Current Dominant Theories Research Articles

Subcortical Aphasia: An Update.

This review aims to rediscuss the leading theories concerning the role of basal ganglia and the thalamus in the genesis of aphasic symptoms in the absence of gross anatomical lesions in cortical language areas as assessed by conventional neuroimaging studies. New concepts in language processing and modern neuroimaging techniques have enabled some progress in resolving the impasse between the current dominant theories: (a) direct and specific linguistic processing and (b) subcortical structures as processing relays in domain-general functions. Of particular interest are studies of connectivity based on functional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and tractography that highlight the impact of white matter pathway lesions on aphasia development and recovery. Connectivity studies have put into evidence the central role of the arcuate fasciculus (AF), inferior frontal occipital fasciculus (IFOF), and uncinate fasciculus (UF) in the genesis of aphasia. Regarding the thalamus, its involvement in lexical-semantic processing through modulation of the frontal cortex is becoming increasingly apparent.

‘After god, we give strength to each other’: young people’s experiences of coping in the context of unaccompanied forced migration

ABSTRACT Young people arriving alone in the UK due to forced migration face significant hardships including, but not limited to, their history of experiences, current and future uncertainties, and cultural differences. This paper took a critical perspective of current dominant theories of refugee youth through in-depth exploration of lived experiences of coping. Following the authors’ involvement in a community youth project and consultation, five young people took part in individual interviews. The participants were living in semi-independent accommodation in or near London, and were all male, while four identified as Muslim and one as Christian. Using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA), a culturally relative understanding of coping was developed. These young people were found to be taking active roles in managing their lives in the context of extensive loss, and gaining independence through connection to others. Religious practices were important, with young people making sense of their experiences through worldviews shaped by religious beliefs. While religion was described predominantly in a positive and beneficial light, an area for further investigation is the experience of religious struggle, and how this may impact experiences and coping. Implications for support for young people both from services and in communities are suggested.

To build a new Jezrusalem: an historical institutionalist analysis of the origins of the Corbyn era in the Labour party

Now that Corbynism has passed, an institutional explanation for his sudden control of the British Labour party allows for a richer understanding of the process by which his leadership came about. In particular, this analysis develops on the established institutional theory ideas of reactivation, invasion and veto players and adds to these the role of “veto complacency”. These theoretical mechanisms are key to understanding why the British Labour party changed so radically after its 2015 electoral defeat, and why it is suspect to argue that its then leader, Jeremy Corbyn, represented merely a return to the past, as some have suggested. The ideas of the Corbyn movement can be understood as having been a contemporary adaptation of socialism, namely “new socialism”. This case study highlights the usefulness of applying institutional theory mechanisms to explanations of party change and seeks to expand on current dominant theories of institutional change that appear less capable of explaining sudden radical endogenous change—as exhibited here by the British Labour party.

Open-Label Placebo: Reflections on a Research Agenda

Open-label placebos (OLP)-placebo pills honestly prescribed-have challenged the notion that placebos require either deception or concealment to evoke salubrious benefits. This essay describes how the author arrived at the counter-intuitive OLP hypothesis, discusses evidence for OLP effectiveness, and examines mechanistic explanations for OLP. Current dominant theories such as expectation and conditioning are found to be insufficient or inaccurate. The author proposes that emerging concepts of prediction and error processing (PEP), Bayesian brain, and embodied cognition are more appropriate models for understanding OLP. As a neural processing model, PEP argues that sensory predictions are embedded in and inseparable from perceptions; PEP circumvents mind-body dualism. The author discusses how OLP, mostly non-consciously, might perturb aberrant symptom amplifications and central sensitization resulting in perceptions of improvement in symptoms. Placebo effects are neurologically encoded predictions, less what patients think and more what they enact and perform.

The Role of the Mesentery in Crohn's Disease: The Contributions of Nerves, Vessels, Lymphatics, and Fat to the Pathogenesis and Disease Course.

Crohn's disease (CD) is a complex gastrointestinal disorder involving multiple levels of cross talk between the immunological, neural, vascular, and endocrine systems. The current dominant theory in CD is based on the unidirectional axis of dysbiosis-innate immunity-adaptive immunity-mesentery-body system. Emerging clinical evidence strongly suggests that the axis be bidirectional. The morphologic and/or functional abnormalities in the mesenteric structures likely contribute to the disease progression of CD, to a less extent the disease initiation. In addition to adipocytes, mesentery contains nerves, blood vessels, lymphatics, stromal cells, and fibroblasts. By the secretion of adipokines that have endocrine functions, the mesenteric fat tissue exerts its activity in immunomodulation mainly through response to afferent signals, neuropeptides, and functional cytokines. Mesenteric nerves are involved in the pathogenesis and prognosis of CD mainly through neuropeptides. In addition to angiogenesis observed in CD, lymphatic obstruction, remodeling, and impaired contraction maybe a cause and consequence of CD. Lymphangiogenesis and angiogenesis play a concomitant role in the progress of chronic intestinal inflammation. Finally, the interaction between neuropeptides, adipokines, and vascular and lymphatic endothelia leads to adipose tissue remodeling, which makes the mesentery an active participator, not a bystander, in the disease initiation and precipitation CD. The identification of the role of mesentery, including the structure and function of mesenteric nerves, vessels, lymphatics, and fat, in the intestinal inflammation in CD has important implications in understanding its pathogenesis and clinical management.

Beyond Faces and Expertise

Holistic processing—the tendency to perceive objects as indecomposable wholes—has long been viewed as a process specific to faces or objects of expertise. Although current theories differ in what causes holistic processing, they share a fundamental constraint for its generalization: Nonface objects cannot elicit facelike holistic processing in the absence of expertise. Contrary to this prevailing view, here we show that line patterns with salient Gestalt information (i.e., connectedness, closure, and continuity between parts) can be processed as holistically as faces without any training. Moreover, weakening the saliency of Gestalt information in these patterns reduced holistic processing of them, which indicates that Gestalt information plays a crucial role in holistic processing. Therefore, holistic processing can be achieved not only via a top-down route based on expertise, but also via a bottom-up route relying merely on object-based information. The finding that facelike holistic processing can extend beyond the domains of faces and objects of expertise poses a challenge to current dominant theories.

Does perceptual confidence facilitate cognitive control?

Our visual perception is typically accompanied by a sense of subjective confidence. Since perceptual confidence is related to prefrontal activity, higher perceptual confidence may enhance cognitive control functions. To examine this interaction, we developed a novel method to selectively manipulate perceptual confidence while keeping stimulus discrimination accuracy constant. In a behavioral experiment, grating stimuli with different orientations were presented as go/no-go signals. Surprisingly, the results showed that confidence in visual discrimination of the signals on its own did not facilitate response inhibition, since when participants were presented with stimuli that yielded higher confidence, they were no better at performing a go/no-go task. These results were replicated with different (dot motion) stimuli, ruling out alternative explanations based on stimulus idiosyncrasy. In a different experiment, when the grating stimuli were presented as cues for task set preparation, we found that higher perceptual confidence also did not enhance task set preparation efficiency. This result was again replicated with dot motion stimuli. Since confidence may relate to perceptual awareness (Peirce & Jastrow, 1885), our findings may put current dominant theories in question, since these theories often suppose the critical involvement of consciousness in cognitive control. As a proof of concept, our method may also provide a new and powerful way to examine other functions of consciousness in future studies.

Reconsidering Models for Investigating Family Firms: Variants from China

Casual observers may view family business as a sub-discipline of entrepreneurship. Although there is considerable overlap of the fields, they consist of two distinct bodies of knowledge. As entrepreneurship is maturing through research contributions, family business is in an emergent stage. We contend that current dominant theories and models that frame family business research studies may result in misleading conclusions due to insufficient systems views. Despite the increase in international and cross-cultural studies, models have failed to address the variations caused by national context, ethnic, religious and other external influences. We discuss China as an example of the inadequacy of models developed within other societal environments.

S4-04-02: Phage therapy of Alzheimer's disease

Background: Bacteriophages, viruses that infect bacteria, are the most numerous life forms on earth, and their natural contact with human beings is not incidental but rather constant and intensive. Classic phage therapy with lytic phages, as an alternative to antibiotics, was developed for clinical use by research groups in Europe and the USA. Here, we propose a new therapeutic approach for Alzheimer’s disease (AD) based on non-lytic filamentous phages. The current dominant theory of AD etiology and pathogenesis is related to the amyloid cascade hypothesis which states that overproduction of amyloid-beta-peptide (A P), or failure to clear this peptide, leads to Alzheimer’s disease primarily through amyloid deposition, presumed to be involved in neurofibrillary tangles formation. Methods: Mice were treated intranasally with filamentous phage for 12 months. During this period, cognitive tests were conducted to check mice memory and olfaction functions, followed by neuropathological investigation of treated versus untreated mice. Results: Experiments conducted in mice models of AD showed therapeutic benefits of phage treatment. We demonstrate that the linear structure of filamentous phage (a nanotubular appearance, 900 nm long and 7 nm diameter) confers permeability to the brain, improving cognitive and olfactory functions, and dissolving -amyloid plaques. Phages were eliminated from the brain and body via urine and feces. No adverse effects were shown in peripheral organs: kidneys, liver, lungs and spleen biology was normal. Conclusions: The proposed new approach, based on intranasal application of phage, presents several important advantages. It provides a rapid delivery route into the central nervous system (CNS) due to the unique connection between the nose and brain and targets the olfactory system, shown to be one of the first brain parts affected by Alzheimer’s disease. The therapeutic potential of phage stems from its lack of natural tropism for mammalian cells. Moreover, phage therapy may overcome some of the drawbacks of -amyloid immunotherapy, such as hemorrhages and inflammation, suggesting that filamentous phage may play a therapeutic role in treating AD as well as other amyloidogenic diseases. This is the first attempt to use filamentous phages as a therapeutic agent for treatment of a mouse model of Alzheimer’s disease.

How and When Environmental Agents and Dietary Factors Affect the Course of Alzheimers Disease: The “LEARn” Model (Latent Early-Life Associated Regulation) May Explain the Triggering of AD

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is currently the most prominent form of dementia among the elderly. Although AD manifests in late adult life, it is not clear when the disease actually starts and how long the neuropathological processes take to develop AD. The major unresolved question is the timing and the nature of triggering leading to AD. Is it an early or developmental and/or late phenomenon and what are the factors that trigger the cascade of pathobiochemical processes? To explain the etiology of AD one should consider the neuropathological features, such as neuronal cell death, tau tangles, and amyloid plaque, and environmental factors associated with AD, such as diet, toxicological exposure, and hormonal factors. Current dominant theories of AD etiology are "protein-only", they attribute the cause of the disease directly to the activities of associated proteins once they have been produced; the major limitation is that protein aggregations occur "late in the game". Development and progression of AD has not been explained by protein-only models. In view of this limitation, we propose a "Latent Early-Life Associated Regulation" (LEARn) model, which postulates a latent expression of specific genes triggered at the developmental stage. According to this model, environmental agents (e.g., heavy metals), intrinsic factors (e.g., cytokines), and dietary factors (e.g., cholesterol) perturb gene regulation in a long-term fashion, beginning at early developmental stages; however, these perturbations do not have pathological results until significantly later in life. For example, such actions would perturb APP gene regulation at very early stage via its transcriptional machinery, leading to delayed overexpression of APP and subsequently of Abeta deposition. This model operates on the regulatory region (promoter) of the gene and by the effect of methylation at certain sites within the promoter of specific genes. Promoters tend to have both positive and negative regulatory elements, and promoter activity can be altered by changes in the primary DNA sequence and by epigenetic changes through mechanisms such as DNA methylation at CpG dinucleotides or oxidation of guanosine residues. The basis of the LEARn model is that environmental factors, including metals and dietary factors, operate by interfering the interaction of methylated CpG clusters with binding proteins, such as MeCP2 and SP1. The LEARn model may explain the etiology of AD and other neuropsychiatric and developmental disorders.

Do Motor Control Genes Contribute to Interindividual Variability in Decreased Movement in Patients with Pain?

BackgroundBecause excessive reduction in activities after back injury may impair recovery, it is important to understand and address the factors contributing to the variability in motor responses to pain. The current dominant theory is the "fear-avoidance model", in which the some patients' heightened fears of further injury cause them to avoid movement. We propose that in addition to psychological factors, neurochemical variants in the circuits controlling movement and their modification by pain may contribute to this variability. A systematic search of the motor research literature and genetic databases yielded a prioritized list of polymorphic motor control candidate genes. We demonstrate an analytic method that we applied to 14 of these genes in 290 patients with acute sciatica, whose reduction in movement was estimated by items from the Roland-Morris Disability Questionnaire.ResultsWe genotyped a total of 121 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in 14 of these genes, which code for the dopamine D2 receptor, GTP cyclohydrolase I, glycine receptor α1 subunit, GABA-A receptor α2 subunit, GABA-A receptor β1 subunit, α-adrenergic 1C, 2A, and 2C receptors, serotonin 1A and 2A receptors, cannabinoid CB-1 receptor, M1 muscarinic receptor, and the tyrosine hydroxylase, and tachykinin precursor-1 molecules. No SNP showed a significant association with the movement score after a Bonferroni correction for the 14 genes tested. Haplotype analysis of one of the blocks in the GABA-A receptor β1 subunit showed that a haplotype of 11% frequency was associated with less limitation of movement at a nominal significance level value (p = 0.0025) almost strong enough to correct for testing 22 haplotype blocks.ConclusionIf confirmed, the current results may suggest that a common haplotype in the GABA-A β1 subunit acts like an "endogenous muscle relaxant" in an individual with subacute sciatica. Similar methods might be applied a larger set of genes in animal models and human laboratory and clinical studies to understand the causes and prevention of pain-related reduction in movement.

A Meaningful Justification for the Representational Theory of Measurement

Measurement, the means by which numbers enter science, is of fundamental importance to modern science. The relationship between its qualitative and quantitative aspects has generated many theories and much controversy. In 19th century geometry similar developments led mathematician Felix Klein to devise a theory for unifying qualitative and quantitative approaches to geometry. Klein's theory, which today is called the Erlanger program, was based on transformation groups. In this article, the Erlanger program is given a new foundation based on mathematical logic and is extended to science. The current dominant theory of measurement in the literature, the representational theory, is then justified in terms of the new foundation for the Erlanger program. Certain inferential techniques used in dimensional analysis and the related technique of possible psychophysical laws are also given justifications in terms of the new foundation.

Whose consent is it anyway? A poststructuralist framing of the person in medical decision-making.

This paper explores the value of a Poststructuralist psychoanalytic model of persons, or "Subjects," as an expanded frame for the question "Whose consent is it anyway?" The elaboration of the need for this expanded frame, its tenets and its value form the substance of the paper. This frame incorporates the emotional, linguistic, and socio-cultural dimensions that help restore patients and physicians to their full status as persons from their restricted status, in the current dominant theory and model, as unidimensional, rationalistic, medico-legally constructed players; emphasizes their interconnectedness; and, focuses broadly on responsibility as bearing consequences, and not only accountability. This frame does not deny the role and importance of cognition or rationality, it supplements them. It does not supplant rationality, but rather includes it in a view of the person that also includes those other human capacities which are not based on an ideal of pure reason.

Class, politics, and ideology in the Iranian revolution

A common weakness of many current dominant theories of revolution, argues author Mansoor Moaddel, is their exclusion of the role of ideology. He examines the Iranian revolution, highlighting class politics and contention for power within the context of changing the ideological relation between the state and civil society. In Moaddel's analytical framework, class politics and the state's action play crucial roles in the genesis of the Iranian Revolution. The state-patterned class conflict defined the identity of the opposition and channeled oppositional activities through the medium of religion. The revolutionary crisis began when the social discontent was expressed in terms of Shi'i revolutionary discourse. Moaddel argues that Shi'i revolutionary ideology was produced by diverse ideologues to address the problems they faced in the post-coup (1953) period. In presenting his argument, Moaddel provides a new and useful interpretation of the revolution in Iran, characterizing the postrevolutionary political order as a Third-World variant of fascism.

Green politics in Switzerland.

. This article1 highlights the main shortcomings of the current dominant theories of green politics and green parties. Using Switzerland as a critical case, it explores a different approach as green politics, seen as a result of different attitudes about ways and means to solve environmental problems. The article concludes with some theoretical ideas that would lend themselves to a more comprehensive theory of green politics.