Human brain mechanisms of auditory and audiovisual selective attention

Selective attention refers to the process in which certain information is actively selected for conscious processing, while other information is ignored. The aim of the present studies was to investigate the human brain mechanisms of auditory and audiovisual selective attention with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), electroencephalography (EEG) and magnetoencephalography (MEG). The main focus was on attention-related processing in the auditory cortex. It was found that selective attention to sounds strongly enhances auditory cortex activity associated with processing the sounds. In addition, the amplitude of this attention-related modulation was shown to increase with the presentation rate of attended sounds. Attention to the pitch of sounds and to their location appeared to enhance activity in overlapping auditory-cortex regions. However, attention to location produced stronger activity than attention to pitch in the temporo-parietal junction and frontal cortical regions. In addition, a study on bimodal attentional selection found stronger audiovisual than auditory or visual attention-related modulations in the auditory cortex. These results were discussed in light of Näätänen s attentional-trace theory and other research concerning the brain mechanisms of selective attention.Valikoivalla tarkkaavaisuudella tarkoitetaan prosessia, jossa tietoiseen käsittelyyn valitaan aktiivisesti jotain tietoa ja muu tieto jätetään huomioimatta. Tämän väitöskirjatutkimuksen tavoite oli selvittää kuulotietoon kohdistuvan sekä kuulo- ja näkötietoa yhdistävän valikoivan tarkkaavaisuuden aivomekanismeja ihmisellä. Tutkimusmenetelminä käytettiin toiminnallista magneettikuvausta (fMRI), elektroenkefalografiaa (EEG) ja magnetoenkefalografiaa (MEG). Tutkimus keskittyi erityisesti tarkkaavaisuuden alaiseen tiedonkäsittelyyn kuuloaivokuorella. Tutkimus osoitti, että äänten valikoiva tarkkailu kasvattaa voimakkaasti äänten käsittelyyn liittyvää aktivaatiota kuuloaivokuorella ja että tämä aktivaatio kasvaa äänten esitysnopeuden kasvaessa. Tutkimus antoi myös viitteitä siitä, että äänen korkeuden tarkkailu ja äänen paikan tarkkailu aktivoivat samoja kuuloaivokuoren alueita. Kuitenkin tietyt ohimo- ja päälakilohkojen sekä otsalohkojen alueet näyttäisivät osallistuvan erityisen voimakkaasti äänen paikan tarkkaavaisuuden alaiseen käsittelyyn. Lisäksi havaittiin, että kuulo- ja näkötietoa yhdistävä valikoiva tarkkaavaisuus aktivoi voimakkaammin kuuloaivokuorta kuin pelkän kuulotiedon tai näkötiedon valikoiva tarkkailu. Näitä tutkimustuloksia käsiteltiin Näätäsen tarkkaavaisuusjälki-teorian ja muiden valikoivaa tarkkaavaisuutta koskevien tutkimustulosten valossa

Maladjusted to injustice? Political agency, medicalization, and the user/survivor movement

This paper examines the factors that shape the political agency of psychiatric service users/survivors. I begin by outlining an Arendtian framework for thinking about political agency and its sources. I then use this framework to explore the politically empowering and disempowering factors that users/survivors face, drawing upon evidence from the writings of user/survivor activists and organisations, newspaper articles, and psychiatric professional publications, published in the UK between 2006 and 2016. The insights of this examination are of wider interest for two reasons. Firstly, they elucidate the obstacles to political action facing the growing number of people diagnosed with mental disorders. Secondly, they suggest what a future in which politics is increasingly fought out in medical terms means for citizens’ political agency generally

Seasonal variation in thermal habitat volume for cold-water fish populations : implications for hydroacoustic survey design and stock assessment

For accurate stock assessment, survey design must consider fish behavior and ecology. Yearlings and older individuals of the commercially exploited cold-water species vendace (Coregonus albula) are found below the metalimnion through periods of thermal stratification. These stratification periods generally last for 3-4 months, from the middle of summer to early autumn. In lakes with heterogeneous distribution of depths, the habitat volume for vendace vary drastically within and across years, which affects the distribution and population densities. Variable thermal habitat volumes, with food and oxygen depletion in the hypolimnion through the period of stratification, may act as a population size-regulating factor.Using hydroacoustics in combination with trawl data and temperature profiles, we examined the distribution of vendace through annual periods of thermal stratification. We found that yearling and older vendace these periods were confined to cold-water habitat volumes representing less than 10 % of the total water volume of Lake Mälaren, the third largest lake in Sweden. By introducing stratification to the design of hydroacoustic surveys supported by midwater trawling, seasonal aggregations of fish in temporally restricted thermal habitat volumes can be used to lower survey effort and improve the precision in estimates of population size. Temporally restricted habitat volumes may induce risks for the populations to over-fishing and sensitivity to environmental changes that potentially may call for directed management

Ecological marginality and recruitment loss in the globally endangered freshwater pearl mussel

Aim Ecological marginality is the existence of species/populations in the margins of their ecological niche, where conditions are harsher, and the risk of extinction is more pronounced. In threatened long-lived species, the disparity between distribution and population demography may provide understanding of how environmental heterogeneity shapes ecological marginality, potential extinction patterns and range shifts. We set out to evaluate this by combining a species distribution model (SDM) with population-specific demography data. Location Sweden, 450,000 km(2). Major Taxa Studied Freshwater pearl mussel (FPM, Margaritifera margaritifera) and two salmonid fish species. Methods A SDM for the mussel was constructed with MaxEnt using salmonid host fish (Salmo trutta plus S. salar) density, extreme low and high temperatures, precipitation, altitude, and clay content as explanatory variables. The output was used to test the ecological marginality hypothesis by evaluating whether lowly predicted populations had higher loss of recruitment. Logistic regression was used to explicitly test the factors involved in recruitment loss. Results Host fish density contributed the most (50.3%) to the mussel distribution, followed by lowest temperature the coldest month (34.3%) and altitude (10.3%), while the remaining explanatory variables contributed minimally (<3.3%). Populations with lower SDM scores lacked recruitment to a significantly higher degree. Populations inhabiting areas at low altitude, with lower densities of host fish, and warmer winter temperatures have lost recruitment to a higher degree. Main Conclusions We found support for the ecological marginality hypothesis. The patterns indicate that FPM habitat niche may shift northwards over time. Salmonid host fish density seems to be a driving factor for both historical distribution and recent demographic performance. Finally, we emphasize the value of combining SDMs with independent data on population demography as it both lends rigidity to model validation and understanding of how ecological marginality affects species distribution and viability

In defence of fear: COVID-19, crises and democracy

The COVID-19 crisis has served not just to instil fear in the populace but to highlight the importance of fear as a motivating dynamic in politics. The gradual emergence of political-philosophical approaches calling for concern for ‘positive’ emotions may have made sense under non-pandemic conditions. Now, however, describing fear in the face of a deadly pandemic as ‘irrational’ or born of ‘ignorance’ seems ‘irrational’ and ‘ignorant’. In this article, we draw upon the work of John Gray and behavioural science to present a defence of fear. We show how the pandemic has highlighted deficits in the work of four thinkers highly critical of fear: Martha Nussbaum, Zygmunt Bauman, Hannah Arendt and Sara Ahmed. We argue that, if such approaches are to be of value in anything other than optimal conditions, then they have to acknowledge the fundamental role of fear in helping human beings to pursue fundamental interests