Feelings-of-Warmth Increase More Abruptly for Verbal Riddles Solved With in Contrast to Without Aha! Experience

When we are confronted with a new problem, we typically try to apply strategies that have worked in the past and which usually lead closer to the solution incrementally. However, sometimes, either during a problem-solving attempt that does not seem to lead closer to the solution, or when we have given up on problem-solving for the moment, the solution seems to appear out of nowhere. This is often called a moment of insight. Whereas the cognitive processes of getting closer to the solution are still unknown for insight problem-solving, there are two diverging theories on the subjective feeling of getting closer to the solution: (1) One that states that an intuitive feeling of closeness to the solution increases slowly, but incrementally, before it surpasses the threshold to consciousness and becomes verbalizable (=insight) (continuous approach), and (2) another that proposes that the feeling of closeness to the solution does not increase before it exceeds the threshold to consciousness (discontinuous approach). Here, we investigated the subjective feeling of closeness to the solution, assessed as feeling-of-warmth (FoW), its relationship to solving the problem versus being presented with it and whether a feeling of Aha! was experienced. Additionally, we tested whether Aha! experiences are more likely when the problem is solved actively by the participant or presented to the participant after an unsuccessful problem-solving attempt, and whether the frequency of Aha! experiences correlates with problem difficulty. To our knowledge, this is the first study combining the CRAT with FoW assessments for the named conditions (solved/unsolved, three difficulty levels, Aha!/no Aha!). We used a verbal problem-solving task, the Compound Remote Associates Task (CRAT). Our data revealed that Aha! experiences were more often reported for solutions generated by the participant compared to solutions presented after unsuccessful problem-solving. Moreover, FoW curves showed a steeper increase for the last two FoW ratings when problems were solved with Aha! in contrast to without Aha!. Based on this observation, we provide a preliminary explanation for the underlying cognitive process of solving CRA problems via insight

New investigations at the Middle Stone Age site of Pockenbank Rockshelter, Namibia

In southern Africa, Middle Stone Age sites with long sequences have been the focus of intense international and interdisciplinary research over the past decade (cf. Wadley 2015). Two techno-complexes of the Middle Stone Agethe Still Bay and Howiesons Poorthave been associated with many technological and behavioural innovations of Homo sapiens. The classic model argues that these two techno-complexes are temporally separated horizons' with homogenous material culture (Jacobs et al.2008), reflecting demographic pulses and supporting large subcontinental networks. This model was developed on the basis of evidence from southern African sites regarded as centres of subcontinental developments

Corporalidade e desejo: Tudo sobre minha mãe e o gênero na margem Embodiment and desire: All About My Mother and gender in the margin

Análise do filme Tudo sobre minha mãe, do cineasta espanhol Pedro Almodóvar, enfocando a personagem travesti Agrado. Depois de uma comparação com outros filmes que abordam o fenômeno transgênero, é feita uma discussão em torno da noção de corporalidade e da construção do sujeito, dialogando sobretudo com as teorias do corpo da etnologia ameríndia brasileira. O ensaio busca propor alguns elementos para uma reflexão sobre a importância da análise de experiências de margem na renovação teórica no campo dos estudos feministas e de gênero. A experiência corporificada de 'tornar-se outro' dramatiza os mecanismos de construção da diferença e se apresenta como um empreendimento anti-hierárquico desestabilizador de políticas dominantes da subjetividade.<br>This essays does a reading of Pedro Almodovar's film All About My Mother, focusing on the transvestite character, Agrado. After drawing a comparison with other films on the subject of transgendering, I discuss notions of embodiedness and the construction of the subject by placing them in the context of theories about the body in Brazilian ethnology. My purpose is to offer some elements for a reflection on the experiences at/of the margins as a way of renewing the theoretical debates in feminist and gender studies. The bodily experience of 'becoming the other' dramatizes the mechanisms that are in play in the construction of difference and can be seen as an anti-hierarchical force destabilizing dominant politics of subjectivity

Mídia e educação da mulher: uma discussão teórica sobre modos de enunciar o feminino na TV Media and Woman's Education: A Theoretical Discussion about the Ways to Enunciate the Feminine on Television

Neste trabalho discutem-se os conceitos de poder, subjetivação e (a)normalidade, de Michel Foucault, bem como os conceitos de cultura e diferença propostos por Homi Bhabha, em relação à temática da enunciação do feminino, conforme a psicanalista Maria Rita Kehl. Tal discussão é feita no sentido de expor a fundamentação de uma pesquisa em andamento sobre a subjetividade feminina na mídia televisiva, a qual dá continuidade a investigações anteriores, cujos resultados são também brevemente comentados. O que está em jogo é uma descrição de como se constrói um discurso sobre as mulheres em diferentes produtos televisivos, atentando para os vazios do simbólico em relação ao feminino. Este, conforme Kehl, tanto para os homens como para as mulheres, "constitui a dimensão maldita na nossa cultura", já que as mulheres estariam historicamente numa posição em que o sujeito é sempre o outro: ou o pai, ou a mãe fálica ou o parceiro.<br>This paper discusses Foucault's concepts of power, subjectification and (a)normality, as well as Homi Bhabha's concepts of culture and difference, in relation to the question of the feminine enunciation as articulated by the psychoanalyst Maria Rita Kehl. The article assesses how discourses on women are constructed in different televised products, emphasizing the symbolic emptiness/silences of the feminine. According to Kehl, for both men and women this fact is a consequence of "the cursed dimension in our culture," since women have been historically in a position in which the subject is always the other: be it the father, the phallic mother or the partner

Salmonella Mitigates Oxidative Stress and Thrives in the Inflamed Gut by Evading Calprotectin-Mediated Manganese Sequestration

Neutrophils hinder bacterial growth by a variety of antimicrobial mechanisms, including the production of reactive oxygen species and the secretion of proteins that sequester nutrients essential to microbes. A major player in this process is calprotectin, a host protein that exerts antimicrobial activity by chelating zinc and manganese. Here we show that the intestinal pathogen Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium employs specialized metal transporters to evade calprotectin sequestration of manganese, allowing the bacteria to outcompete commensals and thrive in the inflamed gut. The pathogen’s ability to acquire manganese in turn promotes function of SodA and KatN, enzymes that utilize the metal as a cofactor to detoxify reactive oxygen species. This manganese-dependent SodA activity allows the bacteria to evade neutrophil killing mediated by calprotectin and reactive oxygen species. Thus, manganese acquisition enables S. Typhimurium to overcome host antimicrobial defenses and support its competitive growth in the intestine