Anxiety disorders are among the most prevalent mental disorders. Present treatments such as cognitive behavior therapy and pharmacological treatments show only moderate success, which emphasizes the importance for the development of new treatment protocols. Non-invasive brain stimulation methods such as repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation and transcranial direct current stimulation have been probed as therapeutic option for anxiety disorders in recent years. Mechanistic information about their mode of action, and most efficient protocols is however limited. Here the fear extinction model can (...) serve as a model of exposure therapies for studying therapeutic mechanisms, and development of appropriate intervention protocols. We systematically reviewed 30 research articles that investigated the impact of rTMS and tDCS on fear memory and extinction in animal models and humans, in clinical and healthy populations. The results of these studies suggest that tDCS and rTMS can be efficient methods to modulate fear memory and extinction. Furthermore, excitability-enhancing stimulation applied over the vmPFC showed the strongest potential to enhance fear extinction. We further discuss factors that determine the efficacy of rTMS and tDCS in the context of the fear extinction model and provide future directions to optimize parameters and protocols of stimulation for research and treatment. (shrink)

Emotion-processing impairment represents a risk factor for the development of somatic illness, affecting negatively both health-related quality of life and disease management in several chronic diseases. The present pilot study aims at investigating the associations between alexithymia and depression, anxiety, and HRQoL in patients with Hashimoto’s thyroiditis ; examining the association between these three psychological conditions together with HRQoL, and thyroid autoantibodies status as well as thyroid echotexture in patients with HT; and comparing the intensity of all these clinical psychological (...) features in patients with HT versus controls. Twenty-one patients with serologically or ultrasonographically verified HT and 16 controls with non-toxic goiter or postsurgical hypothyroidism were recruited for this study. Serum thyrotropin and free thyroxine, as well as thyroid autoantibodies, were assayed. Alexithymia, depression, anxiety, and HRQoL were assessed with Toronto Alexithymia Scale; Beck Depression Inventory, second edition; Hamilton Anxiety Rating Scale; and Health Survey Short-Form 36, respectively. A negative relationship between the difficulty to describe feelings and the cognitive component of depression was found. Besides, patients with seronegative HT had lower somatic anxiety than patients with HT who tested positive. Besides, no statistically significant difference was found between patients with HT and controls with regard to somatic anxiety. The present study suggests the relevance of alexithymia in patients suffering from HT, which may be intertwined with a possible state of underreported depression that is mainly expressed through physical complaints. Promoting the capability to describe and communicate feelings could contribute to psychological elaboration and coping with the disease and, consequently, to the improvement of self-management and perceived HRQoL. (shrink)

Time processing is a multifaceted skill crucial for managing different aspects of life. In the current work, we explored the relationship between interoception and time processing by examining research on clinical models. We investigated whether time processing deficits are associated with dysfunction of the interoceptive system and/or insular cortex activity, which is crucial in decoding internal body signaling. Furthermore, we explored whether insular activation predicts the subjective experience of time (that is, the subjective duration of a target stimulus to be (...) timed). Overall, our work suggests that alteration of the interoceptive system could be a common psychophysiological hallmark of mental disorders affected by time processing deficits. (shrink)

This study described the relationships between academic class and student moral sensitivity and reasoning and between curriculum design components for ethics education and student moral sensitivity and reasoning. The data were collected from freshman (n = 506) and senior students (n = 440) in eight baccalaureate nursing programs in South Korea by survey; the survey consisted of the Korean Moral Sensitivity Questionnaire and the Korean Defining Issues Test. The results showed that moral sensitivity scores in patient-oriented care and conflict were (...) higher in senior students than in freshman students. Furthermore, more hours of ethics content were associated with higher principled thinking scores of senior students. Nursing education in South Korea may have an impact on developing student moral sensitivity. Planned ethics content in nursing curricula is necessary to improve moral sensitivity and moral reasoning of students. (shrink)

The aim of this paper is to analyze whether a number of firm and industry characteristics, as well as media exposure, are potential determinants of corporate social responsibility (CSR) disclosure practices by Spanish listed firms. Empirical studies have shown that CSR disclosure activism varies across companies, industries, and time (Gray et al., Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal 8(2), 47–77, 1995; Journal of Business Finance & Accounting 28(3/4), 327–356, 2001; Hackston and Milne, Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal 9(1), 77–108, 1996; Cormier (...) and Magnan, Journal of International Financial Management and Accounting 1(2), 171–195, 2003; Cormier et al., European Accounting Review 14(1), 3–39, 2005), which is usually justified by reference to several theoretical constructs, such as the legitimacy, stakeholder, and agency theories. Our findings evidence that firms with higher CSR ratings present a statistically significant larger size and a higher media exposure, and belong to more environmentally sensitive industries, as compared to firms with lower CSR ratings. However, neither profitability nor leverage seem to explain differences in CSR disclosure practices between Spanish listed firms. The most influential variable for explaining firms’ variation in CSR ratings is media exposure, followed by size and industry. Therefore, it seems that the legitimacy theory, as captured by those variables related to public or social visibility, is the most relevant theory for explaining CSR disclosure practices of Spanish listed firms. (shrink)

This article is a first attempt to line out the conditions under which executives might have a real self-interest in pursuing a broad stakeholder management (SM) orientation to enlarge their power. We suggest that managers have wider latitude of action under an SM approach, even when this is instrumental to financial performance. The causally ambiguity of the performance effects of idiosyncratic relationships with stakeholders not only makes SM strategy difficult for competitors to imitate but also increases managerial discretion. When managers (...) use this situation for their own benefit, they can undermine the purported goals of the SM approach. By analyzing some of the factors that might lead to such disfunctionalities, this article advances a theory of the potential dark side of SM. (shrink)

The concept of simultaneous masking in visual field is discussed, in the light of classical examples, of the various kinds of the phenomenon, of a modal completion, of the figure/ground phenomenon, of ambiguous and reversible figures, of mimicry and camouflage and eventually of the complexity of the stimulus. There is some reference to masking in auditory field. The “reality” of the masked configuration is discussed, drawing the conclusion that it is perceptually unreal. The fact that the masking phenomenon cannot take (...) place without comparison between two perceptual acts – what we see at one moment and what we see a moment after LATER – and the fact that the masked configuration pops out with some surprise, lead to the conclusion that simultaneous masking in visual field is not a bare perceptual phenomenon, but a psychological process not unlike insight. (shrink)

Tomo I. La logica -- Tomo II. La religione (e dintorni).

_Phenomenology of Perception: Theories and Experimental Evidence_ presents an interpretation of phenomenology as a set of commitments to discover the immanent grammar of perception by reviewing arguments and experimental results that are still important today for psychology and the cognitive sciences.

This article has two objectives: firstly, studying the main contributions and deficiencies of the Law No. 103.13 on the fight of violence against women, enacted in Morocco on March 12th 2018. Secondly, studying ideological stress points between the civil society that is most committed with gender violence in Morocco, whose referents are based on the international declarations and conventions, and the governmental institutions of the Justice and Development Party, in power from January 2012, whose approaches are determined by the Islamist (...) ideology and by certain symbolic-religious Islamic specialties. (shrink)

Ignatius’ hymnographic corpus is still composed by the scattered group of compositions listed a century ago. But it is to be noted that on many of the compositions attributed to Ignatius, however, there is often the doubt of Theophanes’ authorship. This contribution starts from an analysis of the elements offered by the manuscript tradition in order to proceed to a complete redefinition of production and style of the hymnographer, according particular attention to the great number of Ignatius’ unedited compositions. On (...) one hand, in fact, it is possible to attribute to Ignatius, on the basis of the testimony of the liturgical Typikon of Evergetis, some canons already known by other means. On the other hand, in the manuscripts there is other hymnographic material, still completely unedited, which could be attributed to Ignatius and be useful to a comprehensive picture of the matter. (shrink)

In this theoretical paper, the claim is defended that phenomenology of perception can be integrated into vision science. Different versions of theoretical and experimental phenomenology are presented to specify a minimal set of commitments. It is claimed that the phenomenological research into perception, be it delivered in the form of conceptual analysis or of experimental research, satisfies the epistemological and methodological substantive features of these commitments. As an empirical case for the contribution that the integration of phenomenology into vision science (...) could bring about, the paper presents a received view in the visual neurosciences and the objections against its elementarwise and reductionist stance. The relationships among models and mechanisms are discussed. It is argued that models endowed with linking propositions with phenomenological contents can provide the conceptual case for the integration of phenomenology into vision science to be carried out. (shrink)

Introduzione La formulazione dell’espressione neuroestetica è consensualmente attribuita a Semir Zeki, per il quale essa designa il progetto di elaborare una teoria neurobiologica dell’esperienza estetica. Come si realizza però concretamente questo progetto? Esistono problemi di metodo specifici per la neuroestetica? Nell’ambito del medesimo progetto, è possibile individuare approcci diversi allo studio dell’esperienza estetica? Inoltre, quali aspetti dell’esperienza estetica sono di solito o...

_Phenomenology of Perception: Theories and Experimental Evidence_ presents an interpretation of phenomenology as a set of commitments to discover the immanent grammar of perception by reviewing arguments and experimental results that are still important today for psychology and the cognitive sciences.

La crisis desatada por la pandemia de la COVID-19 magnificó las asimetrías sociales. Caída del ingreso, mayor exposición al paro, inestabilidad laboral, incremento de las inequidades de género, colapso de la sanidad pública, y peores rendimientos en materia de aprendizaje e igualdad educativa se cuentan entre las consecuencias del aumento de la desigualdad global. En esta contribución argumento que la inequidad también se manifestó como desigualdad informativa. En un contexto donde la ponderación de la información se tornó más complicada, y (...) donde los aspectos epistémicos y axiológicos de la cultura del riesgo afloraron con singular claridad, la identidad social afectó la capacidad de evaluación de la información técnica y política. Los grupos sociales con menos educación e ingresos tuvieron una dieta informativa más restringida, con un énfasis en las redes sociales, menor conocimiento sobre el virus, ambivalencia frente a las medidas de actuación, o dificultades para ponderar la calidad de la información mediática e institucional. En definitiva, estuvieron más expuestos a las campañas de desinformación, particularmente agudizadas con el auge de las redes sociales en el mundo del capitalismo digital. A nivel individual, esta asimetría conspira contra la autonomía de las personas y su condición de ciudadanos. En el plano colectivo, amenaza el alcance y la calidad de la cultura científico-tecnológica y la gobernanza democrática. Es necesario discutir la relación entre desinformación y democracia, revalorizar el papel de la participación política para la gobernanza y la educación para la autonomía, el pensamiento y el desarrollo de una ética ciudadana cosmopolita. (shrink)

Based upon the quintuple helix model (QHM), this study explores whether the differences in firms' emission reduction effectiveness can be attributed to the five institutional helices related to educational system, economic development, political–legal system, cultural orientation, and the natural capital. Using a set of listed European firms for the 2015–2020 period, we show that firms with better emission reduction effectiveness operate in nations with more public educational expenditure and scientific production, more extensive economic development, and better institutional and governance quality. (...) Moreover, emission reduction strategies are more pronounced in firms located in countries characterized by less masculinity, individualism, power distance, and uncertainty avoidance, and more long-term orientation and indulgence. In addition, we find that companies with better emission reduction effectiveness are found in countries with more natural capital, characterized by a life in harmony with nature and employing the finite resources available in a sustainable and environmentally conscious manner. Moreover, employing a two-stage model to identify the most relevant helix, we find that the political–legal system helix is the most pivotal in promoting firms' commitment to reducing environmental emissions. (shrink)

What importance do we recognize to the relationship between education and individuality in today’s educational institutions? Recent educational policy choices are increasingly focused on proposing curricula based on the skills to be acquired, (standard) action parameters for schools and on the use of “accountability” devices aimed at verifying the achievement of expected results. Following a similar approach, the individuality of each appears as a neglected element. In this article, the link between education and individuality in school curricula is addressed, according (...) to a phenomenological perspective. The starting point outlines a synthetic picture of the ways in which the philosophy of contemporary education thematizes the issue; then, in a second part, it develops a phenomenological description of the relationship between education and individuality such as to integrate and broaden the contributions of today’s philosophy of education. The article concludes by showing some implications aimed at rethinking the school experience as an opportunity for integral education and suggests indications for possible further research. (shrink)

What follows is the elaboration of a series of discussions held by the two authors at a seminar during which we tried to “read” Wim Wenders's Lisbon Story starting from Gregory Bateson's double bind theory. These discussions then developed into writings that were intertwined, hybridized, corrected, extended, and cut. We experimented directly with the game of relationships, the “mess that works” of the difficult distinction between map and territory, between epistemology and cinematography. Emerging from general considerations on cinema is the (...) double bind of the “crisis” of images, a prelude to a renewed faith in the creative and constructive possibilities of art: image not as a replica but as the experience of a relationship. (shrink)