scholarly journals Mirror- and Eye-Gazing: An Integrative Review of Induced Altered and Anomalous Experiences

2020 ◽  
pp. 027623662096963
Author(s):  
Giovanni B. Caputo ◽  
Steven Jay Lynn ◽  
James Houran
Keyword(s):  
Body Dysmorphic Disorder ◽  
Empirical Studies ◽  
The Body ◽  
Clinical Samples ◽  
Altered States ◽  
Healthy Individuals ◽  
External Reality ◽  
Self Identity ◽  
Perceptual Distortions ◽  
Mirror Gazing

We critically reviewed the protocols, results, and potential implications from empirical studies ( n = 44) on mirror-gazing (including the “psychomanteum”) and eye-to-eye gazing, both in healthy individuals and clinical patients, including studies of hypnotic mirrored self-misidentification, mirror-gazing in body dysmorphic disorder and schizophrenia. We found these methods to be effective for eliciting altered states or anomalous experiences under controlled conditions and in non-clinical samples. Mirror-gazing and eye-to-eye-gazing produced anomalous experiences almost exclusively in the visual, bodily, and self-identity modalities, whereas psychomanteum experiences tended also to involve voices, smells, and bodily touches. The complexity, diversity, and specificity in contents across these anomalous experiences suggest mechanisms beyond perceptual distortions or illusions. We argue that mirror- and eye-gazing anomalous perceptions implicate different mechanisms that induce (i) Derealization (anomalous perceptions of external reality); (ii) Depersonalization (anomalous perceptions of the body), and (iii) Dissociated identity (anomalous perceptions of another identity in place of the self in mirror-gazing or in place of the other in eye-to-eye gazing). These interpretations suggest directions for future researches.

scholarly journals Association between Serum Concentration of Carotenoid and Visceral Fat

Nutrients ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 912
Author(s):  
Mai Matsumoto ◽  
Hiroyuki Suganuma ◽  
Naoki Ozato ◽  
Sunao Shimizu ◽  
Mitsuhiro Katashima ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Cardiovascular Diseases ◽  
Visceral Fat ◽  
Fruits And Vegetables ◽  
Beta Carotene ◽  
The Body ◽  
Healthy Individuals ◽  
Health Checkup ◽  
Visceral Fat Area ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Aomori Prefecture

Consumption of fruits and vegetables rich in carotenoids has been widely reported to prevent cardiovascular diseases. However, the relationship between serum carotenoid concentrations and visceral fat area (VFA), which is considered a better predictor of cardiovascular diseases than the body-mass index (BMI) and waist circumference, remains unclear. Therefore, we examined the relationship in healthy individuals in their 20s or older, stratified by sex and age, to compare the relationship between serum carotenoid concentrations and VFA and BMI. The study was conducted on 805 people, the residents in Hirosaki city, Aomori prefecture, who underwent a health checkup. An inverse relationship between serum carotenoid concentrations and VFA and BMI was observed only in women. In addition, the results were independent of the intake of dietary fiber, which is mainly supplied from vegetables as well as carotenoids. This suggests that consumption of a diet rich in carotenoids (especially lutein and beta-carotene) is associated with lower VFA, which is a good predictor of cardiovascular disease, especially in women. This study is the first to comprehensively evaluate the association between serum carotenoid levels and VFA in healthy individuals.

scholarly journals Diagnostic amyloid proteomics: experience of the UK National Amyloidosis Centre

2020 ◽  
Vol 58 (6) ◽  
pp. 948-957 ◽  
Author(s):  
Diana Canetti ◽  
Nigel B. Rendell ◽  
Janet A. Gilbertson ◽  
Nicola Botcher ◽  
Paola Nocerino ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Simple Algorithm ◽  
Enzymatic Digestion ◽  
The Body ◽  
Clinical Samples ◽  
Correct Identification ◽  
Pathogenic Variants ◽  
Amyloidogenic Protein ◽  
Patient Database ◽  
Serious Disease ◽  
The Uk

AbstractSystemic amyloidosis is a serious disease which is caused when normal circulating proteins misfold and aggregate extracellularly as insoluble fibrillary deposits throughout the body. This commonly results in cardiac, renal and neurological damage. The tissue target, progression and outcome of the disease depends on the type of protein forming the fibril deposit, and its correct identification is central to determining therapy. Proteomics is now used routinely in our centre to type amyloid; over the past 7 years we have examined over 2000 clinical samples. Proteomics results are linked directly to our patient database using a simple algorithm to automatically highlight the most likely amyloidogenic protein. Whilst the approach has proved very successful, we have encountered a number of challenges, including poor sample recovery, limited enzymatic digestion, the presence of multiple amyloidogenic proteins and the identification of pathogenic variants. Our proteomics procedures and approaches to resolving difficult issues are outlined.

The conflict between mind and body – the case of Mrs. R.

Physiotherapy ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 22 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Agnieszka Stępień ◽  
Sylwia Chładzińska-Kiejna ◽  
Katarzyna Salamon-Krakowska
Keyword(s):  
Social Life ◽  
Suicide Attempts ◽  
Sense Of Self ◽  
The Body ◽  
Self Identity ◽  
Family Work ◽  
Psychiatric Hospitalizations ◽  
Mind And Body ◽  
Memory Awareness ◽  
And Control

AbstractDissociative psychopathology is understood as an immature defence mechanism of personality, based on the techniques of reality distortion. The natural cause of a disorder reflects the lack of sense of coherence between identity, memory, awareness, perception and consequently - goal orientated action. Its symptoms manifest the separation of emotions, thoughts and behaviours bound with an event in order to maintain an illusory sense of control of demanding and unbearable experience.We describe the case of a 57-year-old woman suffering from broad range of dissociative symptoms from early childhood. Decomposition of integrity between memories, a sense of self-identity and control of the body has become the cause of numerous suicide attempts, multiple psychiatric hospitalizations and not fully effective therapy attempts. Destructive influence of psychopathological symptoms negatively influenced patient’s life course, decisions made as well as family, work and social life.

Entomophthora grylli. [Descriptions of Fungi and Bacteria].

1979 ◽  
Author(s):  
B. L. K. Brady
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Geographical Distribution ◽  
The Body ◽  
Nomadacris Septemfasciata ◽  
Healthy Individuals ◽  
East Central ◽  
Resting Spores ◽  
The Dead ◽  
External Growth

Abstract A description is provided for Entomophthora grylli. Information is included on the disease caused by the organism, its transmission, geographical distribution, and hosts. HOSTS: Orthoptera; nymph and adults of grasshoppers and locusts; there have also been records on Lepidoptera, Diptera and Coleoptera (MacLeod & Muller-Kogler, 1973). GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION: Europe, including Britain; Canada; East, Central and South Africa. Fresenius quotes a record at 6000 ft near St. Moritz. DISEASE: The disease, causing epizootics in red locusts, Cyrtacanthacra septemfasciata (Nomadacris septemfasciata), in S. Africa is described by Skaife (1925). Infection is by germinating conidia which penetrate the integument. Dying insects characteristically climb up grass stems and die, apparently embracing the stem. The body becomes soft and easily disintegrates. The abdomen curls upward and backwards. Shortly after death a white, buff or greenish furry growth appears from the intersegmental membrane, leg joints, junction of the head and thorax and at the base of the antennae. The growth is made up of club-shaped conidiogenous cells which forcibly discharge conidia around the dead insect. Conidia, coated with the sticky contents of the conidiophore, are discharged in the evening, when the insects are clustered together and adhere to the surface of healthy individuals. A total of about 1% of locusts throughout the season die showing no external growth but are filled with resting spores; other individuals appear to be immune.

Does Xbox 360 Kinect training improve postural balance in young healthy adults? A preliminary study. (Preprint)

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marta Grabowicz ◽  
Anna Daniluk ◽  
Anna Hadamus ◽  
Dariusz Białoszewski
Keyword(s):  
Postural Balance ◽  
Statistical Significance ◽  
Balance Training ◽  
The Body ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Healthy Individuals ◽  
Unstable Surface ◽  
Baseline Group ◽  
Before And After ◽  
P Balance

BACKGROUND Balance training in young adults may increase coordination, cognitive function or the symmetry of strength on both sides of the body. It is an essential tool for injury or fall prevention and a precondition for becoming a professional athlete. OBJECTIVE The aim of this study was to assess the effect of Xbox 360 Kinect training on postural balance in young, healthy individuals. METHODS The study enrolled 75 individuals who were randomly assigned to three equal groups. The first group (Group VR) performed exercises on an Xbox 360 Kinect console, and the second group (Group T) performed conventional all-round exercises. The third group was a control group (Group C). Each group underwent balance assessments on the Biodex Balance posturographic platform, including the Balance Error Scoring System test, before and after the training cycle. The level of statistical significance was set at P<.05. RESULTS Group VR and Group T achieved statistically significant improvements in the sway index compared with baseline. Group T gained significant decrease in the sway index on the unstable surface (P=.002). Group VR and group T demonstrated significant decreases in the mean sway index on stable and unstable surfaces (group VR — P=.035; group T — P=.001) Group C did not achieve a statistically significant improvement in the sway index. None of the groups demonstrated a statistically significant decrease in the test error count. CONCLUSIONS Virtual reality in the form of video games played on an Xbox 360 Kinect console may be an effective method of balance training in healthy individuals.

Face Substances. The rhetoric of Kapists’ self-portraits: between self-reflection and confession

2021 ◽  
pp. 51-67
Author(s):  
Łukasz Kiepuszewski
Keyword(s):  
The Body ◽  
External Reality ◽  
Self Reflection ◽  
Artistic Activity ◽  
The Relationship

Self-portraits are specific kinds of pictures where the subject’s experience is closely combined with the act of painting. Such works constitute a mixture of internal iconic power with external reality, e.g. the artist’s body, his thought, and theory, etc. This applies in particular to self-portraits painted by the members of the Paris Committee since the idiomatic nature of painting was the primary quality on which they based the language and poetics of their art. This paper analyses selected self-portraits by Józef Czapski (1896–1993), Zygmunt Waliszewski (1897–1936), Piotr Potworowski (1898–1964), Artur Nacht-Samborski (1898– 1974), and Jan Cybis (1897–1972). The focus on the strategy of incorporating physiognomy into the matter of painting stems from the fact that on this particular level the intensification of the relationship between the author’s image and his painterly gesture gains the strongest self-reflective potential. This allows for a reading of self-portraits as developing the artist’s reflections about art and himself, included in theoretical writings and intimate journals. Analyses presented in this paper can, therefore, be defined as an attempt to recreate rhetoric of the painterly trace on the basis of choices particular for given work. In this optic, crucial are these aspects of painting that manifest a form of the author’s subjective investment in artistic activity: from emphasising the distance through which the painting presents itself as a code offered to the viewer to decipher (as in Nacht-Samborski’s work) through to declarations to blur the boundary between the artist and the work, which results in an almost organic communion of the body and the matter of painting (Cybis).

Body Schema and Body Image

2021 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Body Image ◽  
Body Dysmorphic Disorder ◽  
Body Schema ◽  
The Body ◽  
Body Parts ◽  
Neural Activities ◽  
Body Shapes ◽  
Influential Book ◽  
Social And Cultural Factors

Body schema refers to the system of sensory-motor functions that enables control of the position of body parts in space, without conscious awareness of those parts. Body image refers to a conscious representation of the way the body appears—a set of conscious perceptions, affective attitudes, and beliefs pertaining to one’s own bodily image. In 2005, Shaun Gallagher published an influential book entitled ‘How the Body Shapes the Mind’. This book not only defined both body schema (BS) and body image (BI), but also explored the complicated relationship between the two. The book also established the idea that there is a double dissociation, whereby body schema and body image refer to two different, but closely related, systems. Given that many kinds of pathological cases can be described in terms of body schema and body image (phantom limbs, asomatognosia, apraxia, schizophrenia, anorexia, depersonalization, and body dysmorphic disorder, among others), we might expect to find a growing consensus about these concepts and the relevant neural activities connected to these systems. Instead, an examination of the scientific literature reveals continued ambiguity and disagreement. This volume brings together leading experts from the fields of philosophy, neuroscience, psychology, and psychiatry in a lively and productive dialogue. It explores fundamental questions about the relationship between body schema and body image, and addresses ongoing debates about the role of the brain and the role of social and cultural factors in our understanding of embodiment.

“I Will Never Know the Person Who I Could Have Become”: Perceived Changes in Self-Identity Among Adult Survivors of Clergy-Perpetrated Sexual Abuse

2016 ◽  
Vol 34 (6) ◽  
pp. 1139-1162 ◽  
Author(s):  
Scott D. Easton ◽  
Danielle M. Leone-Sheehan ◽  
Patrick J. O’Leary
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Abuse ◽  
Media Coverage ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Clinical Sample ◽  
Empirical Studies ◽  
Adult Survivors ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Relational Self ◽  
Self Identity

Clergy-perpetrated sexual abuse (CPSA) during childhood represents a tragic betrayal of trust that inflicts damage on the survivor, the family, and the parish community. Survivors often report CPSA has a disturbing impact on their self-identity. Despite intense media coverage of clergy abuse globally in the Catholic Church (and other faith communities) over several decades, relatively few empirical studies have been conducted with survivors. Beyond clinical observations and advocacy group reports, very little is known about survivors’ perceptions of how the abuse impacted their long-term self-identity. Using data collected during the 2010 Health and Well-Being Survey, this qualitative analysis represents one of the first large-scale studies with a non-clinical sample of adult male survivors of CPSA from childhood ( N = 205). The negative effects of the sexual abuse on participants were expressed across six domains of self-identity: (a) total self, (b) psychological self, (c) relational self, (d) gendered self, (e) aspirational self, and (f) spiritual self. These findings highlight the range and depth of self-suffering inflicted by this pernicious form of sexual violence. The findings are useful for developing clinical services for survivors, shaping public and institutional policies to address clergy-perpetrated sexual abuse, and guiding future research with this population.

scholarly journals A Bayesian computational model reveals a failure to adapt interoceptive precision estimates across depression, anxiety, eating, and substance use disorders

2020 ◽  
Vol 16 (12) ◽  
pp. e1008484
Author(s):  
Ryan Smith ◽  
Rayus Kuplicki ◽  
Justin Feinstein ◽  
Katherine L. Forthman ◽  
Jennifer L. Stewart ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Substance Use ◽  
Computational Model ◽  
Substance Use Disorders ◽  
The Body ◽  
Breath Holding ◽  
Healthy Individuals ◽  
Prior Beliefs ◽  
Future Studies ◽  
Psychiatric Conditions ◽  
Processing Mechanisms

Recent neurocomputational theories have hypothesized that abnormalities in prior beliefs and/or the precision-weighting of afferent interoceptive signals may facilitate the transdiagnostic emergence of psychopathology. Specifically, it has been suggested that, in certain psychiatric disorders, interoceptive processing mechanisms either over-weight prior beliefs or under-weight signals from the viscera (or both), leading to a failure to accurately update beliefs about the body. However, this has not been directly tested empirically. To evaluate the potential roles of prior beliefs and interoceptive precision in this context, we fit a Bayesian computational model to behavior in a transdiagnostic patient sample during an interoceptive awareness (heartbeat tapping) task. Modelling revealed that, during an interoceptive perturbation condition (inspiratory breath-holding during heartbeat tapping), healthy individuals (N = 52) assigned greater precision to ascending cardiac signals than individuals with symptoms of anxiety (N = 15), depression (N = 69), co-morbid depression/anxiety (N = 153), substance use disorders (N = 131), and eating disorders (N = 14)–who failed to increase their precision estimates from resting levels. In contrast, we did not find strong evidence for differences in prior beliefs. These results provide the first empirical computational modeling evidence of a selective dysfunction in adaptive interoceptive processing in psychiatric conditions, and lay the groundwork for future studies examining how reduced interoceptive precision influences visceral regulation and interoceptively-guided decision-making.

scholarly journals How Voters Distort their Perceptions and Why this Matters

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrea De Angelis
Keyword(s):  
Political Parties ◽  
Empirical Studies ◽  
Ideal Point ◽  
Point Estimation ◽  
Perceptual Bias ◽  
Right Wing ◽  
Party Positions ◽  
Perceptual Distortions ◽  
European Election ◽  
Election Studies

Voters’ ability to perceive political parties’ positions on policy scales is a precondition for a functioning and responsive electoral democracy. Appropriate measures of policy distance are thus key to addressing the link between political parties and the citizens. This chapter reviews the scholarship on ideal point estimation, identifying the main methodological and substantial implications for empirical studies involving issue scales. Next, the chapter applies two-stage Bayesian Aldrich-McKelvey scaling to European Election Studies data to find evidence of systematic perceptual distortions: right-wing voters perceive political parties as more progressive than they actually are, while knowledgeable voters perceive greater differences between parties. Perceptual bias is also shown to correlate with standard polarization measures based on perceived party positions.

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