bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Cingulum Bundle
Authors: Schmahmann Jeremy D. , Pandya Deepak N.
Published: May 2009

This chapter discusses the results of the investigation of the cingulum bundle (CB) of rhesus monkey brains. The observations regarding the location and course of the CB are in general agreement with the conclusions of earlier investigators. The CB stretches from the frontal lobe around the rostrum and genu of the corpus callosum, extends caudally above the corpus callosum lateral to the cingulate gyrus, curves ventrally around the splenium, and then lies in the white matter of the ventral part of the temporal lobe— the parahippocampal gyrus. The confusing nomenclature used to designate the various components of the CB appears to be a result of the complexity of the white matter tracts conveyed within and through it. The CB may be conceptualized in the same manner as the white matter underlying any other cortical region in that it conveys long association, short association, striatal, subcortical (including thalamic and pontine), and commissural fibers.
Inferior Longitudinal Fasciculus
Authors: Schmahmann Jeremy D. , Pandya Deepak N.
Published: May 2009

This chapter begins with a historical overview of two systems: the true inferior longitudinal fasciculus (ILF) and the sagittal stratum. It then discusses the results of the investigation of the ILF of rhesus monkey brains. Among these is the observation that the ILF is a long association fiber system that runs in the white matter of the parietal, occipital, and temporal lobes. It is the preeminent fiber tract that conveys information in a bidirectional manner between the occipital lobe (preoccipital gyrus) and the temporal lobe.
Anterior Commissure
Authors: Schmahmann Jeremy D. , Pandya Deepak N.
Published: May 2009

This chapter begins with historical accounts of the anterior commissure (AC). It then discusses the results of the investigation of the AC of rhesus monkey brains. It shows that the AC traverses the midline as a compact and prominent fiber bundle located immediately in front of the anterior columns of the fornix, situated above the basal forebrain and beneath the medial and ventral aspect of the anterior limb of the internal capsule. In the hemisphere it moves caudally and passes laterally through the ventral aspect of the globus pallidus. It continues laterally beneath the putamen and descends lateral to the amygdala into the temporal stem. Further caudally, the AC is located lateral to the ventral aspect of the putamen and the tail of the caudate nucleus and medial to the ventral aspect of the claustrum.
Hippocampal Commissures
Authors: Schmahmann Jeremy D. , Pandya Deepak N.
Published: May 2009

In addition to the corpus callosum and anterior commissure, there are three other fiber systems that link the ventral limbic and paralimbic regions across the hemispheres. In the present study, only Case 13 showed fibers in one of these commissures. This chapter focuses on hippocampal commissures. It theorizes that their role may be related, at least in part, to declarative learning and memory, which have been shown to depend on the integrity of structures in the medial temporal lobe that are linked by these commissures.
Conclusions
Authors: Schmahmann Jeremy D. , Pandya Deepak N.
Published: May 2009

This chapter presents some concluding thoughts. It shows that all fiber pathways are precisely arranged into bundles that link specific brain regions, and in many instances there is topographical organization within the bundles themselves, determined by the site of origin of the fibers in the cerebral cortex. The association, commissural, and corticothalamic fibers convey information in a bidirectional manner. The dichotomy of cerebral function and association pathways and the significance of the current work are discussed.
What is the Function of the Thalamus?
Authors: Sherman S. Murray
Published: May 2009

This chapter focuses on the function of the thalamus. It suggests insights that indicate that the relay role of the thalamus is complex and dynamically changing in ways that influence the nature of information reaching the cortex. Based on a new interpretation of a variety of data, it suggests that the thalamus does not merely relay information up to the cortex but also serves a vital role in corticocortical communication.
What Is Fed Back?
Authors: Bullier Jean
Published: May 2009

The 21st century brought about a shift in the types of models used to explain the processing of sensory information by the cerebral cortex. Until now, these models have overwhelmingly emphasized the feedforward direction for the transfer of sensory information, and it is only recently that a more balanced view of the cortical network has emerged. This chapter summarizes this evolution and focuses on the question of the role of feedback connections in the processing of sensory information. It uses the visual system as a model since most of what is known concerning the processing of sensory inputs by the brain comes from studying that system.
How Can the Brain Be So Fast?
Authors: Gerstner Wulfram
Published: May 2009

This chapter reviews some of the arguments that have suggested that neurons are slow, and discusses a reaction time experiment that shows that the brain as a whole is nevertheless fast. It indicates some directions of research towards solving the apparent conflict; in particular, it speculates on the role of noise.
What Is the Neural Code?
Authors: van Vreeswijk C.
Published: May 2009

This chapter addresses the question: What is the code which areas in the cortex use to exchange information? The chapter presents a model of a cortical network that is capable of reacting rapidly to changes in the stimuli and shows that such a model has as a byproduct highly irregular activity of the individual cells. It argues that neurons in the brain do indeed communicate through a rate code. While this may be the rule, there are undoubtedly exceptions. It seems quite clear for example that the primary auditory cortex does not use a rate code. This may be because a noisy rate code is not well suited to encode naturally occurring auditory signals.
What Is the Other 85 Percent of V1 Doing?
Authors: Olshausen Bruno A. , Field David J.
Published: May 2009

The primary visual cortex (area V1) of mammals has been the subject of intense study for at least four decades. This chapter identifies five fundamental problems with the reductionist approach that have led to the current view of V1 as a Gabor filter bank. It considers two important factors: an estimate of the fraction of V1 neuron types that have actually been characterized and the fraction of variance explained in the responses of these neurons under natural viewing conditions. Together, these show that at present we can rightfully claim to understand only 10 to 20% of how V1 actually operates under normal conditions. The goal in pointing out these things is not simply to tear down the current framework, but rather to make room for new theories that are essential for understanding V1 and its relation to perception.
Which Computation Runs in Visual Cortical Columns?
Authors: Zucker Steven W.
Published: May 2009

There is a substantial divide in computational neuroscience, separating the modeling of neurons at a biophysical level from the modeling of function at an information processing level. This chapter focuses on the second, information processing level, and raises a series of questions about it. It considers early vision, and representational structure emerged regarding tangents, curvatures, and continuity. That is, problem instances were formulated using the structure of differential geometry. This is not unexpected, given that differential geometry is the natural mathematics of surfaces and objects. For computation, linear complementarity emerged as a generalization of columnar operations. Algorithms for solving linear complementarity problems provided new insight into finding fast solutions by neural mechanisms. In all of the above cases, it was clear that the resulting networks are quite plausible; but starting only with network components, it seems implausible that all of the above abstract functions would have been inferred.
What Are the Projective Fields of Cortical Neurons?
Authors: Sejnowski Terrence J.
Published: May 2009

This chapter proposes a line of research that could help uncover new principles of cortical function. It shows that projective fields of interacting assemblies of neurons provide the basic “keyboard” for the brain's interaction with the world and with itself. By combining information about the receptive and projective fields of cortical neurons, an overall picture should emerge of how autonomous behaviors arise from dynamic brain states.
How Are the Features of Objects Integrated into Perceptual Wholes That Are Selected by Attention?
Authors: Reynolds John H.
Published: May 2009

This chapter outlines recent progress in our understanding of how the brain compensates for the limited capacity of the visual system, and emphasizes limitations of this understanding. Competitive selection mechanisms have been identified in extrastriate visual cortex that can be biased in favor of behaviorally relevant stimuli. These mechanisms subserve selection by ensuring that neurons that encode features of behaviorally relevant stimuli remain active and are, therefore, able to transmit information about the selected stimulus to other areas of the brain associated with behavioral control.
Where Are the Switches on This Thing?
Authors: Abbott L F.
Published: May 2009

Self-regulated switching is vital to the operation of complex machines such as computers. The essential building block of a computer is a voltage-gated switch, the transistor, that is turned off and on by the same sorts of currents that it controls. By analogy, this calls attention to neural pathways that not only carry the action potentials that arise from neural activity, but are switched off and on by neural activity as well. This chapter discusses three biophysical mechanisms—neuromodulation, inhibition, and gain modulation—and assess the merits and short-comings of each of them.
What Are the Neuronal Correlates of Consciousness?
Authors: Crick Francis C. , Koch Christof
Published: May 2009

This chapter attempts to discover the minimal neural mechanisms jointly sufficient for any one conscious sensation or percept, the neuronal correlates of consciousness (NCC). It raises a series of questions which cover some of the subproblems that are likely to bear on the NCC, and focuses on the visual system of humans and macaque monkeys.
Crustacean Models of Aggression
Authors: Edwards Donald H. , Herberholz Jens
Published: May 2009

This chapter begins with a brief discussion of the factors that make crustaceans an excellent model for the study of aggressive behavior. It then discusses the natural contexts of aggression, aggression in development, aggressive behavior, dominance hierarchy formation, hormonal control of aggressive behavior, and neural mechanisms of aggressive behavior.
Neuroplasticity and Aggression: An Interaction Between Vasopressin and Serotonin
Authors: Ferris Craig F.
Published: May 2009

This chapter focuses on two neurochemical signals that control aggression—serotonin (5-hydroxytryptamine, or 5-HT) and vasopressin (VP). 5-HT and VP appear to play significant roles in the regulation of impulsivity and aggression. 5-HT reduces aggressive responding, while VP enhances arousal and aggression in a context-dependent manner. The interaction between the brain and the environment is regulated, in part, by changes in gonadal and adrenal steroids. The stress of social subjugation alters the levels of testosterone and stress hormones, affecting gene transcription and translation. The VP/5-HT systems are sensitive to changes in these steroid hormones linking the neurochemical regulation of aggression to environmental events.
Androgens and Aggression
Authors: Simon Neal G. , Lu Shi-Fang
Published: May 2009

This chapter utilizes conspecific, offensive aggression in males and females as model systems to exemplify androgenic influences on aggressive behavior. This form of aggression is a productive behavior exhibited between same-sex conspecifics; its effects are reflected in dominance status and access to resources.
Stress and Aggressive Behaviors
Authors: Blanchard D. Caroline , Blanchard Robert J.
Published: May 2009

This chapter considers the relationships of stress to offensive and defensive aggression. It argues that stress defined in terms of hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis activity is relatively uninformative with reference to either the antecedents or the consequences of aggression. Stress defined in terms of threat is also insufficiently specific for understanding the two types of aggression. The incidence and specific elicitors of offensive aggression may be very different for mammalian species, depending on their social and physical environments. The prevalence of defensive threat/attack and their position in the defense pattern also change systematically with group social structure, environmental constraints, and the size and defensive capabilities of the animal relative to major predators for each species.
A Multimodal Analysis of Structure and Function in Broca’s Region
Authors: Amunts Katrin , Zilles Karl
Published: May 2009

The term “Broca region” is used inconsistently in the literature with respect to the underlying microstructure. It is often applied as a clinical and/or historical concept of a center of language processing without keeping in mind a certain microstructurally defined cortical area. However, it appears yet undecided whether the concept of “Broca region” is more than a historical one or an imprecise descriptor of a language center, that is, whether a functionally and/or anatomically defined unit is beyond the term. Thus, it seems to be reasonable, at least, to investigate this question using a combination of anatomical approaches (multimodal analysis of microstructure) with functional analysis of language (psycholinguistics) and, finally, clinical studies. This chapter focuses on the microstructure of the putative Broca region and how this anatomical information can be used for the interpretation of data from functional imaging studies (fMRI, positonemission tomography (PET)) of language-related tasks.
Broca’s Area in the Human and the Nonhuman Primate Brain
Authors: Petrides Michael
Published: May 2009

This chapter begins by examining the gross morphology of the inferior frontal region of the human brain within which the Broca's area lies. It then examines the architectonic areas that are occupying this region and compares them with similar areas in the macaque monkey brain.
Weak Syntax
Authors: Avrutin Sergey
Published: May 2009

This chapter outlines a new approach to the investigation of aphasics' linguistic errors. The model represents a further development of ideas outlined in Avrutin (1999). It shows that damage to Broca's region diminishes the amount of resources necessary for conducting operations involving narrow syntax. This causes a slowdown in the process of speech production. Moreover, reduced power of this system (a direct consequence of diminished resources) may result in the situation where alternative systems become more powerful and therefore are used for the purposes of building information structure in comprehension or encoding a message. Impairment in Broca's aphasia is not limited to structures involving constituent movement (e.g., passive constructions, object relative clauses). Comprehension of pronouns and other determiners causes difficulties as well. Slow, effortful, telegraphic speech is characteristic of the same patients who demonstrate problems with comprehension of certain elements.
Evaluating Deficit Patterns of Broca Aphasics in the Presence of High Intersubject Variability
Authors: Drai Dan
Published: May 2009

A hypothesis about the existence of a computation for which Broca's area is indispensable would take the following form: identify two classes of sentences such that one involves the relevant computation and the other does not, then form a motivated prediction on the way a deficit in this computation should affect the performance of the Broca aphasics. The concluding step would be to evaluate the prediction in light of the empirical record of performances of Broca aphasics. This chapter is mainly concerned with this last step. It looks for a way of modeling the data that leaves room for sharp statistical claims, such as: “The performances of Broca aphasics on sentences of type A are significantly different from their performances on sentences of type B” while taking into account the high variability of the data. The chapter reports on the principles that have guided the compilation of performance data to which the methodology will be applied. It then briefly explains the trace deletion hypothesis (TDH) and its prediction concerning patterns of performance of Broca aphasics. It also presents a very simple stochastic model for the performances of a given subject and deduce a way of summarizing one individual's performance on a set of sentences. The chapter then illustrates the high individual variability of performance data viewed through the above statistics and presents a model for evaluating group performances (the beta binomial). Finally it applies the described framework to the evaluation of the TDH, showing a contrast in accordance with the prediction of TDH.
Broca’s Region: A Speech Area?
Authors: Fadiga Luciano , Craighero Laila , Roy Alice
Published: May 2009

This chapter reviews some literature data and presents some experimental results showing that, in addition to speech-related tasks, Broca's area is also significantly involved during tasks devoid of verbal content. The first part reviews a series of recent brain imaging studies that report, among others, the activation of areas 44/45. In consideration of the large variety of experimental paradigms inducing such activation, the chapter makes an interpretative effort by presenting neurophysiological data from the monkey homologue of BA44/BA45. Finally, it reports electrophysiological data on humans which connect speech perception to the more general framework of other's action understanding.
The Role of Broca’s Area in Sign Language
Authors: Emmorey Karen
Published: May 2009

Broca's area (Brodmann areas 44/45) and the immediately surrounding cortex have been shown to play a role in several aspects of linguistic, as well as nonlinguistic, processing. Given the similarities between signed and spoken languages for phonology and syntax (two domains of processing implicated as functions of Broca's area), this chapter examines whether there is any evidence that Broca's area is involved in these aspects of sign language processing and whether this involvement mirrors that found for spoken languages. It shows that the functions associated with Broca's area for spoken language parallel those for signed language. With respect to language production, imaging data indicate a critical role for Broca's area (particularly BA 45) in lexical retrieval and/or selection. More posterior cortex (BA 44) appears to be involved in the coordination of linguistic articulation, regardless of whether the articulators are manual-brachial or orofacial.
On Broca, Brain, and Binding
Authors: Hagoort Peter
Published: May 2009

This chapter begins by distinguishing between Broca's area in neuroanatomical, neuropsychological, and functional terms. It addresses the question: Is Broca's area a natural kind? That is, does it carve brain and mind at its joints? The chapter then presents a proposal about the role of the left inferior frontal cortex, which contains Broca's area as classically defined.
On Aphasia (1885)
Authors: Lichtheim Ludwig
Published: May 2009

This chapter presents a paper published by Ludwig Lichtheim in 1885. The paper on aphasia contained diagrams of the cerebral representation of language processing. All of these schema and diagrams were inspired by Wernicke's ideas and hypotheses about how the brain has nodes and connections, and about how these can be injured to produce the various types of aphasia. These diagrams are still widely used in behavioral neurology and aphasia research.
Contributions to a Histological Localization of the Cerebral Cortex. Communication: The Division of the Human Cortex (1908)
Authors: Brodmann Korbinian
Published: May 2009

This chapter presents a paper published by Korbinian Brodmann in 1908, which contains the first complete description of a parcellation of the whole cortical surface, one that is still widely used today. The paper is a shorter version of Brodmann's famous 1909 book.
The Cytoarchitectonics of the Fields Constituting Broca’s Area (1931)
Authors: Riegele Ludwig
Published: May 2009

This chapter presents a paper published by Ludwig Riegele in 1931. Riegele worked at the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Brain Research in Berlin, which was one of the most advanced centers for neuroscience featuring a modern multidisciplinary approach to the brain that consisted of europathology, psychiatry, electrophysiology, comparative anatomy, and genetics. Many of Riegele's criteria for cytoarchitectonic borders can still be used in mapping efforts today.
Broca’s Area and Broca’s Aphasia (1976)
Authors: Mohr Jay P.
Published: May 2009

This chapter presents a paper published by Jay P. Mohr in 1976. The paper discusses the clinical syndrome of Broca's aphasia and its anatomic foundation, and Broca's cases.
Statistical Protocols
Authors: Mitra Partha P. , Bokil Hemant
Published: May 2009

This chapter provides a mini-review of classical and modern statistical methods for data analysis. Topics covered include method of least squares, data visualization, point estimation, interval estimation, hypothesis testing, nonparametric tests, and Bayesian estimation and inference.
Time Series Analysis
Authors: Mitra Partha P. , Bokil Hemant
Published: May 2009

This chapter discusses time series analysis. Topics covered include method of moments, evoked potentials and peristimulus time histogram, univariate spectral analysis, bivariate spectral analysis, prediction, point process spectral estimation, and higher order correlations.
Electrophysiology: Microelectrode Recordings
Authors: Mitra Partha P. , Bokil Hemant
Published: May 2009

This chapter begins with a discussion of common experimental paradigms or approaches employed for electrophysiological recordings. It then presents a brief review of neuronal biophysics related to microelectrode recordings followed by a discussion of different measurement techniques and their associated noise sources. Finally, analysis methods for voltage time series recorded from microelectrodes are discussed.
Spike Sorting
Authors: Mitra Partha P. , Bokil Hemant
Published: May 2009

The point process component of an extracellular recording results from the spiking activity of neurons in a background of physical and biological noise. When a recording electrode measures action potentials from multiple cells, these contributions must be disentangled from the background noise and from each other before the activity of individual neurons can be analyzed. This procedure of estimating one or more single cell point processes from a noisy time series is known as spike sorting. When it succeeds, it can transform a weakness of extracellular recording, namely the inability to isolate changes in the firing rate of single neurons into one of its strengths—simultaneous measurement from multiple cells. A range of different approaches have been used to address this problem. Although the algorithmic approaches vary in their assumptions about noise statistics, incorporation of domain knowledge specific to the recording area, and the criteria for identifying single cells, most can be viewed as different implementations of a common series of steps. This chapter develops a framework for these steps and discusses the practical considerations of each level without reference to a specific computational approach. The transformations of the data are illustrated by an idealized example modeled on recordings taken from the mammalian retina.
PET and fMRI
Authors: Mitra Partha P. , Bokil Hemant
Published: May 2009

The development of positron emission tomography (PET) and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) as noninvasive methods for measuring brain activity has given rise to a relatively new field of neuroscience research in recent decades. This chapter presents a brief overview of the biophysical bases of PET and fMRI, followed by a survey of experimental and analysis protocols. The analysis procedures discussed focus largely on fMRI rather than PET, since the former give rise to longer time series data sets to which the methods described in this book may be applied.
Resilience and Vulnerability to Trauma
Authors: Cooper Nicole S. , Feder Adriana , Southwick Steven M. , Charney Dennis S.
Published: May 2009

This chapter discusses the deleterious effects of traumatic experience and its effects on brain development. It reviews the many interventions that have evidence of efficacy for promoting resilience to subsequent traumatic events.
The Developing Adolescent Brain in Socioeconomic Context
Authors: Farah Martha J. , Noble Kimberly G. , Hurt Hallam
Published: May 2009

This chapter aims to understand the neurocognitive basis of the influence of socioeconomic status (SES) on adolescent development. It shows that both executive and language function vary with SES. Working memory and cognitive control have the strongest relationship to SES. The chapter concludes that there is no detectable relationship between SES and reward processing, another form of executive function that is predictive of real-world life outcomes.
The Christian Community in China: The Leaven Effect
Authors: Kim‐Kwong Chan
Published: May 2009

This chapter assesses the impact of the expansion of the Christian community on current sociopolitical development in China and it particularly looks at democratization, including the development of civil society, social identity, sociopolitical influence, and the political involvement of the communities studied. The chapter is organized as follows. The first section examines government religious policy, the governmental apparatus on religious affairs, the regime's political objectives toward Christians, and the restrictions with which the Christian community has to live. It also describes the institutional structures of the Christian community and church-state relations in China. The second section examines leavening effects in seven Christian communities—some urban, some rural. Most are government-recognized; a few are nonregistered, illegal groups. Each community manifests faith differently and displays the wide range of interactions between church and society that may affect the shape of Chinese democratization. The final section sums up and classifies the cases, relating these findings to general sociopolitical trends in China.
Evangelicals and Politics in Indonesia: The Case of Surakarta
Authors: Bambang Budijanto
Published: May 2009

This chapter examines how socioeconomic and political instability affected Indonesian evangelical perspectives and engagement in politics from the early 1990s onward, focusing on the Surakarta region. The study employs in-depth interviews with key academics, historians, and NGO activists and with thirty-five evangelical leaders and pastors, who constitute approximately 40% of religious leaders in Surakarta. Interviews were conducted in January 2001, during the Wahid government, and in July 2001, just after Wahid's fall, as Megawati formed a new government.
CHAPTER 2 American Moral Exceptionalism
Authors: Uhlmann Eric Luis , Poehlman T. Andrew , Bargh John A.
Published: May 2009

The judgments and actions of contemporary Americans reflect the implicit influence of America’s Puritan-Protestant heritage. Americans valorize individual merit, a residue of the Protestant emphasis on a personal relationship with God and earthly rewards and punishments. The United States has remained deeply religious and traditional in the face of enormous prosperity, at least in part attributable to the founding influence of the Puritan-Protestants. Americans, but not members of comparison cultures, implicitly link work and divine salvation and display other judgmental biases consistent with implicit Puritanism. As predicted by theories of implicit social cognition, which hold that the influence of traditional cultural values is strongest at an implicit level, less religious and non-Protestant Americans are just as likely to display such effects as devout American Protestants.
CHAPTER 8 The Social Psychology of Uncertainty Management and System Justification
Authors: van den Bos Kees
Published: May 2009

This chapter reviews research findings on the social psychology of uncertainty management processes and the role these processes have in explaining system justification and other human reactions (such as people's behavioral reactions to homeless individuals and how people respond toward messages that violate or support their religious worldviews). The chapter holds that uncertainty management (at least occasionally) may better explain people's responses than does terror management theory. The chapter also focuses on the social psychological processes underlying uncertainty management effects and argues that personal uncertainty has strong effects on human reactions, because personal uncertainty involves affective-experiential processes and typically constitutes an alarming experience to people. The chapter suggests that the social psychology of uncertainty management and system justification involve processes of "hot cognition" and not "cold cognition." The chapter closes with a discussion of the implications for the psychology of system justification and people's beliefs in a just world.
CHAPTER 9 Political Ideology in the 21st Century: A Terror Management Perspective on Maintenance and Change of the Status Quo
Authors: Anson Jacqueline M. , Pyszczynski Tom , Solomon Sheldon , Greenberg Jeff
Published: May 2009

This chapter uses terror management theory to explore the psychological functions of political ideology and factors that produce stability and change in ideologically relevant attitudes and behaviors. Terror management theory perspectives are compared and contrasted with system justification theory, and points of agreement and disagreement between these conceptualizations are discussed. The relationship is explored between "external" cultural ideologies and individual interpretations and how such external belief systems interact with psychological forces to create individualized cultural worldviews. The impact of individual ideological changes on the collective mainstream worldview of a culture is explored. Also discussed is the possibility that some ideological positions may be better at providing existential comfort than others, and the conditions under which this is likely to be the case, as well as conservative and liberal ideological shifts. The chapter concludes with a consideration of variables that determine which aspects of a particular worldview people gravitate toward when their need for protection is aroused.
CHAPTER 13 Statewide Differences in Personality Predict Voting Patterns in 1996–2004 U.S. Presidential Elections
Authors: Rentfrow Peter J. , Jost John T. , Gosling Samuel D. , Potter Jeffrey
Published: May 2009

Political regionalism is commonly attributed to differences in historical settlement patterns, social class, and racial diversity. This book provides evidence for the importance of another factor—state-level personality—in understanding regional differences in political ideology. Drawing on research in personality and social psychology, the chapter proposes that geographical differences in voting patterns partially reflect differences in the psychological characteristics of individuals living in different states. Specifically examined are associations between state-level personality scores and voting patterns in the 1996, 2000, and 2004 U.S. Presidential elections. Results show that mean levels of openness and conscientiousness within a state predict the percentage of votes for Democratic and Republican candidates. Furthermore, state-level personality scores account for unique variance in voting patterns, even after adjusting for standard socio-demographic and political predictors. This chapter demonstrates the value of investigating psychological variables at a regional level to better understand political culture and ideology.
CHAPTER 15 Planet of the Durkheimians, Where Community, Authority, and Sacredness Are Foundations of Morality
Authors: Haidt Jonathan , Graham Jesse
Published: May 2009

Most academic efforts to understand morality and ideology come from theorists who limit the domain of morality to issues related to harm and fairness. For such theorists, conservative beliefs are puzzles requiring nonmoral explanations. In contrast, this chapter presents moral foundations theory, which broadens the moral domain to match the anthropological literature on morality. The theory is extended by integrating it with a review of the sociological constructs of community, authority, and sacredness, as formulated by Emile Durkheim and others. Data are presented to support the theory, which also show that liberals misunderstand the explicit moral concerns of conservatives more than conservatives misunderstand liberals. The chapter suggests that what liberals see as a nonmoral motivation for system justification may be better described as a moral motivation to protect society, groups, and the structures and constraints that are often (although not always) beneficial for individuals. Also outlined are the possible benefits of a moral foundations perspective for system justification theory, including better understandings of (a) why the system justifying motive is palliative despite some harmful effects, (b) possible evolutionary origins of the motive, and (c) the values and worldviews of conservatives in general.
CHAPTER 16 Ideology of the Good Old Days: Exaggerated Perceptions of Moral Decline and Conservative Politics
Authors: Eibach Richard P. , Libby Lisa K.
Published: May 2009

Beliefs in social and moral decline are widespread, and people sometimes perceive decline when conditions are actually improving. The original research presented here seeks to explain such illusory perceptions of decline by linking them to a general judgmental bias that causes people to mistake change in the self for change in the external world. Many changes that people experience during the life-course alter their perspectives in ways that sensitize them to social threats. When people fail to realize that these personal changes have heightened their perceptions of threat, they may mistakenly conclude that threats are becoming more prevalent in society. This chapter tests this thesis by combining surveys of people actually undergoing relevant transitions with experimental analogues of these transition processes. Also reviewed is evidence linking the belief that conditions are declining to politically conservative attitudes. After examining the judgmental biases that produce illusory perceptions of decline, the chapter draws on broader models of ideology and system justification to explain how the rhetoric of decline may function to achieve wider public support for conservative social movements.
CHAPTER 20 The Politics of Intergroup Attitudes
Authors: Nosek Brian , Banaji Mahzarin R. , Jost John T.
Published: May 2009

Ideologies that underlie concepts of ethnocentrism, authoritarianism, system justification, social dominance, and morality shape minds in sufficiently deep ways to bring about (a) congruence between implicit and explicit preferences, and (b) a consistently greater preference for socially advantaged groups among political conservatives than liberals on both explicit and implicit measures. Data from large web samples and representative samples from the American National Election Studies (ANES) provide support for these and two additional results: (a) liberals show greater mean dissociation between explicit and implicit attitudes than conservatives, reporting more favorable attitudes toward the underprivileged groups than they demonstrate on implicit measures; and (b) over time, conservatives’ racial preferences converge on those of liberals, suggesting that where liberals are today, conservatives will be tomorrow.
Children's Understanding and Remembering of Stressful Experiences
Authors: Baker-Ward Lynne , Ornstein Peter A. , Starnes Lauren P.
Published: May 2009

Autobiographical memory involves a set of constructive processes that can continue long after an experience has ended but which nonetheless influence our understanding and memory of the events of our lives. This chapter considers these constructive processes as they impact children's understanding of emotionally significant experiences and their subsequent memory for these events. It suggests that the processes involved in the encoding of information in memory are knowledge-driven and extended in time. Children's understanding of the events that they experience is critical for subsequent remembering, and comprehension is driven by both endogenous and exogenous forces that may operate long after an event has ended. In turn, our understanding of children's abilities to remember events, especially those that are emotionally laden, requires an analysis of the factors that influence the establishment and modification—through extended encoding—of representations in memory.
Injuries, Emergency Rooms, and Children's Memory
Authors: Peterson Carole , Warren Kelly L.
Published: May 2009

This chapter begins by presenting recent theoretical discussion of the relationship between stress and memory. It then summarizes a body of research that explored children's recall of naturally occurring stressful events, specifically injuries serious enough to require hospital emergency-room treatment. It focuses on potential sources of individual variation in children's recall of real-life stressful events, both in research conducted in the laboratory and in related research conducted by other investigators. Finally, the chapter discusses the practical significance of this work for clinical and legal contexts.
Coping and Memory
Authors: Compas Bruce E. , Campbell Laura K. , Robinson Kristen E. , Rodriguez Erin M.
Published: May 2009

This chapter describes a dual-process model of responses to stress as a framework for understanding stress, coping, and memory. The model includes both automatic and controlled responses to stress that involve engagement with or disengagement from sources of stress and one's emotions. Controlled responses to stress, which are equated with the concept of coping, are considered within the broader cognitive processes of executive functions and memory. Two examples from research on children and adults with cancer are used to show the diverse relations among these processes—the relations between controlled, working memory processes and coping, and the interplay between disengagement coping and intrusive, automatic memories. Finally, directions for future research on the role of memory in coping with stress are outlined.
Mother-Child Emotion Dialogues
Authors: Oppenheim David , Koren-Karie Nina
Published: May 2009

Mother-child conversations about the past, including dialogues about distressing events experienced by the child, play an important role in the development of children's autobiographical memory. This chapter describes studies of such dialogues and reviews findings that point to their importance. Findings from the longitudinal studies including both low- and high-risk samples highlight the importance of the dialogues that evolve between mothers and children when they discuss children's memories of emotional events. Within this context, mothers' sensitive guidance and structuring of the dialogues and children's openness and cooperation while jointly negotiating the narrative have emerged as particularly meaningful.
An Integrated Model of Emotional Memory
Authors: Alexander Kristen Weede , O'Hara Karen Davis
Published: May 2009

This chapter focuses on the state of research and theory concerning relations among emotion, developmental context, and memory in development, with a particular emphasis on how psychobiological processes play an integral role in these relations. Because memory is a skill relying heavily on a variety of cognitive, social, and biological factors, it posits that a dynamic systems framework is essential to understanding the development of memory for emotional and stressful experiences. The chapter begins with an overview of this theoretical framework in the context of emotional memory. It then turns to factors within the dynamic model by providing an overview of the psychophysiological systems involved in emotional memory. With this lens, memory for emotional experiences is further considered, beginning with the nature of the emotional event itself. Next, the chapter reviews developmental and individual differences related to children's processing of emotional experiences, focusing on individual differences related to social and cognitive processes and emotion regulation. The chapter concludes with applications of this model to clinical and legal domains and suggestions for new directions of future research.
Stress Effects on the Brain System Underlying Explicit Memory
Authors: Carver Leslie J. , Cluver Annette
Published: May 2009

This chapter reviews the literature on the development of event memory and the brain system that underlies it. It describes what is known about the explicit memory system and its development, as well as areas in which more could be understood about the development of the system. It reviews the literature on effects of stress on the development of the explicit memory system, and proposes ways in which timing and plasticity could play a role in long-term effects of stress on the brain basis of memory.
Islam and Liberal Citizenship
Authors: March Andrew F.
Published: May 2009

This book examines both the liberal and the Islamic legal and doctrinal treatments of the moral and political terms of residence and citizenship in a non-Muslim liberal democracy. It seeks to stage an ideal moral encounter between contemporary political liberalism and evolving Islamic doctrinal discourses, first elaborating a uniquely detailed methodology for normative inquiry across ethical and religious traditions, asking what is involved morally and epistemically in justifying conceptions of justice and political morality in an ethical framework not one’s own. It then proposes an ideal-typical Islamic “doctrine of citizenship” in a non-Muslim liberal democracy, based on a survey of Islamic objections to liberal citizenship. It then examines Islamic doctrinal responses to the minority condition, from early juridical prohibitions on residing in non-Muslim lands to contemporary fatwas and treatises on the “jurisprudence of Muslim minorities” (fiqh al-aqalliyyat al-muslima). The specific questions comprising the general problem of citizenship in Islamic discourses include the terms and conditions of residence in non-Muslim polities; balancing Islamic commitments with loyalty to non-Muslim polities; the recognition of moral pluralism and solidarity with non-Muslim fellow citizens. This book establishes that classical Islamic jurisprudence already contains many powerful resources for justifying moral commitment to a non-Muslim society and that even conservative, classically-minded Islamic scholars are engaged in a theorization and theologizing of principled moral obligation to non-Muslims and non-Islamic polities.
1 Purposes: The Place of Justificatory Comparative Political Theory
Authors: March Andrew F.
Published: May 2009

This chapter explains further the idea of an overlapping consensus and the interest in arguing for one across multiple ethical traditions, showing that this interest is primarily derived from the desire for social stability and solidarity, rather than first-order philosophical moral justification. The chapter surveys the justificatory theories of John Rawls’s political liberalism and Jürgen Habermas’s discourse ethics, as well as the relativist critiques of Rorty and Fish, arguing that there is a basic agreement that the justification of liberal norms from within a particular religious tradition is of primarily political interest, rather than philosophical. It closes with a defense of justificatory comparative political theory primarily aimed at refuting the charge of cultural hegemony and clarifying the nature of the “liberal bias” involved. The central argument is that this inquiry is ultimately deeply respectful of Islam as an autonomous source of ethical thought and motivation, which is compatible with criticism of specific doctrines or practices.
4 Identifying Equilibrium: An Ideal-Typical Islamic Doctrine of Citizenship
Authors: March Andrew F.
Published: May 2009

This chapter seeks to establish what is reasonable for citizens in a liberal society to demand of Muslim fellow citizens by way of an “Islamic doctrine of citizenship” if it is to be said that there is an overlapping consensus on the terms of social cooperation. This inquiry involves two distinctions: between justice and citizenship, and between a citizen and a “loyal resident alien” or an “alienated citizen.” It is best perceived as the search for a fully reasonable account of the minimal demands of liberal citizenship least in conflict with the aims and sprit of Islamic political ethics. Ideal-typical “reasonable” Islamic positions are formulated on the core questions of residence, political obligation, loyalty, recognition, solidarity and political participation to be used in later chapters for evaluating existing Islamic views.
5 Residence in a Non-Muslim State
Authors: March Andrew F.
Published: May 2009

This chapter examines the Islamic arguments for the permissibility of residence (iqama) in a non-Muslim country, against a tradition which holds it divinely prohibited and holds that migration (hijra) is mandatory or encouraged. It shows that even medieval Islamic jurists did not condition such residence on the ability to govern Muslim minority communities by Islamic law as a clear facet of the need to “manifest one’s religion.” This chapter introduces for the first time the Islamic obligation of proselytization (da‘wa) and how the possibilities for missionary activity are central to classical and contemporary Islamic justifications of residence in non-Muslim lands. Da‘wa is argued to have an ambiguous status as a motivating reason from a liberal perspective. Some attention is paid to the Islamic classification of non-Muslim lands as “abodes” of War (dar al-harb), Unbelief (dar al-kufr), Treaty (dar al-’ahd), Security (dar al-aman) Calling (dar al-da‘wa) and Testimony (dar al-shahada).
Recipes for Immortality
Authors: Weiss Richard S
Published: May 2009

This book illuminates the present success of traditional doctors by examining the ways that siddha medical practitioners in Tamil south India have won the trust and patronage of patients. While biomedicine might alleviate a patient’s physical distress, siddha doctors offer their clientele much more: affiliation to a timeless and pure community, the fantasy of a Tamil utopia, and even the prospect of immortality. They speak of a golden age of Tamil civilization and of traditional medicine, drawing on broader revivalist formulations of a pure and ancient Tamil community. This work illuminates the lives, vocations, and aspirations of these traditional doctors, documenting the challenges they face in the modern world. It demonstrates that medical authority is based not only on physical effectiveness, but also on imaginative processes that relate to personal and social identities; conceptions of history, secrecy, and loss; and utopian promise. Drawing from ethnographic data; premodern Tamil texts on medicine, alchemy, and yoga; government archival resources; college textbooks; and popular literature on siddha medicine and on the siddhar yogis, this book presents a study of a traditional system of knowledge that serves the medical needs of millions of Indians. It is more than a local study, however, analyzing the political and religious dimensions of medical discourse and authority in our modern world.