Why overlearned sequences are special: distinct neural networks in the right hemisphere for ordinal sequences

Written and spoken words activate left hemisphere areas involved in language processing. However, we here show that overlearned sequences (e.g. letters, numbers, weekdays, months) involve an unexpected right hemispheric activation in both the middle temporal gyrus and temporoparietal junction. Our findings offer a framework for understanding neuropsychological patterns seen in conditions such as synesthesia, in which anomalous perceptual experiences are triggered by overlearned sequences, and also in semantic dementia, in which left hemisphere damage disrupts word knowledge even while sequences can be spared

Predictability engenders more efficient neural responses

The neural response to a stimulus diminishes with repeated presentations, a phenomenon known as repetition suppression. We here use neuroimaging to demonstrate that repetition suppression appears to be a special case of "prediction suppression"--that is, the brain shows diminishing activity when subsequent stimuli in a train are predictable. This demonstration supports the hypothesis that the brain dynamically leverages prediction to minimize energy consumption

Archer (John E.), The Monster Evil : Policing and Violence in Victorian Liverpool

Historical research on interpersonal violence has expanded considerably in recent years, with much of this work centred on the nineteenth century. In particular, Clive Emsley, Martin Wiener and John Carter Wood have charted changing attitudes towards violence in this period, while situating sensibilities in the shifting contexts of accepted gender norms and ideas of Englishness. In The Monster Evil, John Archer builds on these national surveys through a local study of Liverpool. Lacking exten..

American Expatriates and the Building of Alternative Social Space in Toronto, 1965–1977

This article explores the history of U.S. expatriates and draft resisters in alternative political and cultural communities within Toronto during the late 1960s and early 1970s. As such these expatriates were important players in shaping and creating new social spaces, activist politics, and alternative forms of expression generated within the city’s counterculture communities and New Left movements. Aided by their class and racial privilege, many of these expatriates were able to participate in and engage the public culture of the city as few other migrants could. This ability to become part of the Toronto’s alternative neighbourhoods, scenes, and intentional communities was nonetheless facilitated by the transnational connections and objectives that linked local actions with global aspirations and collaborators.Cet article explore l’histoire des expatriés et insoumis américains dans les communautés politiques et culturelles alternatives de Toronto à la fin des années 60 et au début des années 70. Comme tels, ces expatriés ont été des acteurs importants dans l’élaboration et la création de nouveaux espaces sociaux, de la politique militante et d’autres formes d’expression issues du sein des communautés contre culturelles et des mouvements de la Nouvelle gauche. Aidés par la classe et le privilège racial, bon nombre de ces expatriés ont été en mesure de participer à la culture publique de la ville et de l’engager comme peu d’autres migrants. Cette capacité à intégrer les quartiers alternatifs de Toronto, ses scènes et ses communautés intentionnelles a néanmoins été facilitée par les connexions transnationales et les objectifs liant actions locales avec aspirations et collaborateurs mondiaux

Crime, policing and control in Leeds, c1830-1890

This thesis analyses policing and crime control in nineteenth-century England, through a case study of Leeds. It challenges the notion - central to traditional interpretations of criminal justice history - that the new police forces assumed near-monopolistic control over the governance of crime shortly after their foundation. The opening chapters analyse organisational change in the local police establishment, and explore the condition of the men who served in the force. There follows an extensive discussion of police priorities and the impact of policing upon property crime and street order. This section argues that the new police experienced considerable difficulties in suppressing theft, and that their most tangible successes came in regulating traffic problems, street `nuisances', and offences of recreational excess and moral transgression. The remainder of the thesis explores how the response to crime was shared between state and civil society in the Victorian city. Chapter four reconstructs a patchwork of organisations - including associational, voluntary and private bodies - which were responsible for aspects of urban policing and prosecution in this period. It also, however, begins to explore more dispersed tactics of civilian crime control, by recovering evidence of Victorian domestic and commercial security. The subsequent two chapters continue this enquiry, assessing the civilian contribution to the apprehension of offenders, criminal investigation, and the resolution of criminal encounters, both within and outside the courts. Together, these three chapters reveal how the public were intimately involved in dealing with crime in this period, and how their contributions were variously encouraged and censured by the police and press. The thesis concludes with a broad reassessment of the nineteenth-century `police settlement', and a reflection upon the issues of civilian agency and social relations which it raises

An Ambiguous Welcome: Vietnam Draft Resistance, the Canadian State, and Cold War Containment

A significant portion of the growth in American immigration to Canada from the mid- 1960s to the mid-1970s was a consequence of the Vietnam War. For the Canadian government, the appearance of large numbers of draft resisters at the border was a boon. Draft resisters, if not deserters, tended to be young, middle-class, and educated — the very type of immigrant the government wanted. Allowing entry to draft resisters also reaped an important symbolic benefit in that it allowed the Canadian government to demonstrate its independence from the United States and its opposition to the war. In practice, however, not all young Americans resisting militarism were welcomed. Government officials argued contradictory interpretations of the policy on admitting draft resisters and deserters and their legal status in Canada. The Cold War and the increased domestic concerns generated by student and protest movements in the 1960s also solidified cooperation between the American and Canadian security states in maintaining a surveillance of draft resisters and deserters.La guerre du Vietnam explique en bonne partie l’augmentation du nombre d’immigrants américains franchissant la frontière canadienne du milieu des années 1960 jusqu’au milieu de la décennie suivante. Le gouvernement canadien s’est alors réjoui de voir apparaître à ses portes de si nombreux dissidents. C’est que les réfractaires à la conscription (s’agissant parfois même de déserteurs) étaient généralement jeunes, de classe moyenne et instruits. Pour le gouvernement canadien, il s’agissait là de l’immigrant idéal. Accueillir les réfractaires à la conscription lui a aussi procuré un bienfait symbolique de taille, celui de marquer son indépendance par rapport aux États-Unis et son opposition à la guerre. Mais dans les faits, les jeunes Américains résistant au militarisme n’étaient pas tous les bienvenus. Les fonctionnaires faisaient valoir des interprétations contradictoires de la politique d’admission au Canada des réfractaires à l’appel sous les drapeaux et des déserteurs et de leur statut juridique. Ajoutons à cela que la guerre froide et la multiplication des préoccupations intérieures suscitées par les mouvements étudiants et de protestation des années 1960 amenaient également les États américain et cana- dien à collaborer plus étroitement sur le plan de la sécurité pour surveiller les réfractaires et les déserteurs

Rethinking the state monopolisation thesis : the historiography of policing and criminal justice in nineteenth-century England

Cet article examine la manière dont les historiens ont interprété l’évolution de la relation entre la criminalité, l’action de la police et l’État dans l’Angleterre du XIXe siècle. Plus spécifiquement, il retrace l’influence de la thèse de la monopolisation par l’État – l’idée d’une « société policée ». Le poids de ce modèle est évalué en comparant des travaux relatifs à la justice pénale des XVIIIe et XIXe siècles, et en pointant les discontinuités frappantes dans la manière dont ils ont traité certaines questions-clés. L’article présente ensuite une critique de la thèse de la monopolisation étatique, avant de dégager les priorités des recherches à venir. Ces orientations nouvelles devraient conduire à une vision plus sophistiquée de la gouvernance de la criminalité dans l’Angleterre moderne, et amener l’histoire pénale du XIXe siècle à étudier l’expérience vécue des gens ordinaires.This article reviews how historians have interpreted the changing relationship between crime, policing and the state in nineteenth-century England. Specifically, it traces the influence of the state monopolisation thesis – the idea of the ‘policed society’. The impact of this model is assessed by comparing studies of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century criminal justice, and exposing stark discontinuities in their treatments of key subjects. This article proceeds to critique the state monopolisation thesis, before outlining priorities for further research. These new directions promise to lead to a more sophisticated account of the governance of crime in modern England, and to return nineteenth-century criminal justice history to the study of ordinary people and their lived experiences