Motor action reduces temporal asynchrony between perceived visual changes

Perceiving a visual object requires binding sensory estimates of its various physical attributes. This process can be facilitated if changes of different attributes are perceived with little asynchronies when they are physically aligned, which is not always the case as revealed by temporal order judgment or perceptual synchronization tasks of visual attributes changes. In this study, we analyzed the effect of performing a motor action on the perceived relative timing between changes of position and color of a visual target by using a temporal order judgment (TOJ) task. Results showed that in the perceptual condition, the change of color must precede (−37.9 ms) the change of position in order to perceive a synchronous change of both target's visual attributes. This physical asynchrony vanished when the same changes took place near the end of a manual reaching action executed towards the visual target (−3.3 ms). The reduction of asynchrony was, however, not observed when participants performed TOJ of visual attributes change in the presence of concomitant tactile information (−36 ms) but with no action. The perceptual relative timing between visual changes was also unaffected when the timing was obtained by comparing each visual change to tactile information resulting from motor action (−33.5 ms) or external stimulation (−27.8 ms). Altogether, these results suggest that signals associated with the organization of a motor action, but not sensory information itself, contribute to reduce the differential delays when processing visual attributes of a single object. Furthermore, the effect of action was not observed when judging relative timing of object-related (visual) versus object-unrelated (tactile) sensory information

Prevalence of Exposure to Complex Trauma and Community Violence and Their Associations With Internalizing and Externalizing Symptoms

Studies about trauma often tend to focus on abuse and neglect. However important, these studies may neglect the importance of the broader community context that is often associated with trauma, and complex trauma (CT) in particular. This study aimed to investigate the effects of CT (defined in terms of experiencing abuse and/or neglect occurring in the context of relationships with caregivers), and of broader environmental adversity (i.e., exposure to community violence), in a sample of adolescents ( N = 218) from a severely disadvantaged district of Lima, Peru. The study had two aims: (a) to assess the prevalence of CT and its associations with internalizing and externalizing symptoms in these adolescents and (b) to investigate the associations between community violence and both internalizing and externalizing symptoms over and above the effects of CT. In total, 39.4% of the adolescents reported at least one type of moderate to severe trauma. There was a clear association between CT and both internalizing and externalizing symptoms. Ordinal logistic regressions showed that children who were exposed to one or more traumatic experiences were more likely to score within a higher range of internalizing and externalizing symptoms than children with no history of trauma. Finally, exposure to community violence was an important predictor of symptomatology beyond the effects of CT

Teoría y tratamiento de la depresión: ¿Hacia su integración?

Recent research has changed our view on depression in important ways. The National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) Strategic Plan for Mood Disorders Research (NIMH, 2003) is currently the most ambitious attempt to give a new impetus to research on mood disorders, and to develop more encompassing theories that will ultimately lead to more effective treatment strategies. However, in our view, this strategic plan fails to address several important issues and recent developments in research on depression. In this article, several important points of divergence are outlined with special reference to a conference on the integration of theories and treatment strategies on depression held in Kortenberg (Belgium) on March 14, 2003.Nuestra visión sobre la depresión ha cambiado de manera considerable con la investigación reciente. El Plan estratégico para la investigación de los desórdenes del carácter del Instituto Nacional de Salud Mental (INSM, 2003) es una propuesta ambiciosa orientada a crear un nuevo ímpetu en la investigación de desórdenes del carácter por un lado, y por otro a desarrollar teorías más amplias que permitan organizar estrategias de tratamiento más efectivas. Sin embargo, desde nuestro punto de vista, el plan estratégico no ha considerado algunas investigaciones recientes ni muchos problemas altamente relevantes en el ámbito de la depresión. En el presente artículo muchos puntos de divergencia importantes se precisan con respecto a una conferencia sobre la integración de teorías y estrategias de tratamiento sobre la depresión realizada el 14 de marzo del 2003 en Kortenberg (Bélgica). &nbsp

Personality and Self-Compassion: Exploring Their Relationship in an Indian Context

The present study examines the relationship between personality and self-compassion among Indian emerging adults. Two samples of emerging adult males (N1 = 494 Catholic seminarians, N2 = 504 Catholic non-seminarians) completed the Big Five Inventory, the Honesty-Humility Subscale of HEXACO and the Self-Compassion Scale–Short Form. Primarily, we examined the mean-level differences for Big Five factors, honesty-humility and self-compassion between the samples and found that mean-levels were higher for seminarians except for neuroticism. Therefore, we treated the samples separately for further analyses. Secondly, we examined the associations between personality factors of the Big Five, honesty-humility and self-compassion. Consciousness, agreeableness and extraversion were positively associated with self-compassion. Neuroticism had a large negative correlation with self-compassion. Openness to experience had a medium positive relationship with self-compassion among seminarians and a small positive relationship among emerging adult non-seminarians. A medium positive association was found between honesty-humility and self-compassion. Thirdly, we examined the impact of personality factors on self-compassion. Self-compassion was significantly and positively predicted by agreeableness, conscientiousness, openness to experience and honesty-humility for seminarians and by extraversion, agreeableness and conscientiousness for non-seminarians. Neuroticism was a significant negative predictor of self-compassion for both samples. | Diese Forschung untersucht die Zusammenhänge der Persönlichkeit und des Mitgefühls mit uns selbst am Beispiel von indischen jungen Erwachsenen. Zwei Gruppen von jungen erwachsenen Männern (N1 = 494 katholische Seminaristen, N2 = 504 katholische Nicht-Seminaristen) haben den Fragebogen mit dem Fünf-Faktoren-Modell (Big Five), die Unterskala Ehrlichkeit-Demut des Modells Hexaco und die Skala Mitgefühl mit uns selbst ausgefüllt. Beim ersten Schritt wurden die Unterschiede zwischen den Musterdurchschnitten in Bezug auf die fünf Faktoren des Big Five Modells, nach den Punkten von Ehrlichkeit-Demut und Mitgefühl mit uns selbst untersucht und beobachtet, dass in der Gruppe der Seminaristen alle typischen Durchschnittswerte – bis auf den Neurotizismus – höher waren. Die Gewissenhaftigkeit, Freundlichkeit und Extraversion sind positiv mit dem Mitgefühl mit uns selbst korreliert. Der Neurotizismus zeigte eine hohe negative Korrelation mit dem Mitgefühl mit uns selbst. Die Offenheit zeigte eine positive Korrelation vom mittleren Wert mit dem Mitgefühl mit uns selbst in der Gruppe der Seminaristen und eine geringe positive Korrelation in der anderen Gruppe der jungen Erwachsenen. Drittens untersuchten wir die Wirkung der Persönlichkeitsmerkmale in Bezug auf das Mitgefühl mit uns selbst. Bei den Seminaristen ließ sich aufgrund von Freundlichkeit, Gewissenhaftigkeit, Offenheit und Ehrlichkeit-Demut das Mitgefühl mit uns selbst deutlich positiv voraussagen, bei den Nicht-Seminaristen eben Extraversion, Freundlichkeit und Gewissenhaftigkeit. Der Neurotizismus erwies sich in beiden Gruppen als eine signifikante negative Vorhersagevariable

Preimplantation Genetic Diagnosis in Europe

In vitro fertilisation (IVF) and preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) are now well-established treatments and are provided in many European countries. However, regulations, practices, professional standards and accreditation requirements are often markedly different between Member States (MS). Differences between MS seem to be becoming especially pronounced because of the interface between assisted reproduction and genetics. To assess the extent of these differences and try to obtain an initial picture of the overall situation in Europe, in March 2005 the Institute for Prospective Technological Studies (IPTS) of the European Commission's Joint Research Centre (JRC), the European Society of Human Genetics (ESHG) and the European Society for Human Reproduction and Embryology (ESHRE) organised a workshop on the abovementioned interface . The two-day event brought together 50 experts from different specialities to review current practices in Europe and discuss potential needs in this area. The first thing that became clear was that no full picture was available of PGD practice and provision in Europe. Secondly, the lack of quality assurance for these services in general was perceived as a potential problem. The participants in the workshop unanimously agreed that European clinics should be certified or accredited and that licensing systems should be developed by professional self-regulation. Minimum quality standards should be set. The lack of common European rules and regulations to guarantee minimum standards was said to be adding to the problem. However, quality assurance and accreditation have taken on new significance in the light of the recent EU Directive 2004/23/EC on setting standards of quality and safety for the donation, procurement, testing, processing, preservation, storage and distribution of human tissues and cells. Thirdly, as a result of the abovementioned differences between MS, patients are travelling abroad to gain access to treatment which is not available in their own country. This, in turn, sometimes requires movements of gametes (oocytes and sperm) and embryos within the EU. Whilst it is known that couples and reproductive tissue are moving around Europe, the extent is not known – especially in the new MS. Lastly, an overview of how the different regulatory frameworks are having an impact on the actual practices of PGD services was deemed necessary in order to gain a better understanding of the trans-border flows. Having pinpointed some of the needs in this area, the IPTS launched this study in an effort to address them and to obtain the missing knowledge on provision of PGD services in Europe. The aims of this study are two-fold: 1)to obtain a clear picture of current PGD practice in Europe, including the quality of the services and cross-border activities (flows of couples or reproductive tissue); 2)to carry out a comparative review of the different regulatory frameworks at MS level and identify potential gaps at European level and the impact these might have.JRC.J.5-Agriculture and Life Sciences in the Econom

Untying the gordian knot of guilt and shame: The structure of guilt and shame reactions based on situationand person variation in Belgium, Hungary, and Perú.

In this study, the structure of guilt and shame reactions are investigated in three cultural groups (Peru, Hungary, and Belgium) using two newly constructed scenario-based inventories. Results show that it is possible to distinguish between a structure of guilt and shame reactions based on person variation and a structure based on situation variation. Moreover, both the person-based and the situation-based structures of shame and guilt are very similar across the three cultural groups, whereas within cultural groups, the two structures are quite different. The dimensions guilt versus shame and interpersonal versus intrapersonal orientation spanned the situation-based structure, whereas the dimensions control versus lack of control and appraisals versus subjective experiences and action tendencies spanned the person-based structure