A is for Ambivalence : Hester Prynne\u27s Conflicted Response to Motherhood in Hawthorne\u27s The Scarlet Letter

In this paper the author discusses the protagonist Hester Prynne’s conflicted response to motherhood in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter. The author examines Hester’s behavior towards her daughter, Pearl, as well as her relationships with her husband Roger Chillingworth and Pearl’s father Arthur Dimmesdale. Hester’s changing role in the town is also explored as she continues to quietly rebel against the patriarchy by making unconventional choices

Cunningly Sweated: Creation, Memory, and Time in Faulkner\u27s Mosquitoes

This study focuses on the early fiction of William Faulkner, particularly Mosquitoes. Understood in critical context, this novel suffers from retrospective bias. That is, I believe that the brilliant work that immediately (and continually) succeeded this novel provided a critical comparison that made it impossible to ascribe the appropriate value that this second novel truly deserves. Mosquitoes was not only a necessary portal and stepping stone to his later/greater fiction, but it also stands on its own as a brilliant experiment allowing Faulkner to free himself from bonds of fragmented mimesis by submerging himself in his own social, literary, theological, and psychological influences, both past and present. Faulkner created a balance between the tension he felt of a traditional Christianity that was deeply ingrained into his southern psyche and a modern influence that consisted of Nietzsche, Freud, Bergson, and others. Although Mosquitoes is now often considered Faulkner’s weakest work, I argue that it is a coherent statement about the South, the past, and important human values, human values that find their origins in the rich religious soil of southern Christianity. Mosquitoes is more than a necessary step toward Faulkner’s later success; it is a literary philosophical leap into genius

Role of primary motor cortex in the control of manual dexterity assessed via sequential bilateral lesion in the adult macaque monkey: A case study

From a case study, we describe the impact of unilateral lesion of the hand area in the primary motor cortex (M1) on manual dexterity and the role of the intact contralesional M1 in long-term functional recovery. An adult macaque monkey performed two manual dexterity tasks: (i) “modified Brinkman board” task, assessed simple precision grip versus complex precision grip, the latter involved a hand postural adjustment; (ii) “modified Klüver board” task, assessed movements ranging from power grip to precision grip, pre-shaping and grasping. Two consecutive unilateral M1 lesions targeted the hand area of each hemisphere, the second lesion was performed after stable, though incomplete, functional recovery from the primary lesion. Following each lesion, the manual dexterity of the contralesional hand was affected in a comparable manner, effects being progressively more deleterious from power grip to simple and then complex precision grips. Both tasks yielded consistent data, namely that the secondary M1 lesion did not have a significant impact on the recovered performance from the primary M1 lesion, which took place 5 months earlier. In conclusion, the intact contralesional M1 did not play a major role in the long-term functional recovery from a primary M1 lesion targeted to the hand area

Altered Kinematics of Facial Emotion Expression and Emotion Recognition Deficits Are Unrelated in Parkinson's Disease.

BACKGROUND: Altered emotional processing, including reduced emotion facial expression and defective emotion recognition, has been reported in patients with Parkinson's disease (PD). However, few studies have objectively investigated facial expression abnormalities in PD using neurophysiological techniques. It is not known whether altered facial expression and recognition in PD are related. OBJECTIVE: To investigate possible deficits in facial emotion expression and emotion recognition and their relationship, if any, in patients with PD. METHODS: Eighteen patients with PD and 16 healthy controls were enrolled in this study. Facial expressions of emotion were recorded using a 3D optoelectronic system and analyzed using the facial action coding system. Possible deficits in emotion recognition were assessed using the Ekman test. Participants were assessed in one experimental session. Possible relationship between the kinematic variables of facial emotion expression, the Ekman test scores, and clinical and demographic data in patients were evaluated using the Spearman's test and multiple regression analysis. RESULTS: The facial expression of all six basic emotions had slower velocity and lower amplitude in patients in comparison to healthy controls (all Ps  0.05). Finally, no relationship emerged between kinematic variables of facial emotion expression, the Ekman test scores, and clinical and demographic data in patients (all Ps > 0.05). CONCLUSION: The results in this study provide further evidence of altered emotional processing in PD. The lack of any correlation between altered facial emotion expression kinematics and emotion recognition deficits in patients suggests that these abnormalities are mediated by separate pathophysiological mechanisms

Frontal and insular input to the dorsolateral temporal pole in primates: Implications for auditory memory

The temporal pole (TP) has been involved in multiple functions from emotional and social behavior, semantic processing,memory, language in humans and epilepsy surgery, to the fronto-temporal neurodegenerative disorder (semantic) dementia. However, the role of the TP subdivisions is still unclear, in part due to the lack of quantitative data about TP connectivity. This study focuses in the dorsolateral subdivision of the TP: area 38DL. Area 38DL main input originates in the auditory processing areas of the rostral superior temporal gyrus. Among other connections, area 38DL conveys this auditory highly processed information to the entorhinal, rostral perirhinal, and posterior parahippocampal cortices, presumably for storage in long-term memory (Muñoz-López et al., 2015). However, the connections of the TP with cortical areas beyond the temporal cortex suggest that this area is part of a wider network. With the aim to quantitatively determine the topographical, laminar pattern and weighting of the lateral TP afferents from the frontal and insular cortices, we placed a total of 11 tracer injections of the fluorescent retrograde neuronal tracers Fast Blue and Diamidino Yellow at different levels of the lateral TP in rhesus monkeys. The results showed that circa 50% of the total cortical input to area 38DL originates in medial frontal areas 14, 25, 32, and 24 (25%); orbitofrontal areas Pro and PAll (15%); and the agranular, parainsular and disgranular insula (10%). This study sets the anatomical bases to better understand the function of the dorsolateral division of the TP. More specifically, these results suggest that area 38DL forms part of the wider limbic circuit that might contribute, among other functions, with an auditory component to multimodal memory processing

The Human Parahippocampal Region: I. Temporal Pole Cytoarchitectonic and MRI Correlation

The temporal pole (TP) is the rostralmost portion of the human temporal lobe. Characteristically, it is only present in human and nonhuman primates. TP has been implicated in different cognitive functions such as emotion, attention, behavior, and memory, based on functional studies performed in healthy controls and patients with neurodegenerative diseases through its anatomical connections (amygdala, pulvinar, orbitofrontal cortex). TP was originally described as a single uniform area by Brodmann area 38, and von Economo (area TG of von Economo and Koskinas), and little information on its cytoarchitectonics is known in humans. We hypothesize that 1) TP is not a homogenous area and we aim first at fixating the precise extent and limits of temporopolar cortex (TPC) with adjacent fields and 2) its structure can be correlated with structural magnetic resonance images. We describe here the macroscopic characteristics and cytoarchitecture as two subfields, a medial and a lateral area, that constitute TPC also noticeable in 2D and 3D reconstructions. Our findings suggest that the human TP is a heterogeneous region formed exclusively by TPC for about 7 mm of the temporal tip, and that becomes progressively restricted to the medial and ventral sides of the TP. This cortical area presents topographical and structural features in common with nonhuman primates, which suggests an evolutionary development in human species

An Additional Motor-Related Field in the Lateral Frontal Cortex of Squirrel Monkeys

Our earlier efforts to document the cortical connections of the ventral premotor cortex (PMv) revealed dense connections with a field rostral and lateral to PMv, an area we called the frontal rostral field (FR). Here, we present data collected in FR using electrophysiological and anatomical methods. Results show that FR contains an isolated motor representation of the forelimb that can be differentiated from PMv based on current thresholds and latencies to evoke electromyographic activity using intracortical microstimulation techniques. In addition, FR has a different pattern of cortical connections compared with PMv. Together, these data support that FR is an additional, previously undescribed motor-related area in squirrel monkeys

Contributions of the Medial Prefrontal Cortex to Social Influence in Economic Decision-Making

Economic decisions are guided by highly subjective reward valuations (SVs). Often these SVs are overridden when individuals conform to social norms. Yet, the neural mechanisms that underpin the distinct processing of such normative reward valuations (NV) are poorly understood. The dorsomedial and ventromedial portions of the prefrontal cortex (dmPFC/vmPFC) are putatively key regions for processing social and economic information respectively. However, the contribution of these regions to economic decisions guided by social norms is unclear. Using fMRI and computational modelling we examine the neural mechanisms underlying the processing of SVs and NVs. Subjects (n = 15) indicated either their own economic preferences or made similar choices based on a social norm - learnt during a training session. We found that that the vmPFC and dmPFC make dissociable contributions to the processing of SV and NV. Regions of the dmPFC processed only the value of rewards when making normative choices. In contrast, we identify a novel mechanism in the vmPFC for the coding of value. This region signalled both subjective and normative valuations, but activity was scaled positively for SV and negatively for NV. These results highlight some of the key mechanisms that underpin conformity and social influence in economic decision-making

DACC Resting State Functional Connectivity as a Predictor of Pain Symptoms Following Motor Vehicle Crash: A Preliminary Investigation

There is significant heterogeneity in pain outcomes following motor vehicle crashes (MVCs), such that a sizeable portion of individuals develop symptoms of chronic pain months after injury while others recover. Despite variable outcomes, the pathogenesis of chronic pain is currently unclear. Previous neuroimaging work implicates the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC) in adaptive control of pain, while prior resting state functional magnetic resonance imaging studies find increased functional connectivity (FC) between the dACC and regions involved in pain processing in those with chronic pain. Hyper-connectivity of the dACC to regions that mediate pain response may therefore relate to pain severity. The present study completed rsfMRI scans on N=22 survivors of MVCs collected within two weeks of the incident to test whole-brain dACC-FC as a predictor of pain severity six months later. At two weeks, pain symptoms were predicted by positive connectivity between the dACC and the premotor cortex. Controlling for pain symptoms at two weeks, pain symptoms at six months were predicted by negative connectivity between the dACC and the precuneus. Previous research implicates the precuneus in the individual subjective awareness of pain. Given a relatively small sample size, approximately half of which did not experience chronic pain at six months, findings warrant replication. Nevertheless, this study provides preliminary evidence of enhanced dACC connectivity with motor regions and decreased connectivity with pain processing regions as immediate and prospective predictors of pain following MVC. Perspective: This article presents evidence of distinct neural vulnerabilities that predict chronic pain in motor vehicle crash survivors based on whole-brain connectivity with the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex

TMS-Induced Cortical Potentiation during Wakefulness Locally Increases Slow Wave Activity during Sleep

BACKGROUND: Sleep slow wave activity (SWA) is thought to reflect sleep need, increasing in proportion to the length of prior wakefulness and decreasing during sleep. However, the process responsible for SWA regulation is not known. We showed recently that SWA increases locally after a learning task involving a circumscribed brain region, suggesting that SWA may reflect plastic changes triggered by learning. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: To test this hypothesis directly, we used transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) in conjunction with high-density EEG in humans. We show that 5-Hz TMS applied to motor cortex induces a localized potentiation of TMS-evoked cortical EEG responses. We then show that, in the sleep episode following 5-Hz TMS, SWA increases markedly (+39.1±17.4%, p<0.01, n = 10). Electrode coregistration with magnetic resonance images localized the increase in SWA to the same premotor site as the maximum TMS-induced potentiation during wakefulness. Moreover, the magnitude of potentiation during wakefulness predicts the local increase in SWA during sleep. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: These results provide direct evidence for a link between plastic changes and the local regulation of sleep need