Seeing is Believing: The Role of ‘Preconscious' Perceptual Processing in Delusional Misidentification

1992 ◽  
Vol 160 (3) ◽  
pp. 293-303 ◽  
Author(s):  
Simon Fleminger

We have no introspective knowledge of the effects of preconscious processing on our perceptions. We are, therefore, not aware that our expectancies may have prejudiced our perceptions. Expectancies tend to foster perceptions with which they are consonant. Therefore false expectations, driven by false beliefs, may result in misperceptions which reinforce those false beliefs. This morbid cycle is central to the delusional misidentification syndromes. This cycle, with positive feedback, is intrinsically unstable, which helps to explain brief episodes of delusional misidentification. Good sensory data, strong links between sense data and memory, and good judgement will all help to prevent misperceptions. The less these constraints are disrupted, the stronger will be the psychological forces needed to generate a delusional misidentification. It is likely that suspiciousness generates particularly assertive effects on preconscious processing of perceptions. Abnormalities of perceptual processing in patients with schizophrenia explain their proclivity to delusional misidentification.

2021 ◽  
Vol 75 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Hannah E. A. MacGregor ◽  
Aislinn Cottage ◽  
Christos C. Ioannou

Abstract Consistent inter-individual variation in behaviour within a population, widely referred to as personality variation, can be affected by environmental context. Feedbacks between an individual’s behaviour and state can strengthen (positive feedback) or weaken (negative feedback) individual differences when experiences such as predator encounters or winning contests are dependent on behavioural type. We examined the influence of foraging on individual-level consistency in refuge use (a measure of risk-taking, i.e. boldness) in three-spined sticklebacks, Gasterosteus aculeatus, and particularly whether changes in refuge use depended on boldness measured under control conditions. In the control treatment trials with no food, individuals were repeatable in refuge use across repeated trials, and this behavioural consistency did not differ between the start and end of these trials. In contrast, when food was available, individuals showed a higher degree of consistency in refuge use at the start of the trials versus controls but this consistency significantly reduced by the end of the trials. The effect of the opportunity to forage was dependent on behavioural type, with bolder fish varying more in their refuge use between the start and the end of the feeding trials than shyer fish, and boldness positively predicted the likelihood of feeding at the start but not at the end of the trials. This suggests a state-behaviour feedback, but there was no overall trend in how bolder individuals changed their behaviour. Our study shows that personality variation can be suppressed in foraging contexts and a potential but unpredictable role of feedbacks between state and behaviour. Significance statement In this experimental study, we examined how foraging influences consistency in risk-taking in individual three-spined sticklebacks. We show that bolder individuals become less consistent in their risk-taking behaviour than shyer individuals during foraging. Some bolder individuals reinforce their risk-taking behaviour, suggesting a positive feedback between state and behaviour, while others converge on the behaviour of shyer individuals, suggesting a negative feedback. In support of a role of satiation in driving negative feedback effects, we found that bolder individuals were more likely to feed at the start but not at the end of the trials. Overall, our findings suggest that foraging can influence personality variation in risk-taking behaviour; however, the role of feedbacks may be unpredictable.


1973 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 71-89 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kathryn Troyer Spoehr ◽  
Edward E Smith

Much has been said at the symposium about the pre-eminent role of the brain in the continuing emergence of man. Tobias has spoken of its explosive enlargement during the last 1 Ma, and how much of its enlargement in individual ontogeny is postnatal. We are born before our brains are fully grown and ‘wired up ’. During our long adolescence we build up internal models of the outside world and of the relations of parts of our bodies to it and to one another. Neurons that are present at birth spread their dendrites and project axons which acquire their myelin sheaths, and establish innumerable contacts with other neurons, over the years. New connections are formed; genetically endowed ones are stamped in or blanked off. People born without arms may grow up to use their toes in skills that are normally manual. Tobias, Darlington and others have stressed the enormous survival value of adaptive behaviour and the ‘positive feedback’ relation between biological and cultural evolution. The latter, the unique product of the unprecedentedly rapid biological evolution of big brains, advances on a time scale unknown to biological evolution.


2018 ◽  
Vol 32 (4) ◽  
pp. 562-582 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lisa K Hartley ◽  
Joel R Anderson ◽  
Anne Pedersen

Abstract Over the past few decades, there has been a progressive implementation of policies designed to deter the arrival of people seeking protection. In Australia, this has included offshore processing and towing boats of asylum seekers away from Australian waters. In a community survey of 164 Australians, this study examined the predictive role of false beliefs about asylum seekers, prejudice and political ideology in support of three policies. Multiple hierarchical regression models indicated that, although political ideology and prejudice were significant predictors of policy support, false beliefs was the strongest predictor. For the policy of processing asylum seekers in the community, less endorsement of false beliefs was a significant predictor, while, for the policy of offshore processing, more endorsement of false beliefs was a significant predictor. For the boat turn-back policy, an increase in false-belief endorsement was the strongest predictor; although increases in prejudice and a prejudice–political ideology interaction (i.e. the predictive value of prejudice was stronger for participants who identified as politically conservative) also independently predicted support. Practical implications and future research avenues are discussed.


2018 ◽  
Vol 115 (47) ◽  
pp. E11168-E11177 ◽  
Author(s):  
Iksung Jin ◽  
Hiroshi Udo ◽  
Russell Nicholls ◽  
Huixiang Zhu ◽  
Eric R. Kandel ◽  
...  

Whereas short-term plasticity is often initiated on one side of the synapse, long-term plasticity involves coordinated changes on both sides, implying extracellular signaling. We have investigated the possible signaling role of an Aplysia neurotrophin (ApNT) in facilitation induced by serotonin (5HT) at sensory-to-motor neuron synapses in culture. ApNT is an ortholog of mammalian BDNF, which has been reported to act as either an anterograde, retrograde, or autocrine signal, so that its pre- and postsynaptic sources and targets remain unclear. We now report that ApNT acts as a presynaptic autocrine signal that forms part of a positive feedback loop with ApTrk and PKA. That loop stimulates spontaneous transmitter release, which recruits postsynaptic mechanisms, and presynaptic protein synthesis during the transition from short- to intermediate-term facilitation and may also initiate gene regulation to trigger the transition to long-term facilitation. These results suggest that a presynaptic ApNT feedback loop plays several key roles during consolidation of learning-related synaptic plasticity.


2015 ◽  
Vol 112 (15) ◽  
pp. 4678-4683 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yu Shi ◽  
Jianquan Chen ◽  
Courtney M. Karner ◽  
Fanxin Long

Hedgehog (Hh) signaling is essential for osteoblast differentiation in the endochondral skeleton during embryogenesis. However, the molecular mechanism underlying the osteoblastogenic role of Hh is not completely understood. Here, we report that Hh markedly induces the expression of insulin-like growth factor 2 (Igf2) that activates the mTORC2-Akt signaling cascade during osteoblast differentiation. Igf2-Akt signaling, in turn, stabilizes full-length Gli2 through Serine 230, thus enhancing the output of transcriptional activation by Hh. Importantly, genetic deletion of the Igf signaling receptor Igf1r specifically in Hh-responding cells diminishes bone formation in the mouse embryo. Thus, Hh engages Igf signaling in a positive feedback mechanism to activate the osteogenic program.


2021 ◽  
pp. 002204262110414
Author(s):  
Robyn Vanherle ◽  
Kathleen Beullens ◽  
Hanneke Hendriks

Go-along interviews among adolescents ( N = 26, M age = 16.31, SD = .83) were conducted to examine how adolescents interpret alcohol posts in terms of appropriateness and how this, in turn, plays a role in adolescents’ reactions toward alcohol posts on public and private social media entries. The findings of this study, first, indicate that alcohol posts were classified as appropriate or inappropriate based on the amount of alcohol and the displayed behavior in the post. Second, most posts, including inappropriate ones, received positive or no feedback. Moreover, adolescents deliberately seemed to withhold negative feedback out of fear of being misjudged by peers. Still, negative reactions were expressed more quickly in safer off- and online environments (i.e., face-to-face conversation and online chat messages) because they were visible to close friends only. This is important in view of prevention as it unravels the interesting role of private environments in stimulating negative interpersonal communication.


Endocrinology ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 154 (1) ◽  
pp. 363-374 ◽  
Author(s):  
Raphael E. Szawka ◽  
Maristela O. Poletini ◽  
Cristiane M. Leite ◽  
Marcelo P. Bernuci ◽  
Bruna Kalil ◽  
...  

The role of norepinephrine (NE) in regulation of LH is still controversial. We investigated the role played by NE in the positive feedback of estradiol and progesterone. Ovarian-steroid control over NE release in the preoptic area (POA) was determined using microdialysis. Compared with ovariectomized (OVX) rats, estradiol-treated OVX (OVX+E) rats displayed lower release of NE in the morning but increased release coincident with the afternoon surge of LH. OVX rats treated with estradiol and progesterone (OVX+EP) exhibited markedly greater NE release than OVX+E rats, and amplification of the LH surge. The effect of NE on LH secretion was confirmed using reverse microdialysis. The LH surge and c-Fos expression in anteroventral periventricular nucleus neurons were significantly increased in OVX+E rats dialyzed with 100 nm NE in the POA. After Fluoro-Gold injection in the POA, c-Fos expression in Fluoro-Gold/tyrosine hydroxylase-immunoreactive neurons increased during the afternoon in the A2 of both OVX+E and OVX+EP rats, in the locus coeruleus (LC) of OVX+EP rats, but was unchanged in the A1. The selective lesion of LC terminals, by intracerebroventricular N-(2-chloroethyl)-N-ethyl-2-bromobenzylamine, reduced the surge of LH in OVX+EP but not in OVX+E rats. Thus, estradiol and progesterone activate A2 and LC neurons, respectively, and this is associated with the increased release of NE in the POA and the magnitude of the LH surge. NE stimulates LH secretion, at least in part, through activation of anteroventral periventricular neurons. These findings contribute to elucidation of the role played by NE during the positive feedback of ovarian steroids.


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