We investigate the hypothesis that those subregions of the prefrontal cortex (PFC) found to support proactive interference resolution may also support delay-spanning distractor interference resolution. Ten subjects performed delayed-recognition tasks requiring working memory for faces or shoes during functional MRI scanning. During the 15-sec delay interval, task-irrelevant distractors were presented. These distractors were either all faces or all shoes and were thus either congruent or incongruent with the domain of items in the working memory task. Delayed-recognition performance was slower and less accurate during congruent than during incongruent trials. Our fMRI analyses revealed significant delay interval activity for face and shoe working memory tasks within both dorsal and ventral PFC. However, only ventral PFC activity was modulated by distractor category, with greater activity for congruent than for incongruent trials. Importantly, this congruency effect was only present for correct trials. In addition to PFC, activity within the fusiform face area was investigated. During face distraction, activity was greater for face relative to shoe working memory. As in ventrolateral PFC, this congruency effect was only present for correct trials. These results suggest that the ventrolateral PFC and fusiform face area may work together to support delay-spanning interference resolution.
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<p>Thānissaro Bhikkhu, a Western monk trained in the Thai Buddhist tradition, explores non-linear causality and the assertion that Buddhist enlightenment is uncaused. He introduces Poincaré's discovery of resonance points or indeterminate points (where the equation results in dividing by zero) within a complex system of equations and makes an analogy to the Buddhist path. (Zach Rowinski 2004-05-17)</p>
This chapter sets out two arguments. My argument in relation to the fi rst issue is that while there are subtle aspects in Tibetan medical concepts of the body, we need to be careful in talking about a separate entity of a ‘subtle body’ as such. My second argument is more preliminary in nature and suggests that Tibetan medical ‘circulatory systems’ or ‘circulatory channels’ do not necessarily move in circulation in the Western sense of the term, and therefore such terms, both in themselves or as translations of Tibetan medical terms, should be used more cautiously.
The western adaptation of non-western medical systems and traditions is a complex process that takes place at a variety of different levels. In many practical medical contexts, epistemological issues receive little attention. Both patients and practitioners may switch frameworks relatively freely, without much concern about underlying theoretical assumptions. Epistemological issues may be more central elsewhere, for example in regard to the licensing and approval of practitioners and medicinal substances, or in terms of the rethinking of western models of knowledge to include new insights from these non-western sources. I suggest in this paper that the major learned medical traditions of Asia, such as āyurveda and traditional Chinese medicine and traditional Tibetan medicine, for all their differences from biomedicine and among each other, are in some respects relatively compatible with western biomedical understandings. They can be read in physiological terms, as referring to a vocabulary of bodily processes that underlie health and disease. Such approaches, however, marginalise or exclude elements that disrupt this compatibility (e.g. references to divinatory procedures, spirit attack or flows of subtle 'energies'). Other non-western healing practices, such as those in which spirit attack, 'soul loss' or 'shamanic' procedures are more central, are less easily assimilated to biomedical models, and may simply be dismissed as incompatible with modern scientific understandings. Rather than assenting to physiological reduction in the one case, and dismissal as pre-scientific in the other, we should look for a wider context of understanding within which both kinds of approach can be seen as part of a coherent view of human beings and human existence.
<p>BACKGROUND: Many anecdotes and several uncontrolled case series have suggested that emotionally stressful events, and more specifically, anger, immediately precede and appear to trigger the onset of acute myocardial infarction. However, controlled studies to determine the relative risk of myocardial infarction after episodes of anger have not been reported. METHODS AND RESULTS: We interviewed 1623 patients (501 women) an average of 4 days after myocardial infarction. The interview identified the time, place, and quality of myocardial infarction pain and other symptoms, the estimated usual frequency of anger during the previous year, and the intensity and timing of anger and other potentially triggering factors during the 26 hours before the onset of myocardial infarction. Anger was assessed by the onset anger scale, a single-item, seven-level, self-report scale, and the state anger subscale of the State-Trait Personality Inventory. Occurrence of anger in the 2 hours preceding the onset of myocardial infarction was compared with its expected frequency using two types of self-matched control data based on the case-crossover study design. The onset anger scale identified 39 patients with episodes of anger in the 2 hours before the onset of myocardial infarction. The relative risk of myocardial infarction in the 2 hours after an episode of anger was 2.3 (95% confidence interval, 1.7 to 3.2). The state anger subscale corroborated these findings with a relative risk of 1.9 (95% confidence interval, 1.3 to 2.7). Regular users of aspirin had a significantly lower relative risk (1.4; 95% confidence interval, 0.8 to 2.6) than nonusers (2.9; 95% confidence interval, 2.0 to 4.1) (P<.05). CONCLUSIONS: Episodes of anger are capable of triggering the onset of acute myocardial infarction, but aspirin may reduce this risk. A better understanding of the manner in which external events trigger the onset of acute cardiovascular events may lead to innovative preventive strategies aimed at severing the link between these external stressors and their pathological consequences.</p>
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Much of what Western medicine classifies as psychiatric illness is understood by Tibetan thought as associated with imbalance of rlung (wind, breath). Rlung has a dual origin in Indian thought, combining elements from Ayurvedic medicine and Tantric Buddhism. Tibetan theories of rlung seem to correspond in significant ways with Western concepts of the autonomic nervous system (ANS), and Western medicine too has associated psychiatric issues with ANS problems. But what is involved in relating Tibetan ideas of rlung to Western ideas of the emotions and the ANS? The article presents elements of the two systems and then explores similarities and differences between them. It asks whether the similarities could be the basis for a productive encounter between Tibetan and Western modes of understanding and treating psychiatric illness. What could Western psychiatry learn from Tibetan approaches in this area?
The human ability to make inferences about the minds of conspecifics is remarkable. The majority of work in this area focuses on mental state representation (`theory of mind'), but has had limited success in explaining individual differences in this ability, and is characterized by the lack of a theoretical framework that can account for the effect of variability in the population of minds to which individuals are exposed. We draw analogies between faces and minds as complex social stimuli, and suggest that theoretical and empirical progress on understanding the mechanisms underlying mind representation can be achieved by adopting a `Mind-space' framework; that minds, like faces, are represented within a multidimensional psychological space. This Mind-space framework can accommodate the representation of whole cognitive systems, and may help to explain individual differences in the consistency and accuracy with which the mental states of others are inferred. Mind-space may also have relevance for understanding human development, intergroup relations, and the atypical social cognition seen in several clinical conditions.
Background: Tobacco smoking remains the leading preventable cause of death among American women. Aerobic exercise has shown promise as an aid to smoking cessation because it improves affect and reduces nicotine withdrawal symptoms. Studies outside the realm of smoking cessation have shown that yoga practice also reduces perceived stress and negative affect. Methods: This pilot study examines the feasibility and initial efficacy of yoga as a complementary therapy for smoking cessation. Fifty-five women were given 8-week group-based cognitive behavioral therapy for smoking cessation and were randomized to a twice-weekly program of Vinyasa yoga or a general health and wellness program (contact control). The primary outcome measure was 7-day point prevalence abstinence at the end of treatment validated by saliva cotinine testing. Longitudinal analyses were also conducted to examine the effect of intervention on smoking cessation at 3- and 6-month follow-up. We examined the effects of the intervention on potential mediating variables (e. g., confidence in quitting smoking, self-efficacy), as well as measures of depressive symptoms, anxiety, and perceived health (SF-36). Results: At end of treatment, women in the yoga group had a greater 7-day point-prevalence abstinence rate than controls (odds ratio [OR], 4.56; 95% CI, 1.1-18.6). Abstinence remained higher among yoga participants through the six month assessment (OR, 1.54; 95% CI, 0.34-6.92), although differences were no longer statistically significant. Women participating in the yoga program also showed reduced anxiety and improvements in perceived health and well-being when compared with controls. Conclusions: Yoga may be an efficacious complementary therapy for smoking cessation among women.
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