Social Meaning Brings Beauty

2021 ◽  
pp. 75-80
Author(s):  
Xianyou He ◽  
Wei Zhang
Keyword(s):  
Frontal Lobe ◽  
Occipital Lobe ◽  
Perceptual Processing ◽  
Chinese Characters ◽  
Social Meaning ◽  
Neural Responses ◽  
Social Meanings ◽  
The Aesthetic

In the study discussed in this chapter, the authors found that concrete pictographs elicited variable aesthetic appraisals related to the aesthetic qualities of the reference objects. In addition, Chinese characters are also produced in the form of metaphorical writing symbols that convey social concepts (ideographic symbols of oracle bone script). The study investigated whether the reference social meanings altered neural responses in the aesthetic appraisal of oracle bone scripts. Similar to the findings of pictographs, the beauty judgment of positive oracle bone scripts activated the occipital lobe for perceptual processing, frontal lobe for cognitive judgment, and right putamen for rewarding experience. However, only perceptual processing regions were found in the ugly judgment of negative oracle bone scripts. Results indicated that aesthetic appraisal of oracle bone scripts mainly depended on the valence of the reference social meanings and was in accordance with the stereotype of “what is good is beautiful, and bad is ugly.”

scholarly journals Neural Response to High and Low Energy Food Images in Anorexia Nervosa

2021 ◽  
Vol 05 (03) ◽  
pp. 1-1
Author(s):  
Nasim Foroughi ◽  
◽  
Brooke Donnelly ◽  
Mark Williams ◽  
Sloane Madden ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Anorexia Nervosa ◽  
Frontal Lobe ◽  
Temporal Lobe ◽  
Occipital Lobe ◽  
Frontal Lobes ◽  
High Energy ◽  
Anterior Lobe ◽  
Low Energy ◽  
Neural Responses ◽  
Food Images

To compare neural responses to high and low-energy food images in patients with Anorexia Nervosa (AN) and an age-matched Healthy Control (HC) group. 25 adolescents with AN and 21 HCs completed a diagnostic interview, self-report questionnaires and fMRI, during which they viewed food images evoking responses of disgust, happiness, or fear. Following whole brain analyses, neural responses in six regions of interest were examined in a series of between-group contrasts, across the three emotive categories. Compared to the HCs, people in the AN group showed increased responsivity to high-energy (1) disgust images in temporal lobe, frontal lobe, insula, and cerebellum anterior lobe; (2) fear images in occipital lobe, temporal, and frontal lobes and (3) happy images in frontal lobe, cerebellum anterior lobe, sub-lobar, and cuneus. More activity was observed in response to low-energy (1) disgust food images in the temporal lobe, frontal lobe, insula, cerebellum anterior and posterior lobes, parietal lobe, occipital lobe, and limbic lobe; (2) and happy food images in frontal lobes. Few correlations were found with levels of eating disorder symptoms. The findings highlight the emotional impact of diverse high and low-energy foods for people with AN. People without AN may have a better capacity to filter salient from non-salient information relating to the current task when viewing high energy foods. In summary, for those with AN, it would seem their ability to efficiently ‘sort-out’ information (especially information pertaining to disorder-relevant stimuli such as food images) to complete the task at hand, may be diminished.

MAKOTO AS THE INITIAL PRINCIPLE OF THE ETHICAL AND AESTHETIC BELIEFS OF THE JAPANESE

2020 ◽  
pp. 126-138
Author(s):  
M. P. Gerasimova ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Moral Obligation ◽  
Driving Factors ◽  
Chinese Characters ◽  
Spiritual Values ◽  
Conceptual Apparatus ◽  
Hieroglyphic Writing ◽  
The Aesthetic ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Aesthetic Ideal

Makoto (まこと, lit.: truth, genuineness, reality, “realness”) is an element of the conceptual apparatus of the traditional worldview of the Japanese. In Japan, it is generally accepted that makoto is a philosophical and aesthetic concept that underlies Japanese spirituality, involving among other principles understanding of the order and laws of the truly existing Universum (shinrabansho̅; 森羅万象) and the universal interconnectedness of things (bambutsu ittai; 万物一体), the desire to understand the true essence of everything that person meets in life, and, unlike other spiritual values, is purely Shinto in origin. After getting acquainted with the Chinese hieroglyphic writing three Chinese characters were borrowed for the word makoto. Each of these characters means truthfulness, genuineness, but has its own distinctive nuances: 真 means truth, authenticity, truthfulness, 実 signifies truth, reality, essence, content, and 誠 again means truthfulness, sincerity, and truth. Makoto (“true words”) and makoto (“true deeds”) imply the highest degree of sincerity of words and honesty, correctness of thoughts, actions, and deeds. The relationship “true words — true deeds” can be seen as one of the driving factors of moral obligation, prompting everyone in their field, as well as in relations between people, to strive to be real. This desire contributed to the formation of a heightened sense of duty and responsibility among the Japanese, which became a hallmark of their character. However, makoto has not only ethical connotation, but aesthetic one as well, and can be considered as the basis on which were formed the concept of mono no aware (もののあ われ、 物の哀れ) and the aesthetic ideal of the same name, that became the first link in the chain of japanese perceptions of beauty. Each link in this chain is an expression of a new facet of makoto, which was revealed as a result of certain elements of the worldview that came to the fore in the historical era.

Co-variation, style and social meaning: the implicational relationship between (h) and (ing) in Debden, Essex

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-23
Author(s):  
Amanda Cole
Keyword(s):  
Working Class ◽  
Social Meaning ◽  
Linguistic Features ◽  
Rates Of Change ◽  
Novel Approach ◽  
Social Meanings ◽  
Casual Speech

Abstract This paper demonstrates that the differing social meanings held by linguistic features can result in an implicational relationship between them. Rates of (h) and (ing) are investigated in the casual speech of sixty-three speakers from a community with Cockney heritage: Debden, Essex. The indexicalities of h-dropping in Debden (signalling Cockney) are superordinate to and incorporate the indexicalities of g-dropping (working-class, “improper”), resulting in an implicational relationship. H-dropping implies g-dropping, but g-dropping can occur independently of h-dropping. This occurs in terms of co-variation at the between-speaker level and clustering effects at the within-speaker level which is measured through a novel approach using the number of phonemes as the denomination of distance. The features’ differing social meaning are also related to rates of change. Young speakers are shifting away from linguistic features which index Cockney heritage (h-dropping; the [-Iŋk] variant of -thing words) in favor of more general, southeastern, working-class norms (g-dropping).

The Role of Understanding on Architectural Beauty: Evidence From the Impact of Semantic Description on the Aesthetic Evaluation of Architecture

2021 ◽  
pp. 003329412110021
Author(s):  
Sizhe Liu ◽  
Wei Zhang ◽  
Xianyou He ◽  
Xiaoxiang Tang ◽  
Shuxian Lai ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Aesthetic Experience ◽  
Supplementary Information ◽  
Aesthetic Evaluation ◽  
Abstract Description ◽  
Social Meanings ◽  
Different Types ◽  
Appearance Design ◽  
The Aesthetic ◽  
The Impact

There is evidence that greater aesthetic experience can be linked to artworks when their corresponding meanings can be successfully inferred and understood. Modern cultural-expo architecture can be considered a form of artistic creation and design, and the corresponding design philosophy may be derived from representational objects or abstract social meanings. The present study investigates whether cultural-expo architecture with an easy-to-understand architectural appearance design is perceived as more beautiful and how architectural photographs and different types of descriptions of architectural appearance designs interact and produce higher aesthetic evaluations. The results showed an obvious aesthetic preference for cultural-expo architecture with an easy-to-understand architectural appearance design (Experiment 1). Moreover, we found that the aesthetic rating score of architectural photographs accompanied by an abstract description was significantly higher than that of those accompanied by a representational description only under the difficult-to-understand design condition (Experiment 2). The results indicated that people preferred cultural-expo architecture with an easy-to-understand architectural appearance design due to a greater understanding of the design, providing further evidence that abstract descriptions can provide supplementary information and explanation to enhance the sense of beauty of abstract cultural-expo architecture.

The Social Characterizations of Price: The Fool, the Faithful, the Frivolous, and the Frugal

2008 ◽  
Vol 26 (4) ◽  
pp. 363-379 ◽  
Author(s):  
Frederick F. Wherry
Keyword(s):  
Reference Point ◽  
Systematic Approach ◽  
Social Location ◽  
Social Meaning ◽  
Ideal Types ◽  
The Social ◽  
Social Meanings ◽  
Meaning Systems ◽  
Pricing System ◽  
Meaning Of Money

This article extends both Viviana Zelizer's discussion of the social meaning of money and Charles Smith's proposal that pricing is a definitional practice to the under-theorized realm of the social meanings generated in the pricing system. Individuals are attributed with calculating or not calculating whether an object or service is “worth” its price, but these attributions differ according to the individual's social location as being near to or far from a societal reference point rather than by the inherent qualities of the object or service purchased. Prices offer seemingly objective (quantitative) proof of the individual's “logic of appropriateness”—in other words, people like that pay prices such as those. This article sketches a preliminary but nonexhaustive typology of the social characterizations of individuals within the pricing system; these ideal types—the fool, the faithful, the frugal, and the frivolous—and their components offer a systematic approach to understanding prices as embedded in and constituents of social meaning systems.

Eloquence-based reperfusion scoring and its ability to predict post-thrombectomy disability and functional status

2021 ◽  
pp. 159101992110464
Author(s):  
Elliot Pressman ◽  
Victoria Sands ◽  
Gabriel Flores ◽  
Liwei Chen ◽  
Rahul Mhaskar ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Frontal Lobe ◽  
Functional Outcomes ◽  
Visual Fields ◽  
Predictive Ability ◽  
Occipital Lobe ◽  
Cerebral Infarct ◽  
Modified Rankin Scale ◽  
Anterior Circulation ◽  
Endovascular Thrombectomy ◽  
Post Procedure

Background Angiographic reperfusion after endovascular thrombectomy in acute ischemic stroke is commonly graded using volume-based reperfusion scores such as the modified thrombolysis in cerebral infarct score. The location of non-reperfused regions is not included in modified thrombolysis in cerebral infarct score. We studied the predictive ability of an eloquence-based reperfusion score. Methods Consecutive cases of endovascular thrombectomy for anterior circulation strokes performed between January 2018 and April 2020 were included. Digital subtraction angiograms were reviewed by two blinded neurointerventionalist operators. Incomplete reperfusion was further classified by lobar regions lacking reperfusion to create various cohorts. Outcomes were graded four to seven days post-procedure with the National Institute of Health Stroke Scale (NIHSS) and 90 days post-procedure with the modified Rankin Scale. Results One hundred patients were identified. Via multivariate analysis, we found that frontal lobe non-reperfusion (mean difference (MD) = −1.60, p = 0.002) and occipital lobe non-reperfusion (MD = −1.68, p = 0.001) were associated with worse mental status improvement while left-sided stroke (MD = 2.02, p < 0.001) featured better improvement post-thrombectomy. Occipital lobe non-reperfusion (MD = −0.734, p = 0.009) was associated with the worse improvement of visual fields. The non-reperfusion of the frontal lobe was associated with a 1.732-worse NIHSS hemibody strength score (95% confidence interval (95%CI) = −3.39 to −0.072, p = 0.041). Worse improvement in NIHSS scores was found to be associated with frontal lobe non-reperfusion (MD = −5.34, 95%CI = −9.52 to −1.18, p = 0.013) and occipital lobe non-reperfusion (MD = −6.35, 95%CI = −10.4 to −2.31, p = 0.002). Odds of achieving modified Rankin Scale of 0–2 at 90 days were decreased with frontal lobe non-reperfusion (odds ratio (OR) = 0.279, 95%CI = 0.090–0.869, p = 0.028) and left laterality (OR = 0.376, 95%CI = 0.153–0.922, p = 0.033). Conclusions Eloquence-based reperfusion assessment is an important predictor for functional outcomes after thrombectomy.

“Mock Jewish” in Early Twentieth-Century Tunisia: Linguistic Form and Social Meaning

Arabica ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 68 (2-3) ◽  
pp. 216-280
Author(s):  
Benjamin Koerber
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Public Culture ◽  
Visual Media ◽  
Social Meaning ◽  
Linguistic Difference ◽  
Linguistic Form ◽  
Early Twentieth Century ◽  
Social Meanings

Abstract The article presents a sociolinguistic profile of “Mock Jewish,” or the stylized varieties of Judeo-Arabic deployed for humorous purposes in early twentieth-century Tunisian public culture. We assembled a corpus of texts from both print and audio-visual media, including newspaper columns, television and radio performances, folktales, and plays, in which “Jewish” (yahūdī) or “Israelite” (isrāʾīlī) voices are stylized with exaggerated forms of linguistic difference. The purpose of the analysis is not to evaluate the inauthenticity of Mock Jewish vis-à-vis Judeo-Arabic proper, but to understand how performers deploy these markedly “Jewish” stylistic tactics to create diverse social meanings and assess the effects of these performances on language and society. We argue that Mock Jewish forms part of the broader “ideologies of linguistic differentiation” that construct Jewish speech as separate and distinct from non-Jewish varieties. However, the performances of Mock Jewish are not limited to sectarian polemic, but engage diverse targets, derive from different motivations, and provoke divergent responses from audiences.

scholarly journals Social inferences from the use of just as an exclusive particle

2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 746
Author(s):  
William C. Thomas
Keyword(s):  
Recent Work ◽  
Social Perception ◽  
Speech Acts ◽  
Social Meaning ◽  
Semantic Meaning ◽  
The Social ◽  
Social Meanings ◽  
Discourse Particle ◽  
Social Inferences

Recent work has begun to investigate the interaction between semantics and social meaning. This study contributes to that line of inquiry by investigating how particular social meanings that are popularly believed to arise from the English discourse particle just are related to the conventional semantic meaning of just. In addition to proposing an inferential process by which the social meanings associated with just arise, this paper reports the results of a social perception experiment designed to test whether those social inferences arise when just is used in particular speech acts and whether they depend on the speaker’s gender and level of authority relative to the addressee. The use of just was found to significantly increase the perceived insecurity of men but not of women. This suggests that listeners may more strongly perceive speaker qualities that stereotypes cause them not to expect.

scholarly journals Intersectionality and the social meanings of variation: Class, ethnicity, and social practice

2015 ◽  
Vol 44 (5) ◽  
pp. 629-652 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sam Kirkham
Keyword(s):  
Social Class ◽  
Secondary School ◽  
Communities Of Practice ◽  
Community Of Practice ◽  
Social Practice ◽  
Social Meaning ◽  
Class Relations ◽  
Phonetic Variation ◽  
The Social ◽  
Social Meanings

AbstractThis article examines how the social meanings of phonetic variation in a British adolescent community are influenced by a complex relationship between ethnicity, social class, and social practice. I focus on the realisation of the happy vowel in Sheffield English, which is reported to be a lax variant [ε̈] amongst working-class speakers but is undergoing change towards a tense variant [i] amongst middle-class speakers. I analyse the acoustic realisation of this vowel across four female communities of practice in a multiethnic secondary school and find that the variable's community-wide associations of social class are projected onto the ethnographic category of school orientation, which I suggest is a more local interpretation of class relations. Ethnographic evidence and discourse analysis reveal that local meanings of the happy vowel vary further within distinctive community of practice styles, which is the result of how ethnicity and social class intersect in structuring local social practices. (Intersectionality, indexicality, social meaning, identity, ethnicity, social class)*

scholarly journals The neural mechanism of aesthetic judgments of dynamic landscapes: an fMRI study

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Xueru Zhao ◽  
Junjing Wang ◽  
Jinhui Li ◽  
Guang Luo ◽  
Ting Li ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Visual Processing ◽  
Occipital Lobe ◽  
Neural Mechanism ◽  
Aesthetic Judgment ◽  
Neural Mechanisms ◽  
Middle Temporal Gyrus ◽  
Dynamic Stimuli ◽  
Dynamic Landscapes ◽  
The Aesthetic ◽  
Aesthetic Judgments

AbstractMost previous neuroaesthetics research has been limited to considering the aesthetic judgment of static stimuli, with few studies examining the aesthetic judgment of dynamic stimuli. The present study explored the neural mechanisms underlying aesthetic judgment of dynamic landscapes, and compared the neural mechanisms between the aesthetic judgments of dynamic landscapes and static ones. Participants were scanned while they performed aesthetic judgments on dynamic landscapes and matched static ones. The results revealed regions of occipital lobe, frontal lobe, supplementary motor area, cingulate cortex and insula were commonly activated both in the aesthetic judgments of dynamic and static landscapes. Furthermore, compared to static landscapes, stronger activations of middle temporal gyrus (MT/V5), and hippocampus were found in the aesthetic judgments of dynamic landscapes. This study provided neural evidence that visual processing related regions, emotion-related regions were more active when viewing dynamic landscapes than static ones, which also indicated that dynamic stimuli were more beautiful than static ones.

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