Viewing the personality traits through a cerebellar lens. A focus on the constructs of novelty seeking, harm avoidance, and alexithymia

The variance in the range of personality trait expression appears to be linked to structural variance in specific brain regions. In evidencing associations between personality factors and neurobiological measures, it seems evident that the cerebellum has not been up to now thought as having a key role in personality. This paper will review the most recent structural and functional neuroimaging literature that engages the cerebellum in personality traits, as novelty seeking and harm avoidance, and it will discuss the findings in the context of contemporary theories of affective and cognitive cerebellar function. By using region of interest (ROI)- and voxel-based approaches, we recently evidenced that the cerebellar volumes correlate positively with novelty seeking scores and negatively with harm avoidance scores. Subjects who search for new situations as a novelty seeker does (and a harm avoiding does not do) show a different engagement of their cerebellar circuitries in order to rapidly adapt to changing environments. The emerging model of cerebellar functionality may explain how the cerebellar abilities in planning, controlling, and putting into action the behavior are associated to normal or abnormal personality constructs. In this framework, it is worth reporting that increased cerebellar volumes are even associated with high scores in alexithymia, construct of personality characterized by impairment in cognitive, emotional, and affective processing. On such a basis, it seems necessary to go over the traditional cortico-centric view of personality constructs and to address the function of the cerebellar system in sustaining aspects of motivational network that characterizes the different temperamental trait

Género e trabalho emocional. Os fundamentos da precariedade na educação de nível inicial. Mar del Plata, Província de Buenos Aires

En este artículo se abordará la precariedad laboral desde una perspectiva de género en la educación de nivel inicial. La escasa presencia del Estado, tanto en su rol de proveedor como de organismo de control en la provisión de servicios de cuidado, mantiene al cuidado infantil -con mayor intensidad durante los primeros tres años de vida- a horcajadas entre la familiarización y la mercantilización. La educación inicial tiene, así, un fuerte componente privado, en gran medida informal y precario, no sólo por las relaciones de trabajo que lo sustentan, sino por sus condiciones institucionales y de infraestructura.Esta precariedad mantiene un vínculo tenso con las exigencias de calidad atribuibles a una labor profesional. Se propone en este sentido, que la generización de la docencia en el nivel inicial, y su consecuente asociación con el trabajo de cuidado no remunerado, actúan como factor descalificador del trabajo. A este discurso desvalorizador se añadirían las expectativas de abnegación asignadas al rol maternal, lo que permite, a la postre, sostener la tensión entre precariedad y calidadThis article addresses the poor working conditions in preschool education from a gender perspective. The limited presence of the state, both in its role as provider and control device in the provision of care, leaves child care trapped between familiarization and commodification, with greater intensity during the first three years of life. Therefore, early childhood education has a strong private component, which is also to a large extent informal and precarious, due to the working relations that sustain it, but also because of its meager institutional and infrastructure settings. Thesepoor working conditionshold a tense relationship with the quality requirements attributable to such aqualifiedoccupation. In this sense, this article suggests that the gendering of teaching at the initial level, and its consequent association with unpaid care work, act as a disqualifying factor of the job. Also, abnegation expectations assigned to the maternal role are added to this devaluing speech, allowing, ultimately, sustaining the tension between precariousness and quality.Neste artigo abordar-se-á a precariedadetrabalhista desde uma perspectiva de género na educação de nível inicial. A escassapresença do Estado, tanto emseu papel de provedor como de organismo de controle na provisão de serviços de cuidado, mantémao cuidado infantil atrapado entre a familiarização e a mercantilización, commaiorintensidade durante os primeirostrês anos de vida. A educação inicial tem, assim, umforte componente privado, em grande parte informal e precário, nãosó pelas relações de trabalho que o sustentam, sinatambém por suascondiçõesinstitucionais e de infra-estrutura. Esta precariedademantémum vínculo tenso com as exigências de qualidade atribuibles a um labor profissional. Propõe-se neste sentido, que a generización da docencia no nível inicial, e suaconsequenteassociaçãocom o trabalho de cuidado não remunerado, actuam como factor descalificador do trabalho. A este discurso desvalorizadoracrescentar-se-iam as expectativas de abnegación alocadas ao papel maternal, o que permite, à postre, sustentar a tensão entre precariedade e qualidade.Fil: Cutuli, Romina Denisse. Universidad Nacional de Mar del Plata. Facultad de Ciencias Económicas y Sociales; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Mar del Plata; Argentin

Resisting, demanding, negotiating and being: The role of scandals in the everyday lives of Argentinean travestis

The aim of this article is to explore the different uses and meanings of the category ‘scandal’ among Argentinean travestis. It is argued that this insight could be fruitful to understand the logic according to which local travestis resist, negotiate, demand and manage access to rights, opportunities, and/or goods, from which they have been historically excluded due to their non-hegemonic gender identities. In line with the performative logic employed to construct their gender identities, the idea of ‘scandal’ is fruitful for them to think, to make themselves visible and to act politically. This article proposes a political and anthropological approach to study the relation between structures of inequality and resistance through collective action. It takes into account a perspective developed by political anthropologists, centered in the power relationships analysis and an understanding of politics as a dimension of daily life.Fil: Cutuli, Maria Soledad. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Filosofía y Letras. Instituto de Ciencias Antropológicas; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentin

Informalidad laboral en el servicio doméstico : Su (in)visibilización en la justicia laboral argentina. 1990-2010

En este trabajo presentaré un recorte de mi investigación laboral, vinculado a una de las fuentes abordadas: las sentencias dictadas por los tribunales de trabajo en conflictos vinculados al servicio doméstico. En mi investigación considero a la economía informal integrada a la economía capitalista, antes que como prácticas pre-capitalistas y evidencias de una modernización insuficiente. El crecimiento de la informalidad antes que responder a una fragmentación de circuitos económicos, podría pensarse como una dualización social entre aquellos que pueden insertarse en un reducido núcleo del empleo asalariado, y una mayoría de trabajadores precarios que se ve obligado a negociar individualmente con el capital. Las diversas modalidades de trabajo informal serían, en esta línea, un exponente del proceso de "abolición" del trabajo asalariado. Desde la consolidación de una justicia laboral en Argentina, la informalidad laboral ha sido penalizada por las normativas que regulan las relaciones entre capital y trabajo. El servicio doméstico, con una regulación tardía y discriminatoria, ha sido frágilmente considerado "trabajo", entre otras razones porque se da por sentado que no contribuye al crecimiento del capital. Existen además condicionantes de género que han favorecido la invisibilización del carácter laboral del servicio doméstico, como su asociación a la "naturaleza" femenina del trabajo doméstico. La noción de "régimen de invisibilidad" que propongo en esta investigación, surge en contraste a los elementos que, según Robert Castel, 2 han permitido que el trabajo pasara de la esfera de la servidumbre a la esfera de la libertad. Según el autor, dos elementos centrales permiten la construcción del estatuto del salariado: el derecho del trabajo y la protección social. Es decir, el trabajo dejó de ser servidumbre al alejarse del "reino exclusivo del mercado", al superarse el régimen de meras transacciones interindividuales de trabajo por dinero. El espacio en que se desarrollan las tareas y la superposición de funciones con el trabajo femenino gratuito, contribuyen a esa invisibilización. La justicia laboral parece haber reforzado este "régimen de invisibilidad", y por lo tanto la informalidad laboral en el sector. Caracterizaré brevemente el discurso jurídico que permite afirmar esta hipótesis. Finalmente, propongo una reflexión acerca de los alcances y limitaciones de esta fuente para los estudios del trabajo, y una revisión de las explicaciones que desde las Ciencias Sociales se han dado a la segregación laboral del servicio doméstic

La pesca tabacchiera in Sicilia: opportunità da valorizzare.

Una recente indagine condotta nel territorio etneo dal Dipartimento Demetra dell'Università di Palermo, ha condotto all'individuazione di 7 diverse pesche piatte, raccolte e valutate presso un campo catalogo. Le pesche tabacchiere sono caratterizzate dal sapore dolce e da un profumo ed aroma inconfondibili. L'ampio calendario di maturazione, accentuato dalla conformazione del territorio, gli eccellenti caratteri organolettici e l'elevata richiesta da parte del consumatore, sono i presupposti per creare valide operazioni commerciali

Resisting, demanding, negotiating and being: The role of scandals in the everyday lives of Argentinean travestis

The aim of this article is to explore the different uses and meanings of the category ‘scandal’ among Argentinean travestis. It is argued that this insight could be fruitful to understand the logic according to which local travestis resist, negotiate, demand and manage access to rights, opportunities, and/or goods, from which they have been historically excluded due to their non-hegemonic gender identities. In line with the performative logic employed to construct their gender identities, the idea of ‘scandal’ is fruitful for them to think, to make themselves visible and to act politically. This article proposes a political and anthropological approach to study the relation between structures of inequality and resistance through collective action. It takes into account a perspective developed by political anthropologists, centered in the power relationships analysis and an understanding of politics as a dimension of daily life.Fil: Cutuli, Maria Soledad. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Filosofía y Letras. Instituto de Ciencias Antropológicas; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentin

Risk, Trust and Emergent Groups: COVID-19 Mutual Aid Networks

Throughout the world, thousands of local mutual aid networks (MANs) have emerged in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Mutual aid involves exchanging resources, connecting people to services and building community. During the COVID-19 pandemic, mutual aid includes sharing COVID-19 information, social support, food and emergency funds in informal local networks. To learn more about these community networks and explore the perspectives and experiences of MAN participants around the United States, I conducted survey research. There are 101 individuals from 16 MANs in 11 states included in the survey sample. There are two parts to this research. The first explores descriptive characteristics of MAN participants and their network involvement. The survey results describe demographic characteristics of MAN participant demographic characteristics, types of MAN involvement and motivations for joining MANs. The second part of this research analyzes social trust, institutional trust and COVID-19 risk perception. Survey findings suggest that MAN participants have high social trust, high institutional trust and low COVID-19 risk perception when compared to overall U.S. population survey data (Dryhurst et al. 2020; NORC1 N.d.). Results from this research provide insight on local community networks that develop in the midst of crises and contribute to a growing body of COVID-19 mutual aid research

Pre-reproductive parental enriching experiences influence progeny’s developmental trajectories

While the positive effects of environmental enrichment (EE) applied after weaning, in adulthood, during aging, or even in the presence of brain damage have been widely described, the transgenerational effects of pre-reproductive EE have been less examined. And yet, this issue is remarkable given that parental environmental experience may imprint offspring's phenotype over generations through many epigenetic processes. Interactions between individual and environment take place lifelong even before conception. In fact, the environment pre-reproductively experienced by the mother and/or the father exerts a substantial impact on neural development and motor and cognitive performances of the offspring, even if not directly exposed to social, cognitive, physical and/or motor enrichment. Furthermore, pre-reproductive parental enrichment exerts a transgenerational impact on coping response to stress as well as on the social behavior of the offspring. Among the effects of pre-reproductive parental EE, a potentiation of the maternal care and a decrease in global methylation levels in the frontal cortex and hippocampus of the progeny have been described. Finally, pre-reproductive EE modifies different pathways of neuromodulation in the brain of the offspring (involving brain-derived neurotrophic factor, oxytocin and glucocorticoid receptors). The present review highlights the importance of pre-reproductive parental enrichment in altering the performances not only of animals directly experiencing it, but also of their progeny, thus opening the way to new hypotheses on the inheritance mechanisms of behavioral trait

Neuroplasticity and Healthy Lifestyle: How Can We Understand This Relationship?

Our brain has this extraordinary ability to experience functional and structural changes before environmental stimuli, cognitive demand, or our experience itself. Exercise, diet, an appropriate sleep pattern, and reading habits are among those activities proposed to induce effects on cerebral architecture—an active lifestyle seems to induce changes in the brain function that favour welfare and better quality of life. This special issue is intended to extend the knowledge about the relationship between neuroplasticity and a healthy lifestyleFil: Begega, Azucena. Universidad de Oviedo; EspañaFil: Santín, Luis J.. Universidad de Málaga; EspañaFil: Galeano, Pablo. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Parque Centenario. Instituto de Investigaciones Bioquímicas de Buenos Aires. Fundación Instituto Leloir. Instituto de Investigaciones Bioquímicas de Buenos Aires; ArgentinaFil: Cutuli, Debora. Universita Di Roma; ItaliaFil: Sampedro Piquero, Patricia. Universidad Autonoma de Madrid. Facultad de Psicología. Departamento de Psicología Biológica y de la Salud; Españ

Returns to digital skills use, temporary employment, and trade unions in European labour markets

This paper investigates the moderating role of institutional factors on returns to ICT skill usage among different groups of workers in eight European labour markets. Using PIAAC data, the paper leverages the segmentation of contractual status, allowing for heterogeneous wage effects among workers holding permanent and temporary contracts. Furthermore, this study considers how gaps in ICT wage premiums mirror the compositional differences in national-specific trade union densities among contractual groups, demonstrating that wage premiums associated with ICT usage are not univocally defined by task content or demand-supply dynamics for specific sectors and occupations. The results highlight different returns between labour market segments according to national-specific trade union densities of temporary and permanent workers, revealing how the consequences of technological change are shaped by institutional cleavages