The experience of absorption : comparison of the mental processes of meditation between emic yogic and etic neuroscientific perspectives on Ishvara Pranidhana meditation

textModernity has seen the exchange of ideas about cognition between western science and eastern meditation traditions. In particular, western ways of thinking about the natural world have infiltrated Indian theories of yoga. This intersection of ideas in the twentieth-century has resulted in a problematic trend to theorize yogic phenomena, including meditation, in scientific terms. These translations converge on explicating yogic processes within a context of advancing knowledge about the brain. This translational approach to bringing etic and emic perspectives together in the same framework results in interpretations of meditation that succumb to problems cognitive science faces at a broader level in theorizing cognition and mind-body interrelations. In this study, I take a different approach to bringing emic and etic perspectives together by placing a phenomenologically interpreted emic account of absorption (the meditative shift in consciousness) into dialogue with current scientific understandings of three central mental processes of meditation. Specifically, I analyze ways of conceptualizing attention, memory, and emotion, and their underlying mechanisms as posited in yoga and science, focusing on the problem of how each system interprets the reality of absorption. This comparison suggests a basic similarity between the two systems: theorizing cognition and meditative absorption in terms of embodiment. This finding emphasizes the dual nature of embodiment as both experiential and physical. Finally, I consider this dialogue from an embodied mind perspective, an emerging way of thinking about and theorizing the mind-body in cognitive science, because this perspective challenges longstanding theoretical problems in western understandings of how the mind works. This analysis suggests that theorizing meditation in these dual terms of embodiment potentially solves the reductive challenges of dualistic and materialist philosophy that have plagued both religious and naturalistic attempts to explain absorption. This interdisciplinary dialogue provides a framework with which to think more critically about translational and cross-disciplinary efforts that have previously confused the goals of yoga and science and their respective foci on practice and mechanisms. I conclude that bridging ideas in this dialogical way reveals a complementary perspective between phenomenological and biological ways of understanding the mind that both hinge on embodied cognition.Educational Psycholog

Predicting Psychopathological Onset: Early Signs of Neuropsychiatric Diseases

The aim of this Special Issue is to collect valuable contributions from scientists worldwide working on the role that biological, behavioral, and cognitive markers can have in predicting the onset of neuropsychiatric disorders. We were able to collect 13 original articles and two reviews on this topic. The results published in this Special Issue could provide significant support in pre-clinical phases for the identification of vulnerability factors, to better understand the course of the illness, and to predict its outcome, as well as aiding clinicians in the therapeutic decision-making process

Flesh made word: secondary orality and the materialism of sound

Approaching the subject of 'orality' as a complex social-historical practice containing fissures of technological inversion and spatial-acoustic transgression, this thesis seeks to understand the implications of an electronically realised 'secondary orality'. In particular, it seeks to understand this idea as it is elaborated in the media theory of Marshall McLuhan. The approach taken here attests to a vitally important, if often' ghosted', materialism of acoustic space, a context which is immediately and ambivalently implicated in the institutionalising and ideologising of communications technology. It is argued that a cultural media theory must address those forms of managed communicative experience that serve to diminish the everyday vernacular. The Introduction of the thesis identifies developments that have brought the idea of a 'secondary orality' into being. Chapter One examines Havelock's and Innis's privileging of technology in the orality question, as well as the general denial of acoustic practice within the orality-literacy debate. Chapter Two explores Ong's ideas on 'presence' as well as Derrida' s critique of Western phonocentrism in terms of the larger historical denial of sound. Chapter Three explores McLuhan's position on the techno-evolutionary overcoming of rationalism in the new electronic landscape and argues that his 'electronic materialism' is a form of interiorisation. Chapter Four turns to a discussion of the ancient world to consider oral ambivalence and the paradox of orality in the transition to literacy. Consideration is also given to the early modern emergence of a paradigm of abstract visualisation. Chapter Five examines the modern emergence of an oral resistance found in the acoustic otherworld of the' chapbook' and the poetics of Wordsworth, Blake, and Clare. Chapter Six discusses issues of the oral 'other' as found in the theories of Bakhtin, Volosinov, and Kristeva. Chapter Seven investigates a varied postmodern neo-McLuhanism in relation to issues of ecology, intertextuality, and the feminisation of technology. The Conclusion argues that 'secondary orality' involves a technological inversion of oral powers serving an electronic hegemony. The mimetically engineered spatial disorientation of transgressive sociality is further considered

Advances in formal Slavic linguistics 2016

Advances in Formal Slavic Linguistics 2016 initiates a new series of collective volumes on formal Slavic linguistics. It presents a selection of high quality papers authored by young and senior linguists from around the world and contains both empirically oriented work, underpinned by up-to-date experimental methods, as well as more theoretically grounded contributions. The volume covers all major linguistic areas, including morphosyntax, semantics, pragmatics, phonology, and their mutual interfaces. The particular topics discussed include argument structure, word order, case, agreement, tense, aspect, clausal left periphery, or segmental phonology. The topical breadth and analytical depth of the contributions reflect the vitality of the field of formal Slavic linguistics and prove its relevance to the global linguistic endeavour. Early versions of the papers included in this volume were presented at the conference on Formal Description of Slavic Languages 12 or at the satellite Works

Cross-Generic Dimension Of The Production Of Phonological Paraphasias And Neologisms By People With Aphasia

Taking into account the still pending problem of uniformity versus heterogeneity with which the phonological deficit manifests itself across various aphasia syndromes as well as the virtual absence of any cross-generic explorations of the quantitative and qualitative production patterns of phonological and neologistic paraphasias, we have set the goal of enriching the present-day body of aphasiologic and neurolinguistic knowledge with novel theoretical and practical insights by getting a number of relevant questions answered. These include the ones about the syndrome-universality versus specificity of phonological errors, the effect of discourse elicitation genre on the number of erroneous productions and the diversity of their categories alongside the effect of within-genre task complexity on the phonological output of Russian-speaking individuals diagnosed with five different types of aphasia. To accomplish our goal, we have conducted a rigorous quantitative and qualitative hierarchical cluster analysis of the phonological errors detected in the interview samples of 18 participants whose oral productive performance on the tasks belonging to four distinct discourse genres was recorded on a high-quality sound-recording device and transcribed using the combination of the Jefferson Transcription System and the International Phonetic Alphabet one. The results obtained demonstrate that the phonological error production patterns cannot be relied on in distinguishing various aphasia types. They also show that each discourse genre is marked by its own degree of mental processing complexity and is, thus, associated with a numerically distinct picture of errors. Moreover, the degree of task complexity has been found to be a matter of individual perception. Last but not least, the previous researchers’ findings pertaining to paraphasias have been compared to our data, and some of the earlier structural hypotheses have been unsupported. Our study is expected to be of great value and utility from the viewpoint of furthering the development of theoretical knowledge about the phonological breakdown in the language disorder under scrutiny specifically from the perspective of aphasics’ engagement in everyday discourse situations, refining the existing speech production models or developing new more realistic and viable ones, and generating ideas for practical solutions in speech-language pathology

Digital innovation in Multiple Sclerosis Management

Due to innovation in technology, a new type of patient has been created, the e-patient, characterized by the use of electronic communication tools and commitment to participate in their own care. The extent to which the world of digital health has changed during the COVID-19 pandemic has been widely recognized. Remote medicine has become part of the new normal for patients and clinicians, introducing innovative care delivery models that are likely to endure even if the pendulum swings back to some degree in a post-COVID age. The development of digital applications and remote communication technologies for patients with multiple sclerosis has increased rapidly in recent years. For patients, eHealth apps have been shown to improve outcomes and increase access to care, disease information, and support. For HCPs, eHealth technology may facilitate the assessment of clinical disability, analysis of lab and imaging data, and remote monitoring of patient symptoms, adverse events, and outcomes. It may allow time optimization and more timely intervention than is possible with scheduled face-to-face visits. The way we measure the impact of MS on daily life has remained relatively unchanged for decades, and is heavily reliant on clinic visits that may only occur once or twice each year.These benefits are important because multiple sclerosis requires ongoing monitoring, assessment, and management.The aim of this Special Issue is to cover the state of knowledge and expertise in the field of eHealth technology applied to multiple sclerosis, from clinical evaluation to patient education

Structural brain imaging and cognitive function in individuals at high familial risk of mood disorders

Bipolar disorder (BD) and major depressive disorder (MDD) are characterised by a fundamental disturbance of mood, with strong support for overlapping causal pathways. Structural brain and neurocognitive abnormalities have been associated with mood disorders, but it is unknown whether these reflect early adverse effects predisposing to mood disorders or emerge as a consequence of illness onset. The Bipolar Family Study is well-suited to examine the origin of structural brain and neuropsychological abnormalities in mood disorders further. The volumes of subcortical brain regions, cortical thickness and surface area measures of frontal and temporal regions of interest and neuropsychological performance over a two-year time interval was compared at baseline and longitudinally between three groups: young individuals at high risk of mood disorders who subsequently developed MDD during the follow-up period (HR-MDD), individuals at high risk of mood disorders who remained well (HR-well), and healthy control subjects (HC). The longitudinal analysis of cortical thickness revealed significant group effects for the right parahippocampal and right fusiform gyrus. Cortical thickness in both of these brain regions across the two time points was reduced in both high-risk groups relative to controls, with the HR-MDD group displaying a thinner parahippocampus gyrus than the HR-well group. Moreover, a significant interaction effect was observed for the left inferior frontal and left precentral gyrus. The HR-well subjects had progressive thickness reductions in these brain regions relative to controls, while the HR-MDD group showed cortical thickening of these areas. Finally, longitudinal analyses of neuropsychological performance revealed a significant group effect for long delay verbal memory and extradimensional set-shifting performance. Reduced neurocognitive performance during both tasks across the two time points was found in the HR-well group relative to controls, with the HR-MDD group displaying decreased extradimensional set-shifting abilities as compared to the HC group only. These findings indicate, that reduced left parahippocampal and fusiform thickness constitute a familial trait marker for vulnerability to mood disorders and may thus form potential neuroanatomic endophenotypes. Particularly strong thickness reductions of the parahippocampal gyrus appear be linked to an onset of MDD. Moreover, progressive thickness reductions in the left inferior frontal and precentral gyrus in early adulthood form a familial trait marker for vulnerability to mood disorders, potentially reflecting early neurodegenerative processes. By contrast, an absence of cortical thinning of these brain regions in early adulthood appears to be linked to the onset of MDD, potentially reflecting a lack or delay of normal synaptic pruning processes. Reduced long delay verbal memory and extradimensional set-shifting performance across time constitute a familial trait marker for vulnerability to mood disorders, likely representing disturbances of normal brain development predisposing to illness. These findings advance our understanding of the origin of structural brain and neurocognitive abnormalities in mood disorders

Death of the posthuman: Essays on extinction, vol. 1

Death of the PostHuman undertakes a series of critical encounters with the legacy of what had come to be known as 'theory,' and its contemporary supposedly post-human aftermath. There can be no redemptive post-human future in which the myopia and anthropocentrism of the species finds an exit and manages to emerge with ecology and life. At the same time, what has come to be known as the human - despite its normative intensity - can provide neither foundation nor critical lever in the Anthropocene epoch. Death of the PostHuman argues for a twenty-first century deconstruction of ecological and seemingly post-human futures

Advances in formal Slavic linguistics 2016

Advances in Formal Slavic Linguistics 2016 initiates a new series of collective volumes on formal Slavic linguistics. It presents a selection of high quality papers authored by young and senior linguists from around the world and contains both empirically oriented work, underpinned by up-to-date experimental methods, as well as more theoretically grounded contributions. The volume covers all major linguistic areas, including morphosyntax, semantics, pragmatics, phonology, and their mutual interfaces. The particular topics discussed include argument structure, word order, case, agreement, tense, aspect, clausal left periphery, or segmental phonology. The topical breadth and analytical depth of the contributions reflect the vitality of the field of formal Slavic linguistics and prove its relevance to the global linguistic endeavour. Early versions of the papers included in this volume were presented at the conference on Formal Description of Slavic Languages 12 or at the satellite Workshop on Formal and Experimental Semantics and Pragmatics, which were held on December 7-10, 2016 in Berlin