Souviens-toi. Processus de deuil,processus de création

ObjectivesThe authors set out to cast light on certain psychic mechanisms that help to give meaning to death, in particular via objects of great symbolic value, as links between the dead and the survivors.MethodsIn this clinical article using a heuristic methodology, we combine the analysis of a clinical situation of antenatal death, a paradigm of loss with a pathological risk, and that of the artistic creation of Michel Nadjar, linked to the genocide of the Jews.ResultsThe psychic processing of the loss of a loved one is accompanied by considerable psychopathological risk. While funeral rites, whether religious or lay, and the support of the family and the community often provide mourners with a framework that favours the achievement of the period of mourning, so as to continue living with the loss (rather than living with the deceased person), there are certain traumatic situations that make access to a non-pathological mourning process impossible.DiscussionThe authors reappraise the exclusiveness of Freud's mourning and melancholia model, and consider Winnicott's theoretical model of transitional phenomena to cast light on the psychic processes at work.ConclusionsThe creativity operating in the two situations maintains a certain distinction: sublimation for the artist, resurgence of transitional phenomena for the bereaved individual.     

完美主义与基督教信仰

目的 考察个体的宗教信仰与完美主义心理之间的关系。方法 采用质的研究方法，对两位受访者（分别为功能障碍型完美主义与健康的完美主义）追行个案研究。结果 两名受访者的基督教（新教）信仰封其完关主义的负面倾向有所矫正，受访者的人际关系和自我认知因为宗教信仰而有所改善。结论 基督教（新教）信仰有利于修正受访者自体表象与权威客体表象的关系。在象征意义上，“上帝”的概念可以理解为“较好的”权威客体表象。     

Neck proprioception compensates for age-related deterioration of vestibular self-motion perception

Vestibular functions are known to show some deterioration with age. Vestibular deterioration is often thought to be compensated for by an increase in neck proprioceptive gain. We studied this presumed compensatory mechanism by measuring psychophysical responses to vestibular (horizontal canal), neck and combined stimuli in 50 healthy human subjects as a function of age (range 15–76 years). After passive horizontal rotations of head and/or trunk (torso) in complete darkness (dominant frequencies 0.05, 0.1, and 0.4 Hz), subjects readjusted a visual target to its remembered prerotational location in space. (1) Vestibular-only stimulus (whole-body rotation); subjects' responses were shifted towards postrotatory body position, this only slightly at 0.4 Hz and pronounced at 0.1 and 0.05 Hz. These errors reflect the known physiological drop of vestibular gain at low rotational frequency. They exhibited a slight but significant increase with age. (2) Neck-only stimulus (trunk rotated, head stationary); the responses showed errors similar to those upon vestibular stimulation (with offset towards postrotatory trunk position) and this again slightly more with increasing age. (3) Vestibular-neck stimulus combination during head rotation on stationary trunk; the errors were close to zero, independent of stimulus frequency and the subjects' age. (4) Opposite stimulus combination (trunk rotated in the same direction as the head, but with double amplitude); the errors were clearly enhanced, essentially reflecting the sum of those with vestibular-only and neck-only stimulation. Taken together, we find a parallel increase in neck- and vestibular-related errors with age, in seeming contrast to previous studies. We explain our and the previous findings by a vestibular-neck interaction model in which two different neck signals are involved. One neck signal is used, in combination with the vestibular signal, for estimating trunk-in-space rotation. It is internally shaped to always match the vestibular signal, so that these two signals cancel each other out when summed during head rotation on stationary trunk. Because of this matching, perceived trunk stationariness during head rotation on the stationary trunk is independent of vestibular deterioration (related to stimulus frequency, age, ototoxic medication, etc.). The other neck proprioceptive signal, coding head-on-trunk rotation, is superimposed on the estimate of trunk-in-space rotation, thereby yielding a notion of head-in-space. This neck signal remains essentially unchanged with vestibular deterioration. Generally, we hold that the transformation of the vestibular signal from the head down to the trunk proceeds further to include the hip and the legs as well as the haptically perceived body support surface; by this, subjects yield a notion of support kinematics in space. As a consequence, spatial orientation is impaired by chronic vestibular deterioration only to the extent that the body support is moving in space, while it is unimpaired (determined by proprioception alone) during body motion with respect to a stationary support. Electronic Publication     

Spontaneous recognition of object configurations in rats: effects of fornix lesions

The effects of fornix lesions were examined in an object recognition memory test based on spontaneous exploration. In the standard condition an object (A) was presented in the sample phase and then presented again in the test phase alongside a new object (B). Both fornix-transected (Fx) and control (Co) rats spent more time exploring the new object than the familiar object after retention delays of 1 min and 15 min. In two configural conditions designed to test sensitivity to reconfigured stimuli, the original sample (A) was now either re-presented alongside its rearranged version (), or the re-arranged version itself () was presented with a new object (B). In the first configural condition, both the Co and Fx rats spent more time exploring the reconfigured sample () than the original version of the sample (A) following a delay of 1 min, but not 15 min. In the second configural condition, both Co and Fx rats spent more time exploring the new object (B) than the reconfigured version of the sample () following a delay of 15 min but not 1 min. These present results do not support Sutherland and Rudy's hypothesis on hippocampal function; however, they demonstrate that memory of objects as well as memory of reconfigured objects could easily be examined in a test based on spontaneous exploratory behaviour.     

Loads applied tangential to a fingertip during an object restraint task can trigger short-latency as well as long-latency EMG responses in hand muscles

Electrical stimulation of the digital nerves can cause short- and long-latency increases in electromyographic activity (EMG) of the hand muscles, but mechanical stimulation of primarily tactile afferents in the digits generally evokes only a long-latency increase in EMG. To examine whether such stimuli can elicit short-latency reflex responses, we recorded EMG over the first dorsal interosseous muscle when subjects (n=13) used the tip of the right index finger to restrain a horizontally oriented plate from moving when very brisk tangential forces were applied in the distal direction. The plate was subjected to ramp-and-hold pulling loads at two intensities (a 1-N load applied at 32 N/s or a 2-N load applied at 64 N/s) at times unpredictable to the subjects (mean interval 2 s; trial duration 500 ms). The contact surface of the manipulandum was covered with rayon—a slippery material. For each load, EMG was averaged for 128 consecutive trials with reference to the ramp onset. In all subjects, an automatic increase in grip force was triggered by the loads applied at 32 N/s; the mean onset latency of the EMG response was 59.8±0.9 (mean ± SE) ms. In seven subjects (54%) this long-latency response was preceded by a weak short-latency excitation at 34.6±2.9 ms. With the loads applied at 64 N/s, the long-latency response occurred slightly earlier (58.9±1.7 ms) and, with one exception, all subjects generated a short-latency EMG response (34.9±1.3 ms). Despite the higher background grip force that subjects adopted during the stronger loads (4.9±0.3 N vs 2.5±0.2 N), the incidence of slips was higher—the manipulandum escaped from the grasp in 37±5% of trials with the 64 N/s ramps, but in only 18±4% with the 32-N/s ramps. The deformation of the fingertip caused by the tangential load, rather than incipient or overt slips, triggered the short-latency responses because such responses occurred even when the finger pad was fixed to the manipulandum with double-sided adhesive tape so that no slips occurred.     

由两张照片确定物体的三维结构

本文介绍一种体视学方法～双平面成像体视法。这种方法只要从不同角度拍摄物体的两张照片，通过计算机的计算来确定物体的三维结构。目前流行的体视学方法，无论是从随机切片中统计出三维参数还是连续切片的三维重建，都相当于用一只眼睛观看大量景物之后所作的综合。本文提出的方法相当于人类用两只眼睛观察物体产生的立体视觉。该法所需信息量少（只需物体的两张照片），算法简便，计算结果精确。是一种值得推广的体视学方法。     

脑部肿瘤的三维适形放射治疗

目的评价脑部肿瘤三维适形放射治疗的疗效。方法对20例脑部肿瘤患者进行3DCRT。单纯3DCRT给予DTSOGy，10次／22d，脑转移瘤及恶性胶质瘤患者常规给予全脑照射DT30Gy，15＆／3周，局部补量给予DT30Gy，6次／12d。结果根据治疗后3～12月MRI或CT检查，20处病灶中CR4例，PR12例，有效率80％。生存3年1例，〉2年9例，〉1年5例，〉1年生存率75％。结论3DCRT能提高放射剂量与靶体积适形的能力，可使接受高剂量照射的正常脑组织减少30％～50％，值得临床推广应用。     

Mother-father relationship,object relations and premature contractions

Mother-father relationship during pregnancy and its influence on obstetric complications, such as premature contractions, has been little investigated, but seems to be far more important than has been acknowledged so far. From a psychoanalytic and psychodynamic perspective three case studies are used to illustrate the ongoing dynamics. First the fetus is identified with an object Of the past and/or the present. To ward off threatening object representations the pregnant woman needs a third person, the father. If he is unavailable for her she is in danger Of rejecting the child. Results are discussed also in relation to the medical support system.     

Holistic processing of impossible objects: Evidence from Garner’s speeded-classification task

Holistic processing, the decoding of the global structure of a stimulus while the local parts are not explicitly represented, is a basic characteristic of object perception. The current study was aimed to test whether such a representation could be created even for objects that violate fundamental principles of spatial organization, namely impossible objects. Previous studies argued that these objects cannot be represented holistically in long-term memory because they lack coherent 3D structure. Here, we utilized Garner’s speeded classification task to test whether the perception of possible and impossible objects is mediated by similar holistic processing mechanisms. To this end, participants were asked to make speeded classifications of one object dimension while an irrelevant dimension was kept constant (baseline condition) or when this dimension varied (filtering condition). It is well accepted that ignoring the irrelevant dimension is impossible when holistic perception is mandatory, thus the extent of Garner interference in performance between the baseline and filtering conditions serves as an index of holistic processing. Critically, in Experiment 1, similar levels of Garner interference were found for possible and impossible objects implying holistic perception of both object types. Experiment 2 extended these results and demonstrated that even when depth information was explicitly processed, participants were still unable to process one dimension (width/depth) while ignoring the irrelevant dimension (depth/width, respectively). The results of Experiment 3 replicated the basic pattern found in Experiments 1 and 2 using a novel set of object exemplars. In Experiment 4, we used possible and impossible versions of the Penrose triangles in which information about impossibility is embedded in the internal elements of the objects which participant were explicitly asked to judge. As in Experiments 1–3, similar Garner interference was found for possible and impossible objects. Taken together, these findings emphasize the centrality of holistic processing style in object perception and suggest that it applies even for atypical stimuli such as impossible objects.     

Preserved Knowledge of Maps of Countries: Implications for the Organization of Semantic Memory

We describe two patients with selectively preserved knowledge of the category of countries. Following a series of cerebral infarcts, patient DB presented with severe perceptual impairment, including dense apperceptive agnosia, prosopagnosia, and topographical agnosia. Despite these deficits, he could effortlessly name countries from their outline maps. Patient WH, who suffered from semantic dementia, had severe naming and comprehension difficulties, with extremely sparse residual semantic knowledge. Remarkably, the category of countries was preserved. First, we argue that, for both patients, this category preservation occurs at a semantic level. Second, we discuss our findings in the context of three current models of category-specific effects (perceptual, ontogenetic, and evolutionary models). We argue that the perceptual model (Humphreys and colleagues) cannot easily accommodate our findings. By contrast, the ontogenetic (Warrington and colleagues) and evolutionary models (Caramazza and colleagues) can explain our findings. However, some modifications to both models are required. The ontogenetic model needs to envisage a spatial channel for the development of map knowledge, which is anatomically separate from channels of other categories of knowledge. The evolutionary model needs to envisage the possibility that some categories of knowledge, such as countries, may not be prewired, but learned during ontogenetic development.