Do synaesthesia and mental imagery tap into similar cross-modal processes?

Synaesthesia has previously been linked with imagery abilities, although an understanding of a causal role for mental imagery in broader synaesthetic experiences remains elusive. This can be partly attributed to our relatively poor understanding of imagery in sensory domains beyond vision. Investigations into the neural and behavioural underpinnings of mental imagery have nevertheless identified an important role for imagery in perception, particularly in mediating cross-modal interactions. However, the phenomenology of synaesthesia gives rise to the assumption that associated cross-modal interactions may be encapsulated and specific to synaesthesia. As such, evidence for a link between imagery and perception may not generalize to synaesthesia. Here, we present results that challenge this idea: first, we found enhanced somatosensory imagery evoked by visual stimuli of body parts in mirror-touch synaesthetes, relative to other synaesthetes or controls. Moreover, this enhanced imagery generalized to tactile object properties not directly linked to their synaesthetic associations. Second, we report evidence that concurrent experience evoked in grapheme-colour synaesthesia was sufficient to trigger visual-to-tactile correspondences that are common to all. Together, these findings show that enhanced mental imagery is a consistent hallmark of synaesthesia, and suggest the intriguing possibility that imagery may facilitate the cross-modal interactions that underpin synaesthesic experiences. This article is part of a discussion meeting issue 'Bridging senses: novel insights from synaesthesia'

Reexamining the Massachusetts Nondelegation Doctrine: Is the Areas of Critical Environmental Concern Program an Unconstitutional Delegation of Legislative Authority?

In 1974, the Massachusetts Legislature delegated authority to develop statewide policies “regarding the acquisition, protection, and use of areas of critical environmental concern” to the Executive Office of Environmental Affairs (EOEA). As of 2003, this power has been parlayed into a program that regulates nearly a quarter of a million acres across seventy-five Massachusetts municipalities, and in some instances affects the vast majority of all land in a particular community. To be certain, delegations of legislative power like the one given to EOEA are necessary to make government work. It is also possible, however, for these delegations to be overbroad, as federal and state non-delegation doctrines draw lines in the sand that delegations cannot cross. In Massachusetts, one might be tempted to conclude that this limitation no longer exists, since the state judiciary has not invalidated a delegation of legislative power in thirty years. This Note examines whether the powers given to EOEA could reverse this trend, and revive the Massachusetts non-delegation doctrine

Exact renormalization group and many-fermion systems

The exact renormalization group methods is applied to many fermion systems with short-range attractive force. The strength of the attractive fermion-fermion interaction is determined from the vacuum scattering length. A set of approximate flow equations is derived including fermionic and bosonic fluctuations. The numerical solutions show a phase transition to a gapped phase. The inclusion of bosonic fluctuations is found to be significant only in the small-gap regime.Comment: Talk, given by B. Krippa on the International Workshop "Meson2004", Cracow, Poland, 3 page

The early career of Pliny Earle: A founder of American Psychiatry

Dr. Pliny Earle {ie09-l?^92) is a major figure in the history of American psychiatry. Though he is worthy of a full-dress doctoral dissertation, this master\u27s thesis deals only with the first part of his life