Mental Content Research Articles

The Philosophy of Security in the Globalizing Culture System

The article presents an attempt to analyze modern theories of security within Western philosophical concepts. The authors’ goal is to conceptualize modern philosophical notions of security. To reach it, the authors use the following methodology: phenomenological and hermeneutical analysis of texts, as well as historical, cultural, and comparative analysis. The novelty of the research lies in the fact that the modern trends of development of the philosophy of safety here are connected with the drive to conceptualize the essence of security as a sophisticated and complex system, with its structure including several subsystems, such as the human being, the society, the authorities, and the international community. The authors' reason that the synthesis of these concepts and their ideas gives ground for an integral concept of security. It could take into account the points of concepts that indicate the material, ontological content of threats from the outer, globalizing world, and the mental content of threats constructed by consciousness, responding to the increasing influence of modern informatization and virtualization processes. According to the authors, within the integral security concept, and based on the complementarity principle, it is necessary to synthesize the ideas of the national-state concept of security, the “international community” concept, the “soft power” concept, and the postmodern concepts. Such concepts, dedicated to the modern threats, regard the possibility of protection from them only within the framework of the collective security system that takes into account the defense from external and mental threats to the individual, society, and the state.

Channels to consciousness: a possible role of gap junctions in consciousness.

The neurophysiological basis of consciousness is still unknown and one of the most challenging questions in the field of neuroscience and related disciplines. We propose that consciousness is characterized by the maintenance of mental representations of internal and external stimuli for the execution of cognitive operations. Consciousness cannot exist without working memory, and it is likely that consciousness and working memory share the same neural substrates. Here, we present a novel psychological and neurophysiological framework that explains the role of consciousness for cognition, adaptive behavior, and everyday life. A hypothetical architecture of consciousness is presented that is organized as a system of operation and storage units named platforms that are controlled by a consciousness center (central executive/online platform). Platforms maintain mental representations or contents, are entrusted with different executive functions, and operate at different levels of consciousness. The model includes conscious-mode central executive/online and mental time travel platforms and semiconscious steady-state and preconscious standby platforms. Mental representations or contents are represented by neural circuits and their support cells (astrocytes, oligodendrocytes, etc.) and become conscious when neural circuits reverberate, that is, fire sequentially and continuously with relative synchronicity. Reverberatory activity in neural circuits may be initiated and maintained by pacemaker cells/neural circuit pulsars, enhanced electronic coupling via gap junctions, and unapposed hemichannel opening. The central executive/online platform controls which mental representations or contents should become conscious by recruiting pacemaker cells/neural network pulsars, the opening of hemichannels, and promoting enhanced neural circuit coupling via gap junctions.

Repression: A Critical Assessment and Update of Freud's 1915 Paper.

The concept of repression has been relegated to the periphery in current psychoanalytic theorizing. This is in part due to a reflexive and ill-informed avoidance of Freudian metapsychology, and in part due to preoccupation with 'primitive' and 'deeper' states of mind, a perspective that presumes that repression operates exclusively in 'higher level' or 'neurotic' forms of psychopathology. A careful scrutiny of psychoanalytic theory and clinical practice does not uphold such compartmentalization. Repression is ubiquitous in mental life. It contributes to normality (e.g., onset of latency), undergirds the 'psychopathology of everyday life' (e.g., parapraxes), exists alongside splitting in severe character disorders (e.g., borderline patients "forgetting" their appointments) and, by permitting a modified return of exiled mental contents, gives birth to neurotic symptoms as well as creative imagination. Taking Freud's seminal discourse on repression (in: Repression. Standard Edition, vol 14. Hogarth, London, pp 141-158 1915a) as its starting point, this paper elucidates the complex, nuanced, and pervasive nature of this defense. It deconstructs Freud's unitary concept of repression into four implicit binaries and updates his proposals in the light of contemporary psychoanalytic theory. The paper offers clear guidelines for clinical applications of these ideas.

Latent Class Analysis of Mental Health in Middle Childhood: Evidence for the Dual-Factor Model

Mental health is complex, comprising both mental distress and well-being. This study used latent class analysis to identify common combinations of mental distress and well-being (‘mental health classes’) among schoolchildren aged 8–9 years (N = 3340).Thirteen items, measuring a range of conduct problems, emotional symptoms, and subjective well-being, were included in the analysis. Four mental health classes were identified: (1) complete mental health (n = 1895, 57%), (2) vulnerable (n = 434, 13%), (3) emotional symptoms but content (n = 606, 18%), and (4) conduct problems but content (n = 404, 12%). The classes were reliably identified across different datasets, and for males and females. Differential relations with covariates indicated that mental health classes were distinct and externally valid. The results supported the dual-factor model of mental health, suggesting that mental distress and subjective well-being are separate continua. Three of the four possible combinations of high and low distress and subjective well-being posited by the dual-factor model were found using this inductive statistical method. Importantly, our analysis also revealed two ‘symptomatic but content’ groups, differentiated by symptom domain (internalising/externalising). The covariate analyses between mental health classes and sociodemographic factors, prior academic attainment, school connectedness, and peer support, indicated that there are nuanced relations between those variables and particular constellations of mental distress and well-being. As one of the few dual-factor studies to focus on middle childhood, the current study adds important new evidence that contributes to our understanding of the complexities of mental health among schoolchildren.

The human being in the context of contemporary cognitive studies and the Russian tradition

Any complete understanding of human psychology must take into account that a brain’s actions in the world are mediated by the body it belongs to. In the process of such interaction the human being creates artificial things, structures and mechanisms, such as technology, relationships, and culture. The subjective world is not simply the interactions between neurons at different systemic levels, but the existence of mental contents, which are determined by specific features of a certain domain of reality with which a cognitive agent interacts by means of her actions. It is possible to understand specific features of the subjective world with the conception of the “embodied” and “inactive” cognition. In this framework, the problems of consciousness of consciousness (introspection), free will, the possibility of “reading” another mind and constructing mental phenomena are analyzed. If cognitive studies are not used for manipulating humans, and are not means of human degradation (such danger exists) they must take into consideration specific features of the human phenomenon: the belonging of the human being to the social world and the world of culture. The development of cognitive studies can lead humans to new levels and contribute to new interpretations of humanism. However, under certain conditions, this development can lead to the death of the human being. This paper shows that some Soviet philosophers and psychologists, during the second half of the twentieth century, anticipated the formulations and solutions of several contemporary key problems in cognitive science before these problems emerged.

Innate Mind Need Not Be Within

It is a widely accepted thesis in the cognitive sciences and in naturalistic philosophy of mind that the contents of at least some mental representations are innate. A question that has popped up in discussions concerning innate mental representations is this. Are externalist theories of mental content applicable to the content of innate representations? Views on the matter vary and sometimes conflict. To date, there has been no comprehensive assessment of the relationship between content externalism and content innateness. The aim of this paper is to provide such an assessment. I focus on the notions of innateness that are employed in innateness hypotheses within the cognitive sciences and adjacent fields of philosophy, and on causal externalist theories of content. I distinguish between three accounts of what being innate might amount to in innateness hypotheses within the cognitive sciences, and between three types of causal externalism. I explain what the possibility of innate externalistically individuated representations depends upon given all nine combinations. I explain why causal externalism can be true of innate mental representations, given but one of these combinations.

Education on the Social Determinants of Mental Health in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Fellowships.

This article describes survey results from child and adolescent psychiatry (CAP) fellowship program directors regarding attitudes of their programs' capacity to effectively educate fellows on the social determinants of mental health and program directors' perceived importance of doing so. A survey asking about six topics within the social determinants of mental health was disseminated to all CAP program directors with email addresses found in the Fellowship and Residency Electronic Interactive Database (FREIDA) (n = 134). Data were exported using the Qualtrics survey platform. Fifty-three program directors (40%) responded to the survey. Overall, 98% of program directors felt education on the social determinants of mental health was "essential" for fellowship training, but there were significant differences in perceived relative importance and effectiveness of education provided across topics. Familial factors were rated as significantly more important than structural, historical, and economic factors. Structural and historical factors were viewed as being taught less effectively than other factors. Educational, structural, and historical factors and neighborhood factors were allotted significantly less instructional time than familial factors. While there is near-universal consensus that social determinants of mental health education are critical for fellowship training, program directors feel that social determinants of mental health topics differ in importance and are taught at varying levels of effectiveness. These findings highlight the need for intra-institutional and or inter-institutional collaboration for social determinants of mental health educational content development if CAP programs are to prepare trainees to best serve their most vulnerable patients.

Mistaking an Intention for a Behavior: The Case of Enacting Behavioral Decisions Versus Simply Intending to Enact Them.

Five experiments investigated a previously unrecognized phenomenon-remembering that one enacted a mundane behavioral decision when one only intended to do so-and its psychological mechanisms. The theoretical conceptualization advanced in this research proposes that this error stems from a misattribution when an intention and a behavior are similar. Intentions and behaviors are similar when the physical aspects of the behavior resemble the intention (e.g., both require similar keystrokes) and when the behavior and the intention share mental contents (e.g., both rely on the same criterion). Experiments 1 and 2 introduced a paradigm with similar intentions and enactments and showed misreports and subsequent performance errors even when controlling for guessing. Experiments 3 and 4 demonstrated greater confusion when the physical involvement and mental criteria for intention and behavior were similar. Finally, Experiment 5 indicated that monitoring enactment is highly effective at reducing this error and more effective than monitoring intention.

Silence in Shamatha, Transcendental, and Stillness Meditation: An Evidence Synthesis Based on Expert Texts.

Shamatha, Transcendental, and Stillness Meditation are said to aim for “contentless” experiences, where mental content such as thoughts, perceptions, and mental images is absent. Silence is understood to be a central feature of those experiences. The main source of information about the experiences is texts by experts from within the three traditions. Previous research has tended not to use an explicit scientific method for selecting and reviewing expert texts on meditation. We have identified evidence synthesis as a robust and transparent method that is suitable for this purpose. In this paper we use evidence synthesis based on expert texts to examine silence/quietness as a feature of the contentless experiences in the three practices. Objective criteria were used to select a sample of 135 expert texts. A database containing the expert descriptions of the meditation techniques and experiences was produced by extracting the relevant material from the publications and coding that material to differentiate individual features. The database, which forms part of the Supplementary Material for this paper, identifies each feature of the contentless experiences referred to in the expert texts, including silence/quietness. Our key finding is that the experts indicate silence/quietness has a particular connection with stillness, and the absence of concepts, mental activity/noise, thoughts, and disturbance. Further analysis leads to the following insights. The silence/quietness reflects the absence of thoughts and sounds, and this fits neatly with a conception of silence/quietness as the absence of internal and external noise. In some cases the terms silence and quietness may also reflect the absence of other disturbances such as non-auditory perceptions, mental images, and negative feelings. That would fit with a conception of silence/quietness as complete calm or absence of disturbance. It is not clear from the expert texts how silence/quietness is distinct from other features such as stillness that also reflect the absence of disturbances. As a separate matter, silence/quietness has connections with all the other features of the contentless experiences, but the closeness of the connections varies. Our work uncovers fine distinctions and ambiguities which lead to new research questions that can be explored in future studies.

Each post matters: a content analysis of #mentalhealth images on Instagram

This study examined mental health-related content on a popular visual-based social media platform, Instagram. A content analysis was completed by using the search term ‘#mentalhealth’ on public Instagram posts (N = 758). Our data showed that wellness practices related to mental health (e.g. exercise, healthy eating), anxiety, and depression are the most addressed mental health topics on Instagram. Additionally, posts that mention at least one type of mental health problem seek peer support and engagement from other users at a higher rate compared to posts that do not mention mental health disorder or topic (beyond the search term #mentalhealth). We discussed these findings in detail, as well as their theoretical and practical implications and the limitations of this study. We also suggested avenues for further research to promote evidence-based health communication techniques tailored to current visual-based social media platforms.

Potential of Mobile Technology to Relieve the Urgent Mental Health Needs in China: Web-Based Survey.

BackgroundWith the rapid development of information technology and mobile devices, an increasing number of mobile medical services and platforms have emerged. However, China’s current mental health situation necessitates further discussion and research on how to provide more patient-centered services in the face of many challenges and opportunities.ObjectiveThis study aims to explore the attitudes and preferences of mental health service stakeholders regarding mobile mental health services and discuss the challenges and opportunities faced by mobile technology developers in China.MethodsA web-based survey was conducted by following the Checklist for Reporting Results of Internet E-Surveys (CHERRIES) checklist. A total of 586 valid questionnaires were collected. Respondents included 184 patients or their family members, 225 mental health professionals, and 177 people from the general population. Data analysis was completed using SPSS 24.0.ResultsAmong the various problems perceived regarding the current mental health medical environment, difficulty in finding appropriate psychologists and limited visit times ranked highest. Social media (n=380/586, 64.9%) was the most preferred platform among all participants, whereas professionals showed a higher preference for smartphone apps (n=169/225, 75.1%). Professional instruction, psychological consultation, and mental health education (ranked top 3) were the most commonly identified needs. Mental health professionals generally emphasized more on treatment-related mobile mental health service needs, especially medication reminders (χ22=70.7; P<.001), symptom monitoring (χ22=24.0; P<.001), and access to mental health resources (χ22=38.6; P<.001). However, patients and their family members focused more on convenient web-based prescriptions (χ22=7.7; P=.02), with the general population interested in web-based psychological consultation (χ22=23.1; P<.001) and mental health knowledge (χ22=9.1; P=.01). Almost half of the participants regarded mobile mental health services as highly acceptable or supported their use, but less than 30% of participants thought mobile mental health services might be very helpful. Concerns about mobile mental health mainly focused on information security. Service receivers also suspected the quality and professionalism of content, and mental health professionals were worried about time and energy consumption as well as medical safety.ConclusionsIn terms of service flow, mobile services could be used to expand service time and improve efficiency before and after diagnosis. More individualized mobile mental health service content in more acceptable forms should be developed to meet the various needs of different mental health stakeholders. Multidisciplinary training and communication could be incorporated to facilitate the integration and cooperation of more well-rounded service teams. A standard medical record system and data format would better promote the development of future intelligent medical care. Issues such as ensuring service quality, solving safety risks, and better integrating mobile services with regular medical workflows also need to be addressed.

Integrating Mental Health Nursing in the Prelicensure Nursing Curriculum.

Learning to care for patients with mental health concerns is an important part of nursing school. Teaching mental health concepts across the nursing curriculum, rather than in just one course, prepares students for meeting the mental health needs of all clients. This article describes the integration of mental health concepts throughout an accelerated bachelor of science in nursing program. Faculty developed an innovative approach to integrate mental health throughout the curriculum in lieu of a stand-alone course. Quantitative metrics remained consistent when comparing cohorts before and after the integration of mental health. However, students did not recognize mental health content within the program. Integrating mental health concepts in the prelicensure nursing curriculum enables students to learn and understand how to care for clients with mental health concerns in any clinical setting. [J Nurs Educ. 2020;59(7):405-408.].

О реальности ограничений как архетипическом содержании психики

The present research considers the concepts of slavery and freedom as mental contents perceived by a human and the society. The essence, interrela-tion and problems of these concepts are revealed through overlapping of the theory of archetypal con-tents with a series of historically significant events. The development of the idea of limitations through-out the history of mankind uncovers the psychic causes of mass actions of people, which are often of a destructive nature. The result of such an analysis makes it possible to rethink the current situation all over the world related to the outbreak of coronavirus disease and the return of significance of the borders between countries, introduction of self-isolation regimes and health protection measures. The scale of people’s actions under current conditions is mas-sive and such actions present a logical consequence of the changes that took place during the last few centuries. Bearing in mind such a historical relation-ship allows to reconsider the existing situation, as well as outline a new vector for the development of humanity.

Rules of Belief and the Normativity of Intentional Content

Mental content normativists hold that the mind’s conceptual contents are essentially normative. Many hold the view because they think that facts of the form “subject S possesses concept c” imply that S is enjoined (i.e., bound or genuinely obligated) by rules concerning the application of c in theoretical judgments. Some opponents independently raise an intuitive objection: even if there are such rules, S’s possession of the concept is not the source of the enjoinment. Hence, these rules do not support mental content normativism. Call this the “Source Objection.” This paper refutes the Source Objection, outlining a key strand of the relationship between judgments and their contents in the process. Theoretical judgment and mental conceptual content are equally the source of enjoinment; norms for judging with contents do not derive from one at the expense of the other.

MENTAL FREEDOM AND FREEDOM OF THE LOVING HEART: FREE WILL AND BUDDHIST MEDITATION

AbstractIn Buddhism, Meditation and Free Will: A Theory of Mental Freedom, Rick Repetti explains how the dynamics of Buddhist meditation can result in a kind of metacognition and metavolitional control that exceeds what is required for free will and defeats the most powerful forms of free will skepticism. This article argues that although the Buddhist path requires and enhances the kind of mental and volitional control Repetti describes, the central dynamic of the path and meditation is better understood as a process of habituation. This not only involves the dis‐identification from mental and emotional content that Repetti discusses—and is commonly emphasized in modern presentations of mindfulness or insight (vipassanā) meditation—but also a transformation of the heart that is effected through the complementary psychological and somatic qualities associated with calm abiding (samatha) and concentration (samādhi) and emphasized in the Pali Nikāyas and commentaries.

0431 Two-Way Communication Between Dreamers and Experimenters

Abstract Introduction Dreams are emblematic of human sleep, but they have yet to be adequately explained. In part, this is due to the limited options available for peering into dream experiences. Mapping neural measures onto dreams is problematic when those dreams are recounted after waking. Retrospective dream reports are subject to distortion and rapid forgetting. Methods Here, we describe a method to overcome these obstacles through two-way communication between dreamers and experimenters. To demonstrate proof-of-concept, we presented softly spoken math problems to participants during lucid REM sleep, and they provided answers using covert physiological signals such as eye movements. We confirmed REM sleep using standard polysomnographic methods. Results Thus far, 3 out of 8 participants who had lucid dreams correctly answered problems during REM sleep. Conclusion Results document that sleeping individuals can have sufficient abilities for veridical perceptual analysis, maintaining information, computing simple answers using working memory, and expressing volitional replies. Dreamers can thus be capable of interacting and exchanging information with other individuals. In this way, the mental content experienced by the dreamer can be interrogated to characterize the phenomenological experiences and cognitive abilities of dreaming. Support Mind Science Foundation, National Science Foundation

A role for the ventromedial prefrontal cortex in self-generated episodic social cognition

The human mind is equally fluent in thoughts that involve self-generated mental content as it is with information in the immediate environment. Previous research has shown that neural systems linked to executive control (i.e. the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex) are recruited when perceptual and self-generated thoughts are balanced in line with the demands imposed by the external world. Contemporary theories (Smallwood and Schooler, 2015) assume that differentiable processes are important for self-generated mental content than for its regulation. The current study used functional magnetic resonance imaging in combination with multidimensional experience sampling to address this possibility. We used a task with minimal demands to maximise our power at identifying correlates of self-generated states. Principal component analysis showed consistent patterns of self-generated thought when participants performed the task in either the lab or in the scanner (ICC ranged from 0.68 to 0.86). In a whole brain analyses we found that neural activity in the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vMPFC) increases when participants are engaged in experiences which emphasise episodic and socio-cognitive features. Our study suggests that neural activity in the vMPFC is linked to patterns of ongoing thought, particularly those with episodic or social features.

T140. PERSONALITY AND NEUROCOGNITIVE CORRELATES OF PSYCHOTIC-LIKE EXPERIENCES

BackgroundPositive symptoms of schizophrenia and its extended phenotype—schizotypy—are characterized by the inclusion of novel, erroneous mental contents. These positive symptoms occur across those with a variety of diagnoses, including schizophrenia, personality disorders, and depression and bipolar with psychotic features. One promising transdiagnostic framework for explaining positive symptoms involves “apophenia,” or the tendency to perceive meaningful patterns where none, in fact, exist. Though hallucinations and delusions represent extreme instances of apophenia, it also occurs throughout the population and can include any instance of a false positive cognition, including such benign occurrences as seeing animals in the clouds or hearing your name in noise. Importantly, apophenia may be the result of heightened pattern seeking in both perception and belief, a tendency that is, along with apophenia and positive schizotypy, positively associated with the personality trait openness to experience. We propose that pattern detection and associated personality and psychopathological traits are, in turn, underlaid by neural networks associated with experiential simulation and cognitive control, specifically, the default and frontoparietal networks. Both of these networks have been implicated in research on psychosis, schizotypy, and openness.MethodsDespite consistently demonstrated associations among openness, positive schizotypy, and apophenia, few studies have investigated relations between schizotypy and behavioral manifestations of apophenia, let alone the role of normative personality variation or underlying neural substrates. To investigate these associations, we conducted a series of studies (total N > 3000) using self-report questionnaires, behavioral indicators of pattern detection sensitivity, and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI).ResultsAcross samples, robust positive associations were found among openness, positive schizotypy, and psychotic-like experiences. In turn, all three of these traits were positively associated with general tendencies toward false positive errors, including perceiving social intentions or emotions when none were present, detecting letters in distractor shapes and speech in noise, and picking up on semantic associations between unrelated words. Results using resting state functional MRI data suggested positive schizotypy, openness, and especially their shared variance, were related positively to connectivity of the default network and negatively to frontoparietal connectivity.DiscussionTaken together, these findings suggest that pattern sensitivity and associated brain networks may underlie openness, positive schizotypy, and psychotic-like experiences. Those with heightened openness and associated risk for psychosis may demonstrate an increased default-network-related tendency toward erroneous thoughts and perceptions (false positives), coupled with diminished frontoparietal function and impairments in the ability to successfully engage in reality testing and screen out false positives. Overall, our results advance understanding of the personality and neurocognitive correlates of the extended psychosis phenotype, while adding to a growing body of research characterizing the underlying biology of transdiagnostic psychiatric features through the use of large, nonpatient samples.

Rethinking Executive Function and Its Development

Research on executive function in early childhood has flourished in recent years. Much of this work is premised on a view of development of executive function as the emergence of a set of domain-general component processes (e.g., working memory updating, inhibitory control, shifting). This view has shaped how we think about relations between executive function and other aspects of development, the role of the environment in executive-function development, and how best to improve executive function in children who struggle with it. However, there are conceptual and empirical reasons to doubt that executive function should be defined in this way. I argue that the development of executive function is better understood as the emergence of skills in using control in the service of specific goals. Such goals activate and are influenced by mental content such as knowledge, beliefs, norms, values, and preferences that are acquired with development and are important to consider in understanding children’s performance on measures of executive function. This account better explains empirical findings than the component-process view; leads to specific, testable hypotheses; and has implications for theory, measurement, and interventions.

Private Speech and Imagination: The Liminal Experience Between Myself and Others

This article presents the results of a theoretical investigation that aimed to develop a comprehensive model regarding the phenomenon of imagination and private speech as liminal experiences of consciousness. A theoretical articulation between the phenomena was developed to explain how imagination and private speech allow to make sense in the liminal space between inner and outer worlds. It is concluded that the double role of iconic and verbal signs allows to configure future experiences and to construct meanings in the transitional space between oneself and others. The iconic and verbal signs used in imaginative and private speech processes, respectively, allow to experience situations ‘as if they were real’, and at the same time, to distance from them as a mental play separated from reality. This is all based on an affective matrix which determines the emergence of mental meanings and mental content. This article constitutes a contribution to the study of micro-genetic intrapsychic liminal processes.