In this article, we provide a book review on Hengwei Li's new book, "The Biotic View of Mind and ... more In this article, we provide a book review on Hengwei Li's new book, "The Biotic View of Mind and Issues of Posthuman Society." The author presents a groundbreaking perspective, the biotic view of mind, which is known as the strong continuity view within the life-mind continuity thesis, resonating with pragmatism and predictive processing theory. Furthermore, this viewpoint is extended to the real-life context on intelligent technology and the forms of posthuman society, offering valuable insights for navigating the development of future society. Lastly, the author addresses the opposition and conflicts between the "two cultures" in cognitive science and proposes three potential solutions to this existing predicament. Given that this book spans philosophy, biology, psychology, neuroscience, and cognitive science, we believe it can inspire researchers and advanced students alike.
Feeling & knowing: making minds conscious, by Antonio Damasio, Pantheon
Books, New York, 2021, 25... more Feeling & knowing: making minds conscious, by Antonio Damasio, Pantheon Books, New York, 2021, 256 pp. $16.99 (hbk), ISBN 9781524747558
In Michael Tomasello’s new book, The Evolution of Agency: Behavioral Organization from Lizards to... more In Michael Tomasello’s new book, The Evolution of Agency: Behavioral Organization from Lizards to Humans, it posits a close relationship between agency and the evolution of animal and human behavior. Tomasello adopts an integrated perspective, tracing ancient animals to early humans within the constraints of social norms. This book details a fascinating journey through the evolution of agency, therein presenting an innovatively comprehensive framework for analyzing processes of decision-making and behavioral control. Given the current interest in establishing connections among evolving individual agency, we think this book is a timely contribution, particularly for multidisciplinary researchers looking into the domain.
Neuro-philosophy and the Healthy Mind (2016) is an intriguing book. The neuroscientist, psychiatr... more Neuro-philosophy and the Healthy Mind (2016) is an intriguing book. The neuroscientist, psychiatrist, and philosopher Georg Northoff offers a careful and alluring investigation of brain-environment relations via treating those brains of his clinical patients with psychiatric disorders, developing a framework for neurophilosophical inquiry, notably raising the question of “ontology of the brain” as the core issue of neurophilosophy.
Werner’s argument that coordination produces cognitive niches has proceeded largely by means of s... more Werner’s argument that coordination produces cognitive niches has proceeded largely by means of some sort of cognitive connections. Perhaps formal ontology is useful to clarify a cluster of formal-ontological notions, including parts, connections, and locations. Yet constructivists should be careful with formal ontology. At any rate, formal ontology is not just about the use of predicate expressions.
The central issue of Consciousness in the Physical World is Russellian monism, which claims that ... more The central issue of Consciousness in the Physical World is Russellian monism, which claims that consciousness could be ontologically reduced to intrinsic properties of physical objects. In contemporary discussions, Russellian monism is more broadly defined than Russell’s original version of neutral monism, and it even becomes a family of views. In this review, based on two major distinctions between Russellian monism and Russell’s neutral monism, we point out that these current re-interpretations not only extend Russell’s theory; some may also put a heavy metaphysical burden on Russell’s construction of matter from experience.
当代社会认知的理论版图可分为经典概念工具箱与正在与之对抗的新概念工具两部分。经考证，理论论和模拟论等经典概念工具集中诞生于1980年代的美国认知科学界，可以被视为1956认知革命蔓延至社会心理学... more 当代社会认知的理论版图可分为经典概念工具箱与正在与之对抗的新概念工具两部分。经考证，理论论和模拟论等经典概念工具集中诞生于1980年代的美国认知科学界，可以被视为1956认知革命蔓延至社会心理学领域的产物，而新概念工具可以被视为与第二代认知革命相适合的替代理论。历史上，社会心理学接受了认知主义的“物”的抽象认知原理，也全盘接受了它带来的理论负荷，即对“人”的感知被还原为对“物”的感知，并且隶属于后者。然而，基于“物”的抽象认知原理始终无法与社会认知的以“人”为本的实践经验相结合，也未能实现该领域的自治。事实上，这一理论困难并非一直存在于“社会认知”的历史路径中，至少在以Heider为标志性人物的1950年代早期社会认知中便不是这样。Heider“人不是物”理论体系在个人层面上包括知觉实在论、事件归因和生命性-非生命性范畴区分三个部分，但是第三个理论部件彼时囿于作者主题侧重、证据不足、技术匮乏等多种原因未能完成。结合当代来自演化和比较的、行为和发展的以及神经通路假设的新证据，通过重新发掘并最终完整构建了“人不是物”论题，尝试为当代社会认知理论困难提供一个建设性意见。
In this article, firstly, we argue that the concept of vitality forms endows direct social percep... more In this article, firstly, we argue that the concept of vitality forms endows direct social perception (DSP) with suitable constructed percepts. Vitality forms capture how embodied actions unfold in the process, encapsulating the how-dimension of action; which provides a new dimension for understanding the multiplicities of action. Secondly, we discuss how vitality forms as a diachronic gestalt are completed and recognized in the process of dyadic sharing. We attempt to invoke another concept advocated by Stern, "moments of meeting," thereby emphasizing the temporality problem of the constructed percepts in DSP. In these special moments, the minds of both parties intersect and co-construct a shared experience that can be perceived or seen by each participant. That is, vitality forms are a consequence of the co-construction within the dyad at the moments of meeting.
靶文中讨论的泛心论版本为构成式的泛心论，是一种作为形而上学的泛心论，因为其需要依靠思辨哲学的技能和科学物理学知识，于是成了只有职业哲学家才可以涉足的知识领域。在此种泛心论版本之外，本文提出曾经被... more 靶文中讨论的泛心论版本为构成式的泛心论，是一种作为形而上学的泛心论，因为其需要依靠思辨哲学的技能和科学物理学知识，于是成了只有职业哲学家才可以涉足的知识领域。在此种泛心论版本之外，本文提出曾经被视为原始人类社会主导世界观的泛心论或泛灵论版本，因其主要依靠现象因果性感知，可以被视为作为朴素心理学的泛心论版本。之后，本文首先基于现代神经技术讨论了有生命性-无生命性对象范畴区分，然后进一步讨论了作为强版本的皮亚杰儿童泛灵论以及可能作为一种弱版本的基于语用拟人化的儿童泛灵论倾向。
Humanities and Social Sciences Communications, 2024
The notion of the "Self" is one of the most critical issues in contemporary cognitive science. Wh... more The notion of the "Self" is one of the most critical issues in contemporary cognitive science. Whether the self is a single and independent real entity or a collection of constantly changing experiences has been at the core of debates between the substance theory and the illusion theory. Compared to the neglect of this issue in Western tradition studies, the meticulous practice of mindfulness/awareness in Eastern research traditions has long focused on this contradiction. This paper navigates the intricate dimensions of the "Self" by weaving together the Oriental framework of the five aggregates with the Middle Way, the principles of constructivism, and the empirical methodologies of experimental philosophy. This approach bridges the gap by synthesizing introspective first-person experiences with objective thirdperson scientific observations to enrich the understanding of self-constructivism. The implications of these findings extend into the practical realms of psychology and philosophy, offering a scaffold for future research to elucidate the multifaceted nature of the self further.
To many scientists and philosophers, embodied cognition lacks validity, since it fails to offer e... more To many scientists and philosophers, embodied cognition lacks validity, since it fails to offer extraordinary evidence. In this article, we claim that the development of one possible evidence-based embodied cognition could initiate a considerable research project through the inner workings of bodily constitutive neuro-machinery. We call it “interoceptive embodied cognition”; here, the concept of interoception plays the role of filling in the (inner) gap of vacuous embodiment. The most important tenet of embodied cognition for our purpose is the standard of constitution to which we will repeatedly return. We will look back to the three standards of embodied cognition and then regard interoception as the (inner) filling-in echoing the constitution standard of embodied cognition. We will then demonstrate the varieties and constituents of interoception. Next, we will present interoception’s close relationship to at least four subdomains of embodied cognition, which include: (a) sense of embodiment, (b) embodied self, (c) embodied emotion, and (d) embodied social cognition. Finally, we will conclude with the preliminaries of interoceptive embodied cognition.
伴随哲学中的自然主义转向，他心问题迎来复兴。其中，一个奠基性的观念在于重塑了知觉在我们通达他心中扮演的角色，并开始与笛卡尔时代以来占据心灵哲学与认知科学实验室的推理主义分庭抗礼。知觉作为一种自主... more 伴随哲学中的自然主义转向，他心问题迎来复兴。其中，一个奠基性的观念在于重塑了知觉在我们通达他心中扮演的角色，并开始与笛卡尔时代以来占据心灵哲学与认知科学实验室的推理主义分庭抗礼。知觉作为一种自主体独有的即时性、动态性心理活动，具有深刻的生物演化根基，但上述特征在对他心问题的经典分析中受到忽视。本文尝试整合种系发生学层面上的生命性感知机制与个体发生学层面上的活力形态理论，为他心直接感知理论提供认识论辩护。在此基础上，我们引入新兴的第二人称神经科学，论证了一种通达他心的方法论进路——神经过程哲学。
The American psychoanalyst and developmental psychologist Daniel Stern’s idea of vitality forms m... more The American psychoanalyst and developmental psychologist Daniel Stern’s idea of vitality forms might suggest a new solution to explain how other minds are intensely expressed in their actions. Vitality forms characterize the expressive style of actions. The effective perception of vitality forms allows people to recognize the affective states and intentions of others in their actions, and could even open the possibility of properties of objects that are indicated by the given actions. Currently, neurophysiological studies present that there might be a neural mirror mechanism in the dorso-central insula, middle cingulate cortex and other related cerebral areas, which serve to preferably perceive and deliver vitality forms of actions. In this article, possible types of vitality forms related to other minds, which have been brought to particular attention in the recent years, have been collected and discussed in the following four areas: (1) vitality forms on understanding non-verbal intention; (2) on understanding verbal intention; (3) vitality forms as grounding social cognition; and (4) as grounding social emotion. These four areas, however, might refer to an entirety of a binary actor-observer communicative landscape. In this review, we try to simplify the analysis by relying on two fundamental dimensions of criteria: first, the idea of vitality forms is conceived as the most basic way of observing subsequent higher-order dimension of action—that is, understanding intention in the style of action. Thus, in the first two subsections the relationships between vitality forms and its roles of understanding non-verbal and verbal intention have been discussed. Second, vitality forms could also be conceived as background conditions of all the other mental categories—that is, vitality forms can ground cognition and emotion in social context. In the second dimension the existence of social cognition or emotion depends on the existence of the stylistic kinematics of action. A grounding relation is used to distinguish a ground—vitality forms—and its grounded mental categories. As relating with the domain of social perception, in this review it has been discussed vitality forms possibly could ground social cognition and social emotion, respectively.
活力形态与行为的基本特征相关，这些特征代表着思维或行为者的生动体验状态。具体来说，它指的是行为是如何在空间和时间中进行的，即行为的“如何”维度。社会可供性是指由社会实践和规范塑造的社会互动的可能... more 活力形态与行为的基本特征相关，这些特征代表着思维或行为者的生动体验状态。具体来说，它指的是行为是如何在空间和时间中进行的，即行为的“如何”维度。社会可供性是指由社会实践和规范塑造的社会互动的可能性。活力形态和社会可供性作为理解人类行动意图的两种途径，近期引起诸多研究者的兴趣。分别对活力形态和社会可供性的概念和应用进行了探讨; 对二者的联系和区别也进行了简单介绍。未来研究可采用认知神经科学手段对这两种理解人类行动意图的途径进一步探索。
Background: Individuals who use methamphetamine (MA) for a long period of time may experience dec... more Background: Individuals who use methamphetamine (MA) for a long period of time may experience decreased inhibition and increased impulsivity. In order to reduce impulsivity or improve inhibitory control ability, high-frequency repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (HF-rTMS) has attracted much attention of researchers. Recent studies on addiction have shown that rTMS can stimulate different brain regions to produce different therapeutic effects. Recent work also suggests that HF-rTMS over right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) does not affect the impulsivity of patients with alcohol use disorder; while HF-rTMS over left DLPFC could improve the impulsivity of patients with alcohol use disorder and cigarette smokers. However, it should be noted that empirical studies applying HF-rTMS over left DLPFC of patients with MA use disorders (MAUD) (to evaluate its effect on impulsivity) are still lacking.
Methods: Twenty-nine patients with MAUD underwent five sessions of HF-rTMS on the left DLPFC per week for 4 consecutive weeks. The cue-induced craving and stop-signal and NoGo task were assessed pre-rTMS and post-rTMS (at the end of the 4-week rTMS treatment). In addition, 29 healthy controls were recruited. There was no rTMS intervention for the controls, the performance of the stop-signal and NoGo task was evaluated on them.
Results: In total, HF-rTMS of the left DLPFC significantly decreased MA-dependent patients’ cue-induced craving and stop-signal reaction time (SSRT). For SSRT, the pre-test of experimental group was significantly higher than the score of control group. In the experimental group, the pre-test score was significantly higher than the post-test score. For Go and stop-signal delay (SSD), the pre-test scores of the experimental group was significantly lower than the scores of the control group. No significant difference was found between the pre-test and the post-test scores of the experimental group.
Conclusion: Add-on HF-rTMS of left DLPFC may be an effective intervention for reducing impulsivity and cue-induced craving of patients with MAUD. Future research with a control group of MAUD that does not undergo the treatment is needed to confirm the effectiveness.
In this article, we provide a book review on Hengwei Li's new book, "The Biotic View of Mind and ... more In this article, we provide a book review on Hengwei Li's new book, "The Biotic View of Mind and Issues of Posthuman Society." The author presents a groundbreaking perspective, the biotic view of mind, which is known as the strong continuity view within the life-mind continuity thesis, resonating with pragmatism and predictive processing theory. Furthermore, this viewpoint is extended to the real-life context on intelligent technology and the forms of posthuman society, offering valuable insights for navigating the development of future society. Lastly, the author addresses the opposition and conflicts between the "two cultures" in cognitive science and proposes three potential solutions to this existing predicament. Given that this book spans philosophy, biology, psychology, neuroscience, and cognitive science, we believe it can inspire researchers and advanced students alike.
Feeling & knowing: making minds conscious, by Antonio Damasio, Pantheon
Books, New York, 2021, 25... more Feeling & knowing: making minds conscious, by Antonio Damasio, Pantheon Books, New York, 2021, 256 pp. $16.99 (hbk), ISBN 9781524747558
In Michael Tomasello’s new book, The Evolution of Agency: Behavioral Organization from Lizards to... more In Michael Tomasello’s new book, The Evolution of Agency: Behavioral Organization from Lizards to Humans, it posits a close relationship between agency and the evolution of animal and human behavior. Tomasello adopts an integrated perspective, tracing ancient animals to early humans within the constraints of social norms. This book details a fascinating journey through the evolution of agency, therein presenting an innovatively comprehensive framework for analyzing processes of decision-making and behavioral control. Given the current interest in establishing connections among evolving individual agency, we think this book is a timely contribution, particularly for multidisciplinary researchers looking into the domain.
Neuro-philosophy and the Healthy Mind (2016) is an intriguing book. The neuroscientist, psychiatr... more Neuro-philosophy and the Healthy Mind (2016) is an intriguing book. The neuroscientist, psychiatrist, and philosopher Georg Northoff offers a careful and alluring investigation of brain-environment relations via treating those brains of his clinical patients with psychiatric disorders, developing a framework for neurophilosophical inquiry, notably raising the question of “ontology of the brain” as the core issue of neurophilosophy.
Werner’s argument that coordination produces cognitive niches has proceeded largely by means of s... more Werner’s argument that coordination produces cognitive niches has proceeded largely by means of some sort of cognitive connections. Perhaps formal ontology is useful to clarify a cluster of formal-ontological notions, including parts, connections, and locations. Yet constructivists should be careful with formal ontology. At any rate, formal ontology is not just about the use of predicate expressions.
The central issue of Consciousness in the Physical World is Russellian monism, which claims that ... more The central issue of Consciousness in the Physical World is Russellian monism, which claims that consciousness could be ontologically reduced to intrinsic properties of physical objects. In contemporary discussions, Russellian monism is more broadly defined than Russell’s original version of neutral monism, and it even becomes a family of views. In this review, based on two major distinctions between Russellian monism and Russell’s neutral monism, we point out that these current re-interpretations not only extend Russell’s theory; some may also put a heavy metaphysical burden on Russell’s construction of matter from experience.
当代社会认知的理论版图可分为经典概念工具箱与正在与之对抗的新概念工具两部分。经考证，理论论和模拟论等经典概念工具集中诞生于1980年代的美国认知科学界，可以被视为1956认知革命蔓延至社会心理学... more 当代社会认知的理论版图可分为经典概念工具箱与正在与之对抗的新概念工具两部分。经考证，理论论和模拟论等经典概念工具集中诞生于1980年代的美国认知科学界，可以被视为1956认知革命蔓延至社会心理学领域的产物，而新概念工具可以被视为与第二代认知革命相适合的替代理论。历史上，社会心理学接受了认知主义的“物”的抽象认知原理，也全盘接受了它带来的理论负荷，即对“人”的感知被还原为对“物”的感知，并且隶属于后者。然而，基于“物”的抽象认知原理始终无法与社会认知的以“人”为本的实践经验相结合，也未能实现该领域的自治。事实上，这一理论困难并非一直存在于“社会认知”的历史路径中，至少在以Heider为标志性人物的1950年代早期社会认知中便不是这样。Heider“人不是物”理论体系在个人层面上包括知觉实在论、事件归因和生命性-非生命性范畴区分三个部分，但是第三个理论部件彼时囿于作者主题侧重、证据不足、技术匮乏等多种原因未能完成。结合当代来自演化和比较的、行为和发展的以及神经通路假设的新证据，通过重新发掘并最终完整构建了“人不是物”论题，尝试为当代社会认知理论困难提供一个建设性意见。
In this article, firstly, we argue that the concept of vitality forms endows direct social percep... more In this article, firstly, we argue that the concept of vitality forms endows direct social perception (DSP) with suitable constructed percepts. Vitality forms capture how embodied actions unfold in the process, encapsulating the how-dimension of action; which provides a new dimension for understanding the multiplicities of action. Secondly, we discuss how vitality forms as a diachronic gestalt are completed and recognized in the process of dyadic sharing. We attempt to invoke another concept advocated by Stern, "moments of meeting," thereby emphasizing the temporality problem of the constructed percepts in DSP. In these special moments, the minds of both parties intersect and co-construct a shared experience that can be perceived or seen by each participant. That is, vitality forms are a consequence of the co-construction within the dyad at the moments of meeting.
靶文中讨论的泛心论版本为构成式的泛心论，是一种作为形而上学的泛心论，因为其需要依靠思辨哲学的技能和科学物理学知识，于是成了只有职业哲学家才可以涉足的知识领域。在此种泛心论版本之外，本文提出曾经被... more 靶文中讨论的泛心论版本为构成式的泛心论，是一种作为形而上学的泛心论，因为其需要依靠思辨哲学的技能和科学物理学知识，于是成了只有职业哲学家才可以涉足的知识领域。在此种泛心论版本之外，本文提出曾经被视为原始人类社会主导世界观的泛心论或泛灵论版本，因其主要依靠现象因果性感知，可以被视为作为朴素心理学的泛心论版本。之后，本文首先基于现代神经技术讨论了有生命性-无生命性对象范畴区分，然后进一步讨论了作为强版本的皮亚杰儿童泛灵论以及可能作为一种弱版本的基于语用拟人化的儿童泛灵论倾向。
Humanities and Social Sciences Communications, 2024
The notion of the "Self" is one of the most critical issues in contemporary cognitive science. Wh... more The notion of the "Self" is one of the most critical issues in contemporary cognitive science. Whether the self is a single and independent real entity or a collection of constantly changing experiences has been at the core of debates between the substance theory and the illusion theory. Compared to the neglect of this issue in Western tradition studies, the meticulous practice of mindfulness/awareness in Eastern research traditions has long focused on this contradiction. This paper navigates the intricate dimensions of the "Self" by weaving together the Oriental framework of the five aggregates with the Middle Way, the principles of constructivism, and the empirical methodologies of experimental philosophy. This approach bridges the gap by synthesizing introspective first-person experiences with objective thirdperson scientific observations to enrich the understanding of self-constructivism. The implications of these findings extend into the practical realms of psychology and philosophy, offering a scaffold for future research to elucidate the multifaceted nature of the self further.
To many scientists and philosophers, embodied cognition lacks validity, since it fails to offer e... more To many scientists and philosophers, embodied cognition lacks validity, since it fails to offer extraordinary evidence. In this article, we claim that the development of one possible evidence-based embodied cognition could initiate a considerable research project through the inner workings of bodily constitutive neuro-machinery. We call it “interoceptive embodied cognition”; here, the concept of interoception plays the role of filling in the (inner) gap of vacuous embodiment. The most important tenet of embodied cognition for our purpose is the standard of constitution to which we will repeatedly return. We will look back to the three standards of embodied cognition and then regard interoception as the (inner) filling-in echoing the constitution standard of embodied cognition. We will then demonstrate the varieties and constituents of interoception. Next, we will present interoception’s close relationship to at least four subdomains of embodied cognition, which include: (a) sense of embodiment, (b) embodied self, (c) embodied emotion, and (d) embodied social cognition. Finally, we will conclude with the preliminaries of interoceptive embodied cognition.
伴随哲学中的自然主义转向，他心问题迎来复兴。其中，一个奠基性的观念在于重塑了知觉在我们通达他心中扮演的角色，并开始与笛卡尔时代以来占据心灵哲学与认知科学实验室的推理主义分庭抗礼。知觉作为一种自主... more 伴随哲学中的自然主义转向，他心问题迎来复兴。其中，一个奠基性的观念在于重塑了知觉在我们通达他心中扮演的角色，并开始与笛卡尔时代以来占据心灵哲学与认知科学实验室的推理主义分庭抗礼。知觉作为一种自主体独有的即时性、动态性心理活动，具有深刻的生物演化根基，但上述特征在对他心问题的经典分析中受到忽视。本文尝试整合种系发生学层面上的生命性感知机制与个体发生学层面上的活力形态理论，为他心直接感知理论提供认识论辩护。在此基础上，我们引入新兴的第二人称神经科学，论证了一种通达他心的方法论进路——神经过程哲学。
The American psychoanalyst and developmental psychologist Daniel Stern’s idea of vitality forms m... more The American psychoanalyst and developmental psychologist Daniel Stern’s idea of vitality forms might suggest a new solution to explain how other minds are intensely expressed in their actions. Vitality forms characterize the expressive style of actions. The effective perception of vitality forms allows people to recognize the affective states and intentions of others in their actions, and could even open the possibility of properties of objects that are indicated by the given actions. Currently, neurophysiological studies present that there might be a neural mirror mechanism in the dorso-central insula, middle cingulate cortex and other related cerebral areas, which serve to preferably perceive and deliver vitality forms of actions. In this article, possible types of vitality forms related to other minds, which have been brought to particular attention in the recent years, have been collected and discussed in the following four areas: (1) vitality forms on understanding non-verbal intention; (2) on understanding verbal intention; (3) vitality forms as grounding social cognition; and (4) as grounding social emotion. These four areas, however, might refer to an entirety of a binary actor-observer communicative landscape. In this review, we try to simplify the analysis by relying on two fundamental dimensions of criteria: first, the idea of vitality forms is conceived as the most basic way of observing subsequent higher-order dimension of action—that is, understanding intention in the style of action. Thus, in the first two subsections the relationships between vitality forms and its roles of understanding non-verbal and verbal intention have been discussed. Second, vitality forms could also be conceived as background conditions of all the other mental categories—that is, vitality forms can ground cognition and emotion in social context. In the second dimension the existence of social cognition or emotion depends on the existence of the stylistic kinematics of action. A grounding relation is used to distinguish a ground—vitality forms—and its grounded mental categories. As relating with the domain of social perception, in this review it has been discussed vitality forms possibly could ground social cognition and social emotion, respectively.
活力形态与行为的基本特征相关，这些特征代表着思维或行为者的生动体验状态。具体来说，它指的是行为是如何在空间和时间中进行的，即行为的“如何”维度。社会可供性是指由社会实践和规范塑造的社会互动的可能... more 活力形态与行为的基本特征相关，这些特征代表着思维或行为者的生动体验状态。具体来说，它指的是行为是如何在空间和时间中进行的，即行为的“如何”维度。社会可供性是指由社会实践和规范塑造的社会互动的可能性。活力形态和社会可供性作为理解人类行动意图的两种途径，近期引起诸多研究者的兴趣。分别对活力形态和社会可供性的概念和应用进行了探讨; 对二者的联系和区别也进行了简单介绍。未来研究可采用认知神经科学手段对这两种理解人类行动意图的途径进一步探索。
Background: Individuals who use methamphetamine (MA) for a long period of time may experience dec... more Background: Individuals who use methamphetamine (MA) for a long period of time may experience decreased inhibition and increased impulsivity. In order to reduce impulsivity or improve inhibitory control ability, high-frequency repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (HF-rTMS) has attracted much attention of researchers. Recent studies on addiction have shown that rTMS can stimulate different brain regions to produce different therapeutic effects. Recent work also suggests that HF-rTMS over right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) does not affect the impulsivity of patients with alcohol use disorder; while HF-rTMS over left DLPFC could improve the impulsivity of patients with alcohol use disorder and cigarette smokers. However, it should be noted that empirical studies applying HF-rTMS over left DLPFC of patients with MA use disorders (MAUD) (to evaluate its effect on impulsivity) are still lacking.
Methods: Twenty-nine patients with MAUD underwent five sessions of HF-rTMS on the left DLPFC per week for 4 consecutive weeks. The cue-induced craving and stop-signal and NoGo task were assessed pre-rTMS and post-rTMS (at the end of the 4-week rTMS treatment). In addition, 29 healthy controls were recruited. There was no rTMS intervention for the controls, the performance of the stop-signal and NoGo task was evaluated on them.
Results: In total, HF-rTMS of the left DLPFC significantly decreased MA-dependent patients’ cue-induced craving and stop-signal reaction time (SSRT). For SSRT, the pre-test of experimental group was significantly higher than the score of control group. In the experimental group, the pre-test score was significantly higher than the post-test score. For Go and stop-signal delay (SSD), the pre-test scores of the experimental group was significantly lower than the scores of the control group. No significant difference was found between the pre-test and the post-test scores of the experimental group.
Conclusion: Add-on HF-rTMS of left DLPFC may be an effective intervention for reducing impulsivity and cue-induced craving of patients with MAUD. Future research with a control group of MAUD that does not undergo the treatment is needed to confirm the effectiveness.
Background and Aims: In this brief report, we compare the effectiveness and safety of intermitten... more Background and Aims: In this brief report, we compare the effectiveness and safety of intermittent theta burst stimulation (iTBS) and conventional 10 Hz repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) in patients with methamphetamine use disorder (MAUD). Our study suggests that iTBS would also reduce drug craving in patients with MAUD just as the 10 Hz; thus, there may be no difference in treatment effects between these two methods. Methods: In total twenty male methamphetamine (MA) addicts were randomly assigned to iTBS (n = 10) or 10 Hz (n = 10) groups for 12 treatments. Cue-evoked cravings, anxiety, depression, and withdrawal symptoms were measured at baseline before the first treatment, and post-tests after days 10, 15, and 20. Results: The results showed that iTBS and 10 Hz treatment had similar effectiveness in reducing cue-induced craving in male addicts for MA. Both 10 Hz and iTBS improved withdrawal symptoms of patients with MAUD. Conclusions: Intermittent theta burst stimulation may be similar in effectiveness as 10 Hz in treating patients with MAUD. The clinical usefulness of rTMS could be improved substantially because of the increase in its capacity, cost, and accessibility. Importantly, the effectiveness of rTMS in the treatment of patients with MAUD is not yet proven, and should be tested in the large double-blind sham-controlled studies.
当代意识科学面临着双重挑战：既要说明意识的机制，同时要说明与之相关的哲学问题。达马西奥从生命自我保护和自我生产的生物价值出发，将意识视为生命有机体在演化进程中形成的一种高级、奇妙的调节和管理生命... more 当代意识科学面临着双重挑战：既要说明意识的机制，同时要说明与之相关的哲学问题。达马西奥从生命自我保护和自我生产的生物价值出发，将意识视为生命有机体在演化进程中形成的一种高级、奇妙的调节和管理生命的方式。他从这个角度提出了一种意识机制的演化学说——具有自我感的核心自我是通过表征被客体概念的原自我的状态而建构起来的，它是一种二阶映射。他的意识理论不可避免地要涉及对诸如心身问题、自我问题、认识论问题等传统哲学主题的见解和主张。
The “human phenomenon” is always posed out of appropriate interpretations of science, as it is be... more The “human phenomenon” is always posed out of appropriate interpretations of science, as it is being amongst the hybrid modernity of materialism and dualism. Materialism, dualism and idealism, these theories all confront unsolvable difficulties in the face of mind-body problem. And the nature of this problem lies in the modernistic stipulations of matter. It is Christian de Quincey who sees the so-called “radical naturalism” as the fourth alternative for the mind-body problem. In nature, radical naturalism is a new conceptualization of panpsychist forms of process philosophy (i.e., panexperientialism). It has made radical revisions for modernistic stipulations of matter and nature. Radical naturalism assumes that matter is inherently sentient. And this capacity of matter goes all the way down to the ultimate individuals of universe. Apart from the vertical postmodern significance of panpsychism – reconciling modern metaphysical theories, it also has one important horizontal significance: it seems to approximate to eastern thoughts.
Naturalistic panpsychism is to be conceived as one possible metaphysical foundation of future con... more Naturalistic panpsychism is to be conceived as one possible metaphysical foundation of future consciousness science. It claims that the nature has its own mind; and mind is the fundamentality of actual entities of nature. Here the panpsychism is defined as “naturalistic”, implies that the mental capacity of macroscopic individuals must be construed consistently and completely by microscopic actual entities and their dynamical relations ontologically, without resorting to supernatural elements. For panpsychists, although every fundamental actual unit has a mind, however, not each actual object being composited by the former can be asserted in the same way. To be precise, it is the actual objects (compounds) being composited by these actual entities “in proper way” can be regarded as having a mind, even consciousness reasonably; in contrast, the other type of objects (aggregates) which being composited merely in aggregational way at any levels, cannot be judged indiscriminately to have a mind. The overall approach of naturalistic panpsychism is to identify more restricted composition principles of mereology which are applicable for the metaphysical system, from the actual entities (as parts) within the system to the consciousness phenomenon (as whole) in a bottom-up way. As the combination problem, which be referred to as the most difficult problem of panpsychism, now we turn the composition problem of objects into the composition problem of subjects of panpsychism. In the end, via the analysis of composition principles of mereology, we reach a conclusion which is not strong enough – at least one category of compounds from certain level must show specific “abundances” of mind, by means of the realization of a certain sufficient condition. Apart from the synchronic approach to metaphysics of consciousness, we discuss one solution of combination problem from Whitehead’s panpsychism in the fifth section from diachronic approach: the “transmutation” of consciousness as high-level subjective form.
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Book Reviews by Da DONG
Books, New York, 2021, 256 pp. $16.99 (hbk), ISBN 9781524747558
not only extend Russell’s theory; some may also put a heavy metaphysical burden on Russell’s construction of matter from experience.
Papers by Da DONG
Methods: Twenty-nine patients with MAUD underwent five sessions of HF-rTMS on the left DLPFC per week for 4 consecutive weeks. The cue-induced craving and stop-signal and NoGo task were assessed pre-rTMS and post-rTMS (at the end of the 4-week rTMS treatment). In addition, 29 healthy controls were recruited. There was no rTMS intervention for the controls, the performance of the stop-signal and NoGo task was evaluated on them.
Results: In total, HF-rTMS of the left DLPFC significantly decreased MA-dependent patients’ cue-induced craving and stop-signal reaction time (SSRT). For SSRT, the pre-test of experimental group was significantly higher than the score of control group. In the experimental group, the pre-test score was significantly higher than the post-test score. For Go and stop-signal delay (SSD), the pre-test scores of the experimental group was significantly lower than the scores of the control group. No significant difference was found between the pre-test and the post-test scores of the experimental group.
Conclusion: Add-on HF-rTMS of left DLPFC may be an effective intervention for reducing impulsivity and cue-induced craving of patients with MAUD. Future research with a control group of MAUD that does not undergo the treatment is needed to confirm the effectiveness.
Books, New York, 2021, 256 pp. $16.99 (hbk), ISBN 9781524747558
not only extend Russell’s theory; some may also put a heavy metaphysical burden on Russell’s construction of matter from experience.
Methods: Twenty-nine patients with MAUD underwent five sessions of HF-rTMS on the left DLPFC per week for 4 consecutive weeks. The cue-induced craving and stop-signal and NoGo task were assessed pre-rTMS and post-rTMS (at the end of the 4-week rTMS treatment). In addition, 29 healthy controls were recruited. There was no rTMS intervention for the controls, the performance of the stop-signal and NoGo task was evaluated on them.
Results: In total, HF-rTMS of the left DLPFC significantly decreased MA-dependent patients’ cue-induced craving and stop-signal reaction time (SSRT). For SSRT, the pre-test of experimental group was significantly higher than the score of control group. In the experimental group, the pre-test score was significantly higher than the post-test score. For Go and stop-signal delay (SSD), the pre-test scores of the experimental group was significantly lower than the scores of the control group. No significant difference was found between the pre-test and the post-test scores of the experimental group.
Conclusion: Add-on HF-rTMS of left DLPFC may be an effective intervention for reducing impulsivity and cue-induced craving of patients with MAUD. Future research with a control group of MAUD that does not undergo the treatment is needed to confirm the effectiveness.