brain regions commonly involved in basic psychological operations of both an emotional and non-emotional nature are active during emotion experience and perception across a range of discrete emotion categories. (shrink)

This essay provides an overview of the ways in which contemporary philosophers have tried to make sense of ineffability as encountered in aesthetic contexts. Section 1 sets up the problem of aesthetic ineffability by putting it into historical perspective. Section 2 specifies the kinds of questions that may be raised with regard to aesthetic ineffability, as well as the kinds of answer each one of those questions would require. Section 3 investigates arguments that seek to locate aesthetic ineffability within the (...) object of aesthetic experiences, i.e. within aesthetic content. Section 4 discusses arguments that seek to locate aesthetic ineffability within the subject of aesthetic experience. (shrink)

Nel presente articolo tenteremo di mettere in luce in che modo la filosofia di Gilles Deleuze intrattenga un rapporto ineludibile con il tema delle pratiche, volendo mostrare il profondo interesse che il pensatore francese nutre nei confronti dei _πράγματα__. _Per seguire un tale itinerario, al contempo speculativo e pragmatico, ci soffermeremo su alcuni concetti chiave dell’opera deleuziana (creazione, invenzione, problematicismo, drammatizzazione e genesi), che crediamo possano contribuire a mettere in luce nel suo agire evenemenziale la dimensione “praticalista” del pensiero di (...) Deleuze. (shrink)

Drawing out literal and metaphorical meanings of 'foreignness' this wide-ranging volume offers much to scholars of postcolonial, gender, and cultural studies seeking new approaches to the study of alterity.

In this paper we explore the absentminded driver problem using two different scenarios. In the first scenario we assume that the driver is capable of reasoning about his degree of absentmindedness before he hits the highway. This leads to a Savage-style model where the states are mutually exclusive and the act-state independence is in place. In the second we employ centred possibilities, by modelling the states (i.e. the events about which the driver is uncertain) as the possible final destinations indexed (...) by a time period. The optimal probability we find for continuing at an exit is different from almost all papers in the literature. In this scenario, act-state independence is still violated, but states are mutually exclusive and the driver arrives at his optimal choice probability via Bayesian updating. We show that our solution is the only one guaranteeing immunity from sure loss via a Dutch strategy, and that – despite initial appearances – it is time consistent. This raises important implications for the rationality of commitment in such scenarios. (shrink)

Dopo l'affermazione nietzschiana per cui “non ci sono fatti ma solo interpretazioni” la filosofia giunge alla fase del postmoderno, difesa da Gianni Vattimo, in cui dialettica ed ermeneutica rendono “debole” il concetto di verità. Il suo allievo Maurizio Ferraris critica la visone del suo maestro col tentativo di instaurare un nuovo realismo, volendo riportare in auge un concetto di verità, che escluda da esso tutte le verità di tipo epistemologico e religiose. L’analisi e lo studio dell’attacco al postmoderno di Ferraris (...) che qui viene fatto mostra che sia nel pensiero del primo autore, con la difesa delle verità “soggettive”, sia nel secondo, che difende le verità “oggettive”, il concetto di verità resta slegato dalla morale, e che non avendo contenuti epistemologici su cui fondarsi non giunge all’effettivo ritorno di una nozione “forte” di verità. (shrink)

Recent findings regarding the cellular biology and immunology of BST‐2 (also known as tetherin) indicate that its function could be exploited as a universal replication inhibitor of enveloped respiratory viruses (e.g., influenza, respiratory syncytial virus, etc.). BST‐2 inhibits viral replication by preventing virus budding from the plasma membrane and by inducing an antiviral state in cells adjacent to infection via unique inflammatory signaling mechanisms. This review presents the first comprehensive summary of what is currently known about BST‐2 anti‐viral function against (...) respiratory viruses, how these viruses construct countermeasures to antagonize BST‐2, and how BST‐2 function might be targeted to develop therapies to treat respiratory virus infections. The authors address the current gaps in knowledge, including the need for mechanistic understanding of BST‐2 antagonism by respiratory viruses, that should be bridged to achieve that goal. (shrink)

ABSTRACTEvaluative conditioning procedures change people’s evaluations of stimuli that are paired with pleasant or unpleasant items. To test whether influence awareness allows people to resist such...