Increasing prevalence of depression poses a huge challenge to the healthcare systems, and the success rates of current standard therapies are limited. While 30% of treated patients do not experience a full remission after treatment, more than 75% of patients suffer from recurrent depressive episodes. Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing therapy represents an emerging treatment option of depression, and preliminary studies show promising effects with a probably higher remission rate when compared to control-therapies such as cognitive behavioral therapy. In the (...) present study, 49 patients with severe depression were treated with an integrated systemic treatment approach including EMDR therapy that followed a specific protocol with a treatment algorithm for depression in a naturalistic hospital setting. Following their discharge from the hospital, the patients were followed up by a structured telephone interview after 3 and 12 months. 27 of the 49 patients fulfilled the Beck’s depression criteria of a full remission when they were discharged. At the follow-up interview, 12 months after discharge, 7 of the 27 patients reported a relapse, while the remaining 20 patients had stayed relapse-free. The findings of our observational study confirm reports of earlier studies in patients with depression, showing that EMDR therapy leads to a high rate of remission, and is associated with a decreased number of relapses. Patients with depression receiving EMDR treatment may be more resilient to stressors. (shrink)

According to Gilead and colleagues, to be efficient abstraction requires a hierarchical organization of information into long-term memory. But, how and when are abstract representations consolidated into long-term memory and how are they integrated with pre-existing abstracta are questions not discussed by Gilead and colleagues. Here, we propose that these processes occur preferentially during offline periods such as sleep.

Campo ainda recente, os estudos das iluminuras medievais tem se apresentado como uma opção importante para pensar a imagem na Idade Média. Nas pesquisas de Jérôme Baschet, a identificação da imagem-objeto é fundamental para pensar os diversos tipos dessas imagens, feitas e vistas pelos homens, e indícios de seus sentimentos. A linguagem visual se apresentou como uma expressão frutífera para a compreensão da sociedade medieval. Com características próprias, as imagens do medievo são chamadas para a discussão a partir da historiografia, (...) nesse trabalho, buscando apresentar os principais conceitos da imagética medieval, e identificando-os a um tipo específico: a imagem dos livros. Esse tipo imagético, essencialmente vinculado ao seu suporte é localizado nas relações de estudos específicos como a ornamentalidade, o simbolismo e a materialidade. Os trabalhos identificados aqui são colocados em questão para discutir as funcionalidades fundamentais da visualidade que identificam a imago dos manuscritos. (shrink)

A crucial aspect of Gilead and colleagues’ ontology is the dichotomy between tangible and intangible representations, but the latter remains rather ill-defined. We propose a fundamental role for interoceptive experience and the statistical distribution of entities in language, especially for intangible representations, that we believe Gilead and colleagues’ ontology needs to incorporate.