The implosion of reality: schizophrenia, the anterior cingular cortex and anticipation

In contemporary neuroscientific and psychiatric research into schizophrenia, we can observe a shift in focus from the clinical dysfunctions (positive and negative symptoms) towards a mapping of the cognitive function. In this paper we look at a specific cognitive problem area in schizophrenic brain functioning, the Anterior Cingulate Cortex (ACC). We show what the ACC is, what it probably does and how this is relevant in research concerning certain psychiatric disorders. Then we explain the role of the ACC in choice anticipation. In this we underline the possible link between choice anticipation and the lack of ‘Error Related Negativity’ (ERN) in this specific area. Lastly we incorporate this approach to the problem of schizophrenic anticipation within the neuropsychoanalytical framework and the role it might play in the formation of hallucinations and delusion

Time to separate the men from the beasts: symbolic anticipation as the typically human subjective dimension

In this paper it is argued that the dividing line that runs between the human psyche as opposed to any other complex system is made up by symbolic anticipation. The functionality of the human mind as an anticipatory system is entirely caught up in the crucial role that finiteness, shortage or lack plays for human beings. Anticipation for us is the way by which this negative finiteness or lack is translated into a positive longing, want or desire. We take a look at the three dimensional view of Jacques Lacan regarding these matters in a sophistical example and we illustrate how anticipation as a Symbolic phenomenon is distinct from the Imaginary or the Real register. As Lacan points out anticipation creates a symbolic social link which binds two or more interacting humans together in an anticipatory relationship. Beliefs, expectations and convictions are the typically human social links which ground human interaction and set it apart from other forms of social interaction we can observe in other complex biological entities

Exhuming the Meso-Cenozoic Kyrgyz Tianshan and Siberian Altai-Sayan : a review based on low-temperature thermochronology

Thermochronological datasets for the Kyrgyz Tianshan and Siberian Altai-Sayan within Central Asia reveal a punctuated exhumation history during the Meso-Cenozoic. In this paper, the datasets for both regions are collectively reviewed in order to speculate on the links between the Meso-Cenozoic exhumation of the continental Eurasian interior and the prevailing tectonic processes at the plate margins. Whereas most of the thermochronological data across both regions document late Jurassic-Cretaceous regional basement cooling, older landscape relics and dissecting fault zones throughout both regions preserve Triassic and Cenozoic events of rapid cooling, respectively. Triassic cooling is thought to reflect the Qiangtang-Eurasia collision and/or rifting/subsidence in the West Siberian basin. Alternatively, this cooling signal could be related with the terminal terrane-amalgamation of the Central Asian Orogenic Belt. For the Kygyz Tianshan, late Jurassic-Cretaceous regional exhumation and Cenozoic fault reactivations can be linked with specific tectonic events during the closure of the Palaeo-Tethys and Neo-Tethys Oceans, respectively. The effect of the progressive consumption of these oceans and the associated collisions of Cimmeria and India with Eurasia probably only had a minor effect on the exhumation of the Siberian Altai-Sayan. More likely, tectonic forces from the east (present-day coordinates) as a result of the building and collapse of the Mongol-Okhotsk orogen and rifting in the Baikal region shaped the current Siberian Altai-Sayan topography. Although many of these hypothesised links need to be tested further, they allow a first-order insight into the dynamic response and the stress propagation pathways from the Eurasian margin into the continental interior

From insufficiency to anticipation, an introduction to 'Lichaamskaart'

In this paper we take up the point of symbolic-imaginary anticipation and we combine it with the mirror stage, worked out by Jacques Lacan in numerous publications. We place the mirror stage within its complex temporal framework and explain how the three topological categories (RSI) follow from this most intimate of subjective experiences in the double mirror set up. All kinds of psychopathological mechanisms are traceable to this period in subjective development. Until recently it was impossible to find direct traces of this defining and unchanging moment. Since the beginning of 1990 a new method of therapy was devised in Duffel, named ‘lichaamskaart’, or body map. We point out the likeness and differences between the double mirror stage and the construction of the lichaamskaart. In conclusion we illustrate the relationship between anticipatory systems and the therapeutic process involved in lichaamskaart

External morphology of eyes and Nebenaugen of caridean decapods–ecological and systematic considerations

Most caridean decapods have compound eyes of the reflecting superposition kind, and additionally some possess an accessory eye-like organ of unknown function, also referred to as the nebenauge.We examined 308 caridean genera to assess the general morphology of the eye, rostrum length, eye diameter and the presence or absence and, when present, the diameter of the nebenauge.We have attempted to relate these data to ecological and taxonomic considerations.We consider there to be 6 distinct eye types based on the margin between the eyestalk and cornea. The presence of nebenaugen appears to be generally linked to an active lifestyle, as evidenced by the fact that species that have nebenaugen tend to have larger eyes and are more likely to have a distinct rostrum.We suggest that the inconsistencies in its presence/absence under both systematic and ecological lenses may indicate that when present it has various roles relating to behavioural and physiological rhythms

Representation of probabilistic scientific knowledge

This article is available through the Brunel Open Access Publishing Fund. Copyright © 2013 Soldatova et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd.The theory of probability is widely used in biomedical research for data analysis and modelling. In previous work the probabilities of the research hypotheses have been recorded as experimental metadata. The ontology HELO is designed to support probabilistic reasoning, and provides semantic descriptors for reporting on research that involves operations with probabilities. HELO explicitly links research statements such as hypotheses, models, laws, conclusions, etc. to the associated probabilities of these statements being true. HELO enables the explicit semantic representation and accurate recording of probabilities in hypotheses, as well as the inference methods used to generate and update those hypotheses. We demonstrate the utility of HELO on three worked examples: changes in the probability of the hypothesis that sirtuins regulate human life span; changes in the probability of hypotheses about gene functions in the S. cerevisiae aromatic amino acid pathway; and the use of active learning in drug design (quantitative structure activity relation learning), where a strategy for the selection of compounds with the highest probability of improving on the best known compound was used. HELO is open source and available at https://github.com/larisa-soldatova/HELO.This work was partially supported by grant BB/F008228/1 from the UK Biotechnology & Biological Sciences Research Council, from the European Commission under the FP7 Collaborative Programme, UNICELLSYS, KU Leuven GOA/08/008 and ERC Starting Grant 240186

Linking eye design with host symbiont relationships in pontoniine shrimps (crustacea, decapoda, palaemonidae)

Symbiosis is prevalent in the marine environment with many studies examining the effects of such interactions between host and symbiont. Pontoniine shrimps are a group whose ecology is characterised by symbiotic interactions. This investigation examines the gross morphology of Pontoniinae compound eyes and superficial optical parameters with reference to their symbiotic relationship or lifestyle category; free-living, ectosymbiont, endosymbiont (bivalves) or endosymbiont (non-bivalves). The eye morphologies of free-living and ectosymbiotic species are very similar, yet differ from both forms of endosymbiotic species. Endosymbionts have significantly smaller and simpler eyes with larger facets and bigger interommatidial angles and eye parameters for increased sensitivity levels. However bivalve endosymbionts form an intermediary group between non-bivalve endosymbionts and ectosymbionts as a result of their more active lifestyle. The accessory eye or "nebenauge", although of uncertain function, commonly occurs in free-living Pontoniinae species but rarely in endosymbionts apart from in more primitive species. The variation in morphology reflects tensions between functional requirements and ecological pressures that have strongly influenced eye design in Pontoniinae. © 2014 Dobson et al