1,721,037 research outputs found
A Challenge to Null Case Theory
No full textThe object of the paper are the so-called "control" structures, as "volo esse bonus". In the terminology of generative grammar, the null subject of the infinitival clause is called PRO, and its semantic reference in the main clause (“ego”, in the example) is called "controller". Latin presents a challenge to the theory according to which PRO would receive a null Case. On the contray, in “volo [PRO esse bonus]”, PRO agrees with “bonus”, which is Nominative, while in the “iubeo te [PRO esse bonum], PRO agrees with “bonum”, which is Accusative. This Case-sharing pattern is an interesting linguistic property that any general theory of PRO should try to explain. Our hypothesis is that PRO inherits the Case, as other syntactic features, like Gender and Number, from its controller
Human chemosignals and brain activity: A preliminary meta-analysis of the processing of human body odors
No full textAcross phyla, chemosignals are a widely used form of social communication and increasing evidence suggests that chemosensory communication is present also in humans. Chemosignals can transfer, via body odors, socially relevant information, such as specific information about identity or emotional states. However, findings on neural correlates of processing of body odors are divergent. The aims of this meta-analysis were to assess the brain areas involved in the perception of body odors (both neutral and emotional) and the specific activation patterns for the perception of neutral body odor (NBO) and emotional body odor (EBO). We conducted an activation likelihood estimation (ALE) meta-analysis on 16 experiments (13 studies) examining brain activity during body odors processing. We found that the contrast EBO versus NBO resulted in significant convergence in the right middle frontal gyrus and the left cerebellum, whereas the pooled meta-analysis combining all the studies of human odors showed significant convergence in the right inferior frontal gyrus. No significant cluster was found for NBOs. However, our findings also highlight methodological heterogeneity across the existing literature. Further neuroimaging studies are needed to clarify and support the existing findings on neural correlates of processing of body odors
Relative contribution of odour intensity and valence to moral decisions
No full textMeta-analytic evidence showed that the chemical senses affect moral decisions. However, how odours impact on morality is currently unclear. Through a set of three studies, we assess whether and how odour intensity biases moral choices (Study 1a), its psychophysiological responses (Study 1b), as well as the behavioural and psychophysiological effects of odour valence on moral choices (Study 2). Study 1a suggests that the presence of an odour plays a role in shaping moral choice. Study 1b reveals that of two iso-pleasant versions of the same neutral odour, only the one presented sub-threshold (vs. supra-threshold) favours deontological moral choices, those based on the principle of not harming others even when such harm provides benefits. As expected, this odour intensity effect is tracked by skin conductance responses, whereas no difference in cardiac activity – proxy for the valence dimension – is revealed. Study 2 suggests that the same neutral odour presented sub-threshold increases deontological choices even when compared to isointense ambiguous odour, perceived as pleasant or unpleasant by half of the participants, respectively. Skin conductance responses, as expected, track odour pleasantness, but cardiac activity fails to do so. Results are discussed in the context of mechanisms alternative to disgust induction underlying moral choices
Alexithymia and emotional reactions to odors
Full text linkAlexithymia is a psychological construct characterized by deficits in processing emotional stimuli. However, little is known about the processing of odours in alexithymia, even though there is extensive proof that emotion and olfaction are closely linked. The present study is aimed at investigating how alexithymic individuals process emotions conveyed by odors. Emotional responses to unpleasant, neutral odors and clean air were collected through self-report ratings and psychophysiological measures in a sample of 62 healthy participants with high (HA), medium (MA) and low (LA) levels of alexithymia. Moreover, participants performed tests on odors identification and threshold and completed questionnaires assessing olfactory imagery and awareness. Two main results have been found: first, HA and MA groups showed altered physiological responses to odors, compared to LA, while no differences among the groups were observed in odor ratings; and second, affective and cognitive alexithymia components were differently associated with the performance on olfactory tests, skin conductance response to odors, reaction times in the rating task, and scores on olfactory questionnaires. We conclude that alexithymia is characterized by altered physiological reactions to olfactory stimuli; moreover, we stress the importance of evaluating the different alexithymia components since they affect emotional stimuli processing in different ways
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Emotional reactions in moral decision-making are influenced by empathy and alexithymia
No full textThe role of emotional processes in driving moral choices remains debated. In particular, diminished emotional processing and reduced empathy have been associated with unusual high rates of utilitarian responses in moral judgments while, to date, the effects of diminished emotional processing and empathy on moral decision-making have been only partially considered. In this study, we investigated the influence of empathy and alexithymia on behavior and emotional responses while participants performed a moral decision task. Self-report (valence and arousal ratings) and physiological (skin conductance and heart rate) measures were collected during the task. Results showed that empathy and alexithymia shaped emotional reactions to moral decisions but did not bias moral choices. The more empathic the participants, the more dilemmas were perceived as unpleasant and arousing, and the greater the increase in skin conductance. Conversely, alexithymia was characterized by a reduced physiological activation during moral decisions, but normal self-report ratings. Heart rate was not modulated by empathy or alexithymia. These results add new evidence to the field of moral decision showing that empathy and alexithymia modulate emotional reactions to moral decision
Electromagnetic field affects the voltage-dependent potassium channel Kv1.3
No full textPurpose: Theoretical and experimental evidences support the hypothesis that Extremely Low-Frequency Electromagnetic Fields (ELF-EMF) can modulate voltage-gated channels. In this work we investigated the effect of ELF-EMF on Kv1.3, a member of the family of the voltage-gated potassium channels that is thought to be involved in key physiological functions, including the regulation of T-cells activation during the immune response. Materials and methods: Kv1.3 expressing CHO-K1 cells were exposed to a 20 Hz electromagnetic field at two different intensities: 268 μT and 902 μT. Kv1.3 potassium currents were recorded by whole-cell patch-clamp before, during and after field exposure. Results: We found that the Kv1.3 current was increased significantly by the ELF-EMF in a subpopulation of CHO-K1 cells. The increase developed after a few seconds from the start of exposure, reached a steady-state and took several minutes to return to the baseline after field removal. Conclusions: These findings suggest that Kv1.3 may mediate interactions between ELF-EMF and living cells, disclosing new research opportunities on the molecular mechanisms with which electromagnetic fields affect physiological and pathological processes, including immunomodulation, inflammation and cancer
Automated analysis of local field potentials evoked by mechanical whisker stimulation in rat barrel cortex
No full textLocal field potentials (LFPs) recorded in the barrel cortex in rats and mice are important to investigate somatosensory systems, the final aim being to start to understand mechanisms of brain representation of sensory stimuli in humans. Parameters extracted from LFP of particular interest include spike timing and transmembrane current flow. Recent improvements in microelectrodes technology have enabled neuroscientists to acquire a great amount of LFP signals during the same experimental session, calling for the development of algorithms for their quantitative automatic analysis. In the present work, an algorithm based on Phillips-Tikhonov regularization is presented to automatically detect the main features (in terms of amplitude and latency) of LFP waveforms recorded after whisker stimulation in rat. The accuracy of the algorithm is first assessed in a Monte Carlo simulation mimicking the acquisition of LFP in three different conditions of SNR. Then, the algorithm is tested by analyzing a set of 100 LFP recorded in the primary somatosensory (S1) cortex, i.e., the region involved in the cortical representation of touch in mammals
Women smelling men's masked body odors show enhanced harm aversion in moral dilemmas
No full textAmong the most unnoticeable stimuli providing social information, body odors are powerful social tools that can modulate behavioral and neural processing. It has recently been shown that body odors can affect moral decision-making, by increasing the activations in neural areas processing social and emotional information during the decision process. The aim of the present study was twofold: 1) to test whether body odors selectively affect decisions to real dilemmatic moral scenario (incongruent) vs. fake (congruent) dilemmas, and 2) to characterize whether the impact of masked body odors is modulated by four conceptual factors: personal force, intentionality, benefit recipient and evitability. Women chose between utilitarian (sacrificing a person's life in order to save other lives) or deontological actions (deciding against the harmful action) in 64 moral dilemmas under the exposure of a neutral fragrance (masker) or a masked male body odor. Our results showed that the masked male body odor did not specifically affect the answers to real and fake dilemmas but instead, its effect is modulating whether the agent harms the victim in a direct or indirect manner (personal force) to save herself or only other people (benefit recipient). In particular, when exposed to the masked body odor participants gave more deontological answers when the harm was indirect and only other people were saved. These data support the hypothesis that body odors induce participants to perceive the individuals described in moral dilemmas as more real, triggering harm avoidance
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