Illusory temporal binding in meditators

We investigate conditions in which more accurate metacognition may lead to greater susceptibility to illusion; and thus conditions under which mindfulness meditation may lead to less accurate perceptions. Specifically, greater awareness of intentions may lead to an illusory compression of time between a voluntary action and its outcome (“intentional binding”). Here we report that experienced Buddhist mindfulness meditators rather than non-meditators display a greater illusory shift of the timing of an outcome towards an intentional action. Mindfulness meditation involves awareness of causal connections between different mental states, including intentions. We argue that this supports improvements in metacognition targeted at motor intentions. Changes in metacognitive ability may result in an earlier and less veridical experience of the timing of action outcomes either through increased access to sensorimotor pre-representations of an action outcome or by affording greater precision to action timing judgements. Furthermore, as intentional binding is an implicit measure of the sense of agency, these results also provide evidence that mindfulness meditators experience a stronger sense of agency

Time perception and the experience of agency in meditation and hypnosis

Mindfulness meditation and hypnosis are related in opposing ways to awareness of intentions. The cold control theory of hypnosis proposes that hypnotic responding involves the experience of involuntariness while performing an actually intentional action. Hypnosis therefore relies upon inaccurate metacognition about intentional actions and experiences. Mindfulness meditation centrally involves awareness of intentions and is associated with improved metacognitive access to intentions. Therefore, mindfulness meditators and highly hypnotizable people may lie at opposite ends of a spectrum with regard to metacognitive access to intention‐related information. Here we review the theoretical background and evidence for differences in the metacognition of intentions in these groups, as revealed by chronometric measures of the awareness of voluntary action: the timing of an intention to move (Libet's “W” judgments) and the compressed perception of time between an intentional action and its outcome (“intentional binding”). We review these measures and critically evaluate their proposed connection to the experience of volition and sense of agency

Exiles in British sociology

We have all seen them, foreheads wrinkled like a ploughed field, pastel-shaded check summer shirts worn in winter, desks festooned with yellowed index cards covered in hieroglyphics, books like yours only in plainer covers and read more carefully, filthy cigarettes, an accent growing thicker with age. But we have all seen them too, the luxuriant thatch at seventy, the jacket and tie, the tidy desk, the London club and the house in the country, the pipe, the disdain for small talk made all the more intimidating by an English acquired somewhere between grammar school and Oxford. Self-contained in a way only the uprooted can be, mysterious because you never knew what questions to ask them, emissaries from worlds they have lost and you have never known: the Polish gentry, the central European peasantry, Jewish merchants, German workers and, most puzzling of all, the continental European middle class

EMDR Effects on Pursuit Eye Movements

This study aimed to objectivize the quality of smooth pursuit eye movements in a standard laboratory task before and after an Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) session run on seven healthy volunteers. EMDR was applied on autobiographic worries causing moderate distress. The EMDR session was complete in 5 out of the 7 cases; distress measured by SUDS (Subjective Units of Discomfort Scale) decreased to a near zero value. Smooth pursuit eye movements were recorded by an Eyelink II video system before and after EMDR. For the five complete sessions, pursuit eye movement improved after their EMDR session. Notably, the number of saccade intrusions—catch-up saccades (CUS)—decreased and, reciprocally, there was an increase in the smooth components of the pursuit. Such an increase in the smoothness of the pursuit presumably reflects an improvement in the use of visual attention needed to follow the target accurately. Perhaps EMDR reduces distress thereby activating a cholinergic effect known to improve ocular pursuit

IL-17RA Signaling Reduces Inflammation and Mortality during Trypanosoma cruzi Infection by Recruiting Suppressive IL-10-Producing Neutrophils

Members of the IL-17 cytokine family play an important role in protection against pathogens through the induction of different effector mechanisms. We determined that IL-17A, IL-17E and IL-17F are produced during the acute phase of T. cruzi infection. Using IL-17RA knockout (KO) mice, we demonstrate that IL-17RA, the common receptor subunit for many IL-17 family members, is required for host resistance during T. cruzi infection. Furthermore, infected IL-17RA KO mice that lack of response to several IL-17 cytokines showed amplified inflammatory responses with exuberant IFN-γ and TNF production that promoted hepatic damage and mortality. Absence of IL-17RA during T. cruzi infection resulted in reduced CXCL1 and CXCL2 expression in spleen and liver and limited neutrophil recruitment. T. cruzi-stimulated neutrophils secreted IL-10 and showed an IL-10-dependent suppressive phenotype in vitro inhibiting T-cell proliferation and IFN-γ production. Specific depletion of Ly-6G+ neutrophils in vivo during T. cruzi infection raised parasitemia and serum IFN-γ concentration and resulted in increased liver pathology in WT mice and overwhelming wasting disease in IL-17RA KO mice. Adoptively transferred neutrophils were unable to migrate to tissues and to restore resistant phenotype in infected IL-17RA KO mice but migrated to spleen and liver of infected WT mice and downregulated IFN-γ production and increased survival in an IL-10 dependent manner. Our results underscore the role of IL-17RA in the modulation of IFN-γ-mediated inflammatory responses during infections and uncover a previously unrecognized regulatory mechanism that involves the IL-17RA-mediated recruitment of suppressive IL-10-producing neutrophils

Competência social na formação do psicólogo

O objetivo deste estudo foi avaliar dimensões do repertório de competência social de alunos de início e término do curso de Psicologia e verificar se eventuais deficits são acentuados ou superados ao longo da formação acadêmica. Aplicou-se um questionário com 13 situações críticas de interação social em relação às quais o aluno deveria indicar: o grau de incidência da situação em sua experiência, o grau de incomodo produzido, a emissão (ou não) da resposta indicadora de competência social sugerida para a situação e a satisfação ou insatisfação com a resposta emitida. Os resultados evidenciaram um padrão amplo de semelhanças e bastante restrito de diferenças entre alunos de início e término do curso em todas as dimensões, exceto na de incômodo, com implicações para outras pesquisas