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The brain is a marvellous organ, and so is the mind which includes the brain, but which is much more. The mind encompasses the body that supplies affective input to the brain and thus mediates thought.
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Genetics is part of the life of every individual having a great influence not only in terms of the transmission of physical characteristics, but also in terms of the development of the human being. Genetics makes its mark on the character and lifestyle and relationship of an individual with the social environment. Epigenetics is a relatively new field of genetics that aims to elucidate the causes of the presence or absence of a pathology caused by the activation of genes. Epigenetics does not end its activity in intrauterine life, but is in a permanent dynamic. This dynamic is influenced by the individual’s lifestyle and environmental factors. Thus, by adopting sanogenic practices to maintain good systemic and mental health, as well as ensuring an environment free from pollution, an optimal state of health of the human body can be obtained. An individual’s adequate state of health encompasses three major factors: physical, mental, and social health. Alteration of one factor leads to the cancellation of the other two. Therefore, in order to maintain a balance, a good functionality of the bio-psycho-social complex is necessary. The novelty element brought by epigenetics compared to classical genetics is represented by the way in which certain factors act on human DNA and produce changes throughout life.
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In the transformation of the low-level, ambiguous retinal signal into a vivid and meaningful phenomenological experience, certain aspects are as essential as the input coming from the external environment. The semantic knowledge stored in memory, figure-background segmentation, grouping principles, and current mood and expectations of the person are equally important. Visual illusions, which might be described as the discrepancy between the objective properties of the external world and their subjective representations, is a common feature of the visual perception that provides meaningful insights with regards to the structure and function of the complex information processor in the brain. In this context, visual illusions are the end results of the optimization strategies that allow the effective use of limited neuronal and metabolic resources, and thus reflect the natural working principles while coping with these limitations, rather than restrictions inflicted upon the system. In this review, we present a compilation of illusions and summarize the key principles of visual perception on the basis of these visual phenomena. In the final section, we also discuss a number of recent topics within the context of Bayesian inference and psychopathology, illusions and alpha brain oscillations and time perception to describe the current directions in the field.
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Functional specialization, a core theory in neuroscience, states that brain structures have emerged to carry out specific sensory, affective, cognitive and motor functions. For instance, the cerebellum, basal ganglia and hippocampus respectively regulate fine motor coordination, voluntary action and motivation, and declarative memory and navigation. This generally-accepted approach provides only a partial explanation when we consider all the other functions that require these brain structures. Neuroscientific research has growingly focused on these other functions of individual brain regions in recent years. Going beyond a classical understanding of functional specialization, brain regions are now studied concerning their computational capabilities that allow them to contribute to several different tasks. According to this view, subregions of the brain constitute temporal organization machines, or neuronal clocks, that contribute to various cognitive and behavioral processes. This review portrays the historical foundations and working principles of this new paradigm increasingly dominating contemporary neuroscience. Brain oscillations that underlie the concept of neuronal clock are studied with regards to the temporal framework they provide for neuronal computations. The cerebellum, basal ganglia and hippocampus, dominated by oscillations at different frequency ranges, are examined as neuronal clocks that provide generic solutions for various functions requiring different temporal resolutions.
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Institutionalized children often suffer from a vulnerability and neglect that can affect their lives throughout its course, leaving even the sequelae that imprint them and a certain delay in their hormonal, physical and emotional-behavioural development. The environment from which these children come, the family particularities and the nature of the institutionalization, are decisive factors that exert their action and impact in time, often leaving irreversible wounds with a sufficiently visible imprint on the adult life. This article is intended for the analysis of some retroactive findings, observed in institutionalized children aged between 2 and 8 years, findings from more special points of view that have not been the subject of many publications found in the literature. Thus, are described particularities of behavior during institutionalization as well as “post-institutional syndrome”, cerebral impairments at the neurobiological and neurogenetic level, delays and deviations in the development of the intellect and, subsequently, their integration into society.
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This paper describes a case study of a 56-year-old patient suffering from a rare type of early onset Alzheimer’s disease (EOAD). The selection of the topic arose from the desire to draw more attention to this group of patients. While numerous publications in the relevant Polish-language literature have been dedicated to speech disorders in late onset Alzheimer’s disease (LOAD), which is diagnosed in people over 65, there are scarce descriptions of cases of speech disorders in EOAD. The research made use of a survey method (the author’s original survey questionnaire fi lled in by the patient’s wife), and the test method (using the Mini Mental State Examination (MMSE), the Boston Diagnostic Aphasia Examination, selected tasks from the so-called Łucki’s tests and the author’s own tests). The analysis of the collected material revealed serious defi cits in the patient’s actualisation of words, fl uency, understanding of compound structures, reading with understanding, and writing, which has resulted in his withdrawal from communication.
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Emotions are fundamental functions of mammalian brain, essential for survival of an individual, a group and a species, they have biological basis and are mediated by a variety of neurotransmitters and neurohormones acting on specific brain structures. Stress is state of disturbed homeostasis, which generates a spectrum of adaptive physiological reactions in an organism, which promote individual’s survival or survival of a species. One such adaptive mechanism includes control by stress (via stress hormones) of reproductive functions by either delaying or accelerating puberty.
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The article summarizes the important criteria for aphasia divisions, which present different methods of approaching the disease. Discussed: classical forms of aphasia, non-classical forms of aphasia, aphasia division by the positions of selected authors. Each adopted criterion has been enriched with descriptions of the most important properties of a given type of aphasia, encountered in speech therapy. A contemporary approach to the diagnosis and therapy of the above disorder is also presented.
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In this study, it was aimed to compare the resultss of exploratory factor analysis, artificial neural networks and decision trees in test development in terms of item selection and construct validity evidence. Within the scope of the research, data were collected by applying the "Statistical Attitude Scale" preform used in a previous study to individuals with undergraduate, graduate and alumni status. Decision regression tree analyses and self-organizing maps analyses, which can be used within the scope of data mining with exploratory factor analysis, were performed on the obtained data. After the analyses, it was seen that the number of dimensions and the distribution of the items to the dimensions could change in different methods. According to the comparison of fit indices obtained from confirmatory factor analysis, it was seen that the structure consisting of the items selected by exploratory factor analysis based on polychoric correlation and self-organizing mapping analysis was valid and the decision tree method was impractical in construct validity analyses.
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Grandaxin is effective in the treatment of the withdrawal of patients with chronic alcohol dependence, with the following specifications: as monotherapy, in uncomplicated alcohol withdrawal; with anticonvulsant-thymoregulatory and neuroleptic medication, in the withdrawal with delirium or other complications (e.g. convulsions), such drug combinations being very well tolerated by the patients in my diagnostic group, while shortening the duration of the withdrawal. It is also effective in neurotic disorders in which the clinical picture is governed by psychic or somatic manifestations of anxiety, in such cases showing its effectiveness by providing an early relief of symptoms. Mention should be made that the most common side effects (restlessness, insomnia, irritability), occurring at a dosage of 150-200 mg/day, were generally of low intensity and transient. In short, Grandaxin showed a very good degree of tolerability in all of the patients included in the study, which increased their compliance with treatment, while recommending it for long-term therapy.
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The human world is a world of perceptions and impressions. We perceive objective reality through the sense organs. While gathering knowledge about the structure and functioning of the brain, scientists began to investigate how we see and how the brain processes information provided by the senses. The image of reality in the brain is unique. We perceive the world around us differently at every moment. The article presents the way in which the brain processes information provided by the organ of sight and the image of reality created in a damaged brain.
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The learning, information acquisition, processing and storage mechanisms form, at the level of the central human system, a complex, flexible, dynamic and self-regulating system to ensure the information transfer in the best conditions. Therefore, the path of informational transfer between the environment and the central system, being realized through the visual system requires a high level of functioning of all the component modules. Thus, in the first part of the paper, the main functional aspects of the visual system that participate in the process of ocular refraction are identified and analyzed. By systemic and conceptual approach of these parameters, the areas of functional sensitivity can be identified and the active mechanisms of verification and intervention can be understood. In the second part of the paper the procedures for modeling and virtual simulation of the ocular refraction process are presented, starting from the foundation of the ocular models using the principles of theoretical optics and then approaching flexible and easy modeling variants. These models can be combined and their results can be complementary and / or correlated with other practical and real evaluations. In the final part of the paper are presented the results obtained in the foundation of modeling processes for learning the mechanisms of ocular refraction but also the way of correlation with the experimental evaluations. In the next research steps and through the development of high performance computer systems, these virtual models and simulations can become dynamic interactive learning procedures and to add the real experimental observations and evaluation.
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Aim was to examine the frequency of ADHD in children aged 6-12 years. The study included 300 parents of children aged 6-12 years. The study used a standardized test for Attention Deficit / Hyperactivity Disorder. Testing was anonymous. The collected data were tested by appropriate statistical methods. In the studied sample 2,1% of the subjects satisfied the criteria for ADHD. Results are in accordance with similar research.
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The field of Music Psychology has grown in the past 20 years, to emerge from being just a minor topic to one of mainstream interest within the brain sciences (Hallam, Cross, & Thaut, 2011). Despite the plethora of research attempts to examine the so-called hotly disputed “Mozart effect” which was first reported by Rauscher, Shaw, and Ky (1993, 1995), we still know little about it. This group of researchers were the first to support experimentally that visuospatial processing was enhanced in participants following exposure to Mozart’s Sonata for Two Pianos in D major (K.448). Although the first research attempts referred to the Mozart effect as an easy way of improving cognitive performance immediately after passive music listening to Mozart’s sonata K. 448 (Chabris, 1999), after which healthy young adult students could perform with enhanced spatial- temporal abilities in tasks such as the Paper Folding Task (PFT), nowadays there is a number of studies indicating that this specific music excerpt does not necessarily have this magical influence on all cognitive abilities (e.g. on the overall Intelligence Quotient) in humans and on the behavior of animals (for a review see Giannouli, Tsolaki & Kargopoulos, 2010).
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The analysis of the reason-emotion dynamics intersects several disciplinary fields, such as psychology, medicine, informatics, linguistics, neuroscience, with a specific relevance for Education Sciences, as it offers interesting perspectives over its influence on the learning process.Such issues are rooted in philosophical reflections by Plato, Aristotle and later by Descartes, Vico and Kant. These dualistic perspectives will be definitively abandoned in favour of a globalist vision of the mind-body relationship, during the first half of the XX century, particularly thanks to Dewey (1933) who, inspired by Darwin’s theories, was the first to support this unity by recognizing an intersection among physical, mental and environmental processes. Over the last decades, an imperatively anti-dualistic analysis has been developing in the field of neurosciences and cognitive linguistics: on the one hand, cognitivism, considering the mind in its function of symbolic manipulation; on the other hand, connectionism, studying neural networks. Furthermore, recent scientific research has allowed mapping in a detailed - albeit admittedly incomplete manner - the complex activity of the brain and highlighting analogies between elementary connections and complex interactions. The systemic perspective is hence considering “mind and body”, “reason and emotion” as two interconnected and essential aspects of human complexity.In this regard, Damasio’s research shows how participation of the organism to conscious experience returns to the consciousness itself those biological requirements which are essential to legitimate it as an object of scientific study. Knowledge is generated by socio-experiential relationships that play a crucial role within knowledge representation. The mind takes therefore an active role in shaping the representation of the world: understanding does not just consist in a mere reproduction of the external world in our mind; instead, it is a continuous process of creative reconstruction of our perceptive dynamics. Emotion, creativity and rationality are essential elements of the human being, which activate and develop due to personal inclination as well as socio-cultural aspects. Both genetic and social components are decisive in cognitive dynamics, as they represent innate potentials that need to be recognized, understood and exploited.
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This article describes the therapeutic values of the project “Remembering Yesterday, Caring in Dementia Care” for people living with dementia. Project was established with European Reminiscence Network partners in the European Union, which also operates in the USA, Canada, Latin America, Australia and India. The programme is based on the use of creative reminiscence and interpersonal interaction in reminiscence work to “[…] rediscover and celebrate one’s individuality and social identity”. (European Reminiscence). It can help to alleviate loneliness and/or social isolation, improve health and well-being and, in a broader perspective, “make […] their lives […] despite old age and, often with disabilities, a dignified and valuable phase of life”. (Zych, 2005, p. 53).
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Is the mind flat? Chater (2018) has recently argued that it is and that, contrary to traditional psychology and standard folk image, depth of mind is just an illusory confabulation. In this paper, we argue that while there is a kernel of something correct in Chater’s thesis, this does not in itself add up to a critique of mental depth per se. We use Chater’s ideas as a springboard for creating a new understanding of mental depth which builds upon findings in contemporary cognitive science. First, we rely on the predictive processing framework in order to determine a proposed neural contribution to mental depth, specifically in hierarchical predictive knowledge. Second, drawing from an embodied approach to cognition, we argue that mental depth results from the depth of our embodied skills and the situations in which we are embedded. This allows us to introduce to a new realist notion of mental depth, one which can only be explained once we attend to the dense patterns of skillful interaction within a rich artefactual and social environment.
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The usefulness of group social skills training in Autism Spectrum Disorder therapy has been well established. However, little is known about the group dynamics of this kind of intervention. The current multiple case studies were conducted to demonstrate that, despite of the functioning specifics of participants with ASD, processes associated with the dynamics of the group during group social skills training session may be noticeable. Intervention groups consisted of fifteen adolescents and preadolescents with high functioning Autism Spectrum Disorders aged between 11 to 17 years old divided into three training groups. The social skills training sessions were conducted on a weekly basis. The observation lasted for six months and it included the formation of the group, the period of stability and unexpected changes. After each group session, the therapists filled in a detailed report about the participants’ behavior and interactions between participants. Collected data were carefully analyzed for group dynamic features. It was noticed that adolescents participating in group interventions are susceptible to the influence of the group, take different individual roles and are moderately sensitive to changes in the group structure. The influence of the disorder characteristics on group dynamics was also observed. Although the results show that group dynamics can be observed at a group training for ASD, the need for further structured observation should be emphasized as a current study constituted the first approach to the subject. Preliminary study: Benefits and challenges for participants beyond social skills obtaining are discussed.
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People with Asperger’s syndrome often have superior abilities in various fields, including art, natural science, and solving social problems. However, they tend to become stressed easily due to difficulties in relating to others. This stress sometimes prevents them from showing their full potential. Their abilities and tendency to become stressed are similar to those of people with schizoid temperament. Recent evidence has shown that purpose in life (PIL)/ikigai, moderate aerobic exercise, and diet, which are related to each other and to prefrontal lobe function, are effective methods for coping with stress. PIL/ikigai, which is an attitude in which one seeks to establish meaning of life, is developed through positive experiences, such as cordial human relations with suitable role-models, spending time in beautiful natural surroundings, and being moved by people or events. PIL/ikigai for people without schizoid temperament develops through such positive experiences throughout their life. However, PIL/ikigai for people with schizoid temperament/Asperger’s syndrome develops through positive experiences during a limited number of life stages: infancy, childhood, and adulthood. Moderate aerobic exercise, such as walking, running, and swimming, were linked to finding food during the evolution of mankind. In turn, our diet supplies nutrients to our organs. Therefore, we propose that providing positive experiences during the critical periods and maturation periods of particular brain regions may influence PIL/ikigai, which is related to moderate aerobic exercise and diet. This process may help people with Asperger’s syndrome to demonstrate their full potential abilities and to contribute to various fields.
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