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3 The Aesthetics of Empathy in Agenesis of the Corpus Callosum
- Kutter D Callaway, Kaitlyn A Nogales, Lynn K Paul, Warren S Brown
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- Journal:
- Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society / Volume 29 / Issue s1 / November 2023
- Published online by Cambridge University Press:
- 21 December 2023, pp. 6-7
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Previous research suggests that individuals with isolated Agenesis of the Corpus Callosum (AgCC) have cognitive and psychosocial deficiencies that include impaired recognition of the emotions of others (Symington et al., 2010) and a diminished ability to infer and describe the emotions of others (Paul et al., 2021; Turk et al., 2010). In addition, galvanic skin responses effectively discriminated between emotional images despite atypical emotion ratings (Paul et al, 2006), supporting a dissociation between cognitive and affective empathy in AgCC. Likewise, atypical patterns of visual attention to faces corresponded with impaired emotion recognition in AgCC (Bridgman et al, 2014), suggesting that atypical visual attention in AgCC negatively impacts the ability to identify others’ emotions. This study used the Multifaceted Empathy Test [MET] (Foell et al., 2018) to examine the impact of visual aesthetics (photo composition) on empathetic feelings (affective empathy) and situational emotion recognition (cognitive empathy) in persons with AgCC. Both cognitive and affective empathy scores are typically higher on MET stimuli composed according to the “Golden Spiral” (Callaway, 2022).
Participants and Methods:Results from 50 control participants recruited from Cloud Research were compared to responses from 19 participants with AgCC and normal-range FSIQ (>80). Data was gathered through an online version of the MET, which uses a series of photographs of individuals displaying an emotion, half of which adhere to the compositional technique known as “The Golden Spiral.” To measure cognitive empathy, the participants are asked to pick the correct emotion being displayed with three distractors for each item. To measure affective empathy, they are then asked on a sliding scale, “how much do you empathize with the person shown” (1 = Not at all, 7 = Very much).
Results:Repeated measures mixed ANOVAs revealed no difference between AgCC and control groups on affective empathy, and as expected on the MET, both groups had significantly higher ratings for photos composed according to the Golden Spiral (AgCC, np2 = .071; control, np2 = .136). In contrast, the AgCC group scored significantly lower than controls overall on cognitive empathy, np2 =.065. Exploratory post-hoc found a significant group difference in cognitive empathy only on photos composed according to the Golden Spiral, np2 = .090, with the scores in the AgCC group unimpacted by composition type while the control group exhibiting significantly higher scores Golden Spiral images, np2 = .254.
Conclusions:Empathic deficits in AgCC were restricted to the cognitive component, while affective empathy was not impaired. Visual aesthetics of photo composition influenced affective empathy ratings in both AgCC and control groups. However, adults with AgCC had diminished ability to give cognitive labels to the emotional states of others, which was not enhanced by the formal aesthetics of stimuli. Thus the corpus callosum seems to facilitate the ability to cognitively label emotions by facilitating visual attention. It also suggests that the corpus callosum does not facilitate affective empathy, in part because it does not appear to determine whether formal aesthetics influences the processing of visual stimuli in AgCC or neurotypical controls.
41 Aesthetic Perception in Agenesis of the Corpus Callosum
- Nathan M. LeFebre, Kutter D. Callaway, Lynn K. Paul, Warren S. Brown
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- Journal:
- Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society / Volume 29 / Issue s1 / November 2023
- Published online by Cambridge University Press:
- 21 December 2023, p. 829
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Agenesis of the Corpus Callosum (AgCC) is the congenital absence of all or part of the corpus callosum. Previous research has demonstrated that isolated AgCC results in a pattern of cognitive and psychosocial deficiencies, even when FSIQ is in the normal range (FSIQ > 80; Brown & Paul, 2019). Importantly, individuals with AgCC have been shown to provide narratives containing fewer emotional words, social interactions, and mental inferences on the Thematic Apperception Test (TAT; Turk et al., 2009). Similarly, research has suggested deficits in the elaborative imagination of persons with AgCC when they are providing narrative descriptions of simple animations (Renteria-Vasquez et al., 2021). Such findings raise questions about aesthetic perception in AgCC. While previous research has demonstrated differences in aesthetic perception among other neuropsychological populations (e.g. Parkinson's Disease; Lauring et al., 2019), there is no research reported regarding aesthetic appreciations in AgCC. The present study employed the Assessment of Art Attributes (AAA; Chatterjee et al., 2010) to compare the conceptual and perceptual aspects of aesthetic perception of persons with AgCC to neurotypical control participants. Prior investigation by Bromberger and colleagues (2011) utilized the AAA to examine the aesthetic perception of persons with right hemisphere lesions, finding deviations in judgements of abstractness, symbolism, realism, and animacy– all classified as “conceptual attributes.” Based on these findings, it was predicted that individuals with AgCC would rate paintings differently than neurotypical controls on conceptual attributes, but not on perceptual attributes.
Participants and Methods:Thirteen persons with AgCC and 49 neurotypical individuals completed the AAA. After completing measures of artistic experience and colorblindness, participants rated 24 paintings on 14 attributes. Balance, color saturation, color temperature, depth, simplicity, and stroke made up the “perceptual scales,” while abstractness, animacy, emotion, objective accuracy, realism, interest, and preference made up the “conceptual scales.”
Results:Following Bromberger and colleagues (2011), average ratings from all control participants were used to rank the 24 paintings for each scale. Spearman's rank-order correlations were then conducted between the rankings of each participant and the average of the controls for each scale. Spearman's rho coefficients were then compared between AgCC and control groups using t-tests, controlling for multiple comparisons. As hypothesized, the AgCC group had significant deviations from the average of the controls (lower rho values) on several conceptual attributes: Abstractness (p = .004, d = .11), emotion (p < .001, d = .12), and interest (p < .001, d = .18), whereas individuals with AgCC deviated on only one perceptual attribute: Simplicity (p = .003, d = .12).
Conclusions:While generally unremarkable in the sensory aspects, persons with AgCC demonstrated greatest differences in three important conceptual aspects of aesthetic perception. This outcome suggests that such higher-order aesthetic appreciations require interhemispheric interactivity. These results further support the hypothesis that decreased elaborative imagination is a fundamental component of AgCC.
5 Social perception and ability to evaluate sincerity of speech impacted by childhood hemispherectomy
- Mitchell R Spezzaferri, Lynn K Paul, Warren S Brown
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- Journal:
- Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society / Volume 29 / Issue s1 / November 2023
- Published online by Cambridge University Press:
- 21 December 2023, p. 513
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Hemispherectomy (HE) is a surgical intervention to treat intractable epilepsy. It involves disconnecting or removing the right or left cerebral hemisphere, depending on the location of the pathological substrate or epileptogenic activity. HE impacts neural functions related to social cognition (Fournier et al., 2008). This study investigates the effects of childhood HE on social deception and sarcasm using the Thames Awareness of Social Inferences Task (TASIT; McDonald, Flanagan, & Rollins, 2010) to explore emotion identification and social inference appraisal as adults.
Participants and Methods:Fifteen adults with hemispherectomy and 16 neurotypical controls completed the TASIT. All HE patients underwent hemispherectomy (right-HE = 10) during childhood (age of surgery = 3 months to 16 years) and had FSIQ > 70 at the time of study. HE and control groups were matched for age (HE M = 25.7, SD = 5.4; control M = 27.1, SD = 10.7) and education (HE M = 14.0, SD = 1.88; control M = 13.3, SD = 1.8). FSIQ was significantly lower in the HE group than control group (HE M= 90.8, SD = 9.4; control (M = 100.4, SD = 7.1). TASIT uses videotaped vignettes to assess aspects of social perception: emotion recognition (Part 1), social inference regarding sincerity, simple sarcasm, and paradoxical sarcasm (Part 2) and social inference regarding sincerity of speech (lie vs sarcasm) in the presence of additional text or visual cues (Part 3).
Results:For Part 1, MANCOVA (covarying FSIQ) found no group difference in emotion identification. Analysis of data from Part 2 was conducted using repeated measures ANCOVA accounting for 2 groups x 3 conditions (sincere, simple sarcasm, and paradoxical sarcasm) and revealed only a significant overall group effect, F (1, 28) = 5.72, p = .024, np2 = .170. Likewise, analysis of Part 3 using repeated measures ANCOVA accounting for 2 groups x 2 cue types (visual, text) and 2 actor intentions (lie, sarcasm) revealed only a significant overall group effect, F (1,28) = 11.35, p = .002, np2 = .288, with no interaction of group by condition.
Conclusions:HE patients exhibited no difficulty identifying basic emotional expressions. Performance was significantly impaired when additional social information was added to the context (i.e., detecting sarcasm or deception). HE patients begin to struggle with the complexity of new social information or how it changes the meaning of a conversation. Even simple sarcastic exchanges are difficult to interpret. When a visual or textual cue was introduced to reveal the true state of affairs, HE patients could not could integrate the information into their interpretations of the scenario. There are unique contributions of the left and right hemispheres to cognitive processes for complex social behavior, and absence of an entire hemisphere results in deficits in social language comprehension. Future research should investigate performance differences in left vs. right HE patients.
2 Musical perception skills in Agenesis of the Corpus Callosum
- Kameron J Rigg, Matthew Wallace, Kutter D Callaway, Lynn K Paul, Warren S Brown
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- Journal:
- Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society / Volume 29 / Issue s1 / November 2023
- Published online by Cambridge University Press:
- 21 December 2023, pp. 5-6
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Agenesis of the corpus callosum(AgCC) is a disorder in which the connection between the two brain hemispheres is congenitally absent. Previous research has suggested that the auditory system can be affected in individuals with AgCC (Demopoulos et al., 2015). However, the nature of AgCC’s effect on musical perception skills is unclear. This study investigated the impact of AgCC on the music perception skills in high-functioining adults using a brief version of the Profile of Music Perception Skills (PROMS; Zentner, M. & Strauß, H. 2017). It was hypothesized that individuals with AgCC would have diminished music perception abilities when compared to a neurotypical control group.
Participants and Methods:Participants included 10 high-functioning adults with AgCC that had an intelligence quotation within the normal range (FSIQ>80) and 63 neurotypical controls who were recruited via Cloud Research. During the PROMS the participants were asked to listen to two different sound excerpts after which they were asked whether the second sound was the same or different from the first (correct answers= 2 points, uncertain answers= 1 point, and remaining answers not coded). The participants answered questions in four different areas of musical perception: Melody, Tuning, Accent, and Tempo.
Results:Results indicated that there was not a significant difference between the control group and the AgCC participants on music perception skills on the overall PROMS scores F(1,72)= .365, P-value= .548. Tested individually, none of the 4 individual domains showed a significant difference: Melody F(1,72)=2.67, P-value= .107; Tuning F(1,72)= .271, P-value= .606; Accent F(1,72)= .017, P-value= .897; or Tempo F(1,72)=.106, P-value= .746.
Conclusions:Contrary to the hypothesis of this study, the results showed that the participants with AgCC did not perform significantly differently in the PROMS total score when compared to neurotypical controls, nor were there significant differences in any of the four of the subtests (Melody, Tuning, Accent, and Tempo). Thus these high-functioning individuals with AgCC did not have deficient music perception abilities. These findings demonstrate that although the auditory system may be affected in some individuals with AgCC, we do not see differences in musical perception skills in high-functioning individuals with AgCC.
1 Exploratory Factor Analysis of the Core Neurocognitive Syndrome in Agenesis of the Corpus Callosum
- Enya Valentin, Lynn K Paul, Warren S Brown
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- Journal:
- Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society / Volume 29 / Issue s1 / November 2023
- Published online by Cambridge University Press:
- 21 December 2023, pp. 4-5
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A previous review of the syndrome of Agenesis of the Corpus Callosum (ACC) identified three primary deficits: reduced interhemispheric transfer of sensory motor information, slowed cognitive processing, and deficits in complex problem solving (Brown & Paul, 2019). Interaction of these three deficits contributes to a variety of secondary cognitive and psychosocial deficiencies across domains. Recent research has also identified a possible fourth core deficit in ACC: restricted capacity for elaborative thought and creativity (Renteria et al., 2022; Bogen & Bogen 1988). We examined the syndrome of ACC using an exploratory factor analysis of neuropsychological test data (not including data regarding interhemispheric transfer) and hypothesized it would organize into factors of (1) reduced cognitive processing speed, (2) difficulty with complex problem solving, and (3) difficulty with creative tasks.
Participants and Methods:The present study analyzed archival data from individuals with ACC (N=60) acquired from common neuropsychological instruments: D-KEFS, WAIS-III, and WRAT-2. Among the participants, 13 had partial ACC, 1 was unspecified, and the remainder had complete ACC. The participants’ ages ranged from 7 to 55 years (M = 21.55, SD = 12.36), with an education level that ranged from 2 to 19 years (M = 11.59, SD = 3.77). All participants had complete data for at least one assessment and all available data was included. Missing values (49.85%) were excluded from analysis. Factor analysis (principal factor solution with promax rotation) was conducted with 33 commonly derived summary (standard) scores. Horn’s Parallel Analysis recommended a 4-factor solution, but we elected to generate a 3-factor model that would more closely follow previous literature.
Results:Factor one involved processing speed and was comprised primarily of D-KEFS Color Word Interference Word Reading (1.02) and Color Naming (.78), D-KEFS Trail Making Test Visual Scanning (.86) and Number Sequencing (.74), and WAIS-III Processing Speed Index (.68). The second factor included several problem solving measures [e.g. D-KEFS Sorting Test Free Sorting (.90) and Sort Recognition (.90), and WAIS-III Perceptual Organization Index (.72)], as well as several additional measures including WAIS-III Working Memory Index (.84), WRAT-2 Arithmetic (.83), and WAIS-III Verbal Comprehension Index (.80). Finally, the third factor involved several measures requiring mental flexibility and cognitive control [e.g. D-KEFS Twenty Questions Test Achievement Score (.70), D-KEFS Design Fluency Switching Condition (.56), and D-KEFS Trail Making Test Number-Letter Switching Condition (.44)], as well as a measure of single word reading [WRAT-2 Reading (.66)].
Conclusions:The findings support inclusion of slowed cognitive processing speed as a core feature of the neurocognitive syndrome in ACC described by Brown and Paul (2019). The second factor is partially consistent with a deficit in complex problem solving, but is not restricted to that cognitive domain. Likewise, the third factor is largely related to mental flexibility and control (one aspect of creativity), but is not restricted to that domain. Future attempts to model the neurocognitive syndrome of ACC may provide greater clarity by including a wider range of cognitive and psychosocial indices and excluding individuals with comorbid neuropathology.
39 Empathic Abilities of Individuals with Agenesis of the Corpus Callosum
- Kaitlyn A. Nogales, Kutter D. Callaway, Lynn K. Paul, Warren S. Brown
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- Journal:
- Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society / Volume 29 / Issue s1 / November 2023
- Published online by Cambridge University Press:
- 21 December 2023, pp. 827-828
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Objective:
Previous research suggests that individuals with isolated Agenesis of the Corpus Callosum (AgCC) have cognitive and psychosocial deficits including that of complex processing of emotions (Anderson et al., 2017) and their ability to verbally express emotional experiences (Paul et al., 2021). Additionally, research suggests individuals with AgCC show impaired recognition of the emotions of others (Symington et al., 2010), as well as diminished ability to infer and describe the emotions of others (Renteria-Vazquez et al., 2022; Turk et al., 2010). However, the nature of the empathic abilities of individuals with AgCC remains unclear in empirical research. Capacity for empathetic feelings and situational recognition in persons with AgCC were tested using the Multifaceted Empathy Test [MET] (Foell et al., 2018). We hypothesized that individuals with AgCC would have lower abilities for both cognitive and affective empathy than neurotypical controls.
Participants and Methods:Results from 50 neurotypical control participants recruited from MTurk Cloud were compared to responses from 19 AgCC participants with normal-range FSIQ (>80) drawn from the individuals with AgCC involved with the Human Brain and Cognition Lab at the Travis Research Institute. The research was completed through an online version of the MET. The MET uses a series of photographs of individuals displaying an emotion. To measure cognitive empathy, the participants are asked to pick the correct emotion being displayed with three distractors for each item. To measure affective empathy, they are then asked on a sliding scale, “how much do you empathize with the person shown” (1 = Not at all, 7 = Very much).
Results:Results of a MANOVA showed a trend for a significant overall difference between individuals with AgCC and controls for empathic abilities F(1, 67) = 2.59, p-value = .082, with persons with AgCC showing less empathy overall. Follow-up one-way ANOVAs showed that individuals with AgCC scored significantly lower in cognitive empathy F(1, 67) = 4.63, p-value = .035, ηp2 = .065; however, affective empathy was not significantly different between groups F(1, 67) = .537, p-value = .466, ηp2 = .008.
Conclusions:Results suggest that adults with AgCC have a diminished ability to give cognitive labels to the emotional states of others compared to neurotypical controls. However, contrary to our hypothesis, participants with AgCC had affective responses to the pictures of the emotional states of others which were similar to neurotypical controls. Recent research has shown that individuals with AgCC have difficulty inferring and elaborating on the more complex cognitive, social, and emotional aspects of simple animations (Renteria-Vazquez et al., 2022; Turk et al., 2010). Cognitive empathy would require this form of elaborative thinking, even when affective empathy is normal. Similarly, Paul et al. (2021) described alexithymia in persons with AgCC as difficulty in expressing emotions linguistically, but found similar endorsements of emotional experience when compared to neurotypical controls. This study provides further evidence to suggest the corpus callosum facilitates the ability to cognitively label emotions but not necessarily the ability to experience emotions affectively.
1 Moral Reasoning in Individuals with Agenesis of the Corpus Callosum
- Edita Shahnazarian, Kutter D Callaway, Lynn K Paul, Warren S Brown
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- Journal:
- Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society / Volume 29 / Issue s1 / November 2023
- Published online by Cambridge University Press:
- 21 December 2023, pp. 681-682
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Objective:
Previous research has demonstrated that individuals with Agenesis of the Corpus Callosum (AgCC), the congenital absence of all or part of the corpus callosum, exhibit a pattern of cognitive and psychosocial deficits, even with a FSIQ in the normal range (FSIQ > 80; Brown & Paul, 2019). This includes a core deficit in their complex reasoning and novel problem-solving (Brown & Paul, 2019), with secondary deficits in capacity to imagine complex emotional/cognitive consequences of potential actions involving others (Young et al, 2019), deficits in emotion
perception (Symington et at., 2010, Bridgman et al 2014), and difficulty with cognitively processing emotions within the context of social interactions (Anderson et al., 2017). This constellation of deficits is likely to also impact moral reasoning. While previous research has demonstrated differences in moral reasoning among other neuropsychological populations such as those with ventromedial prefrontal damage (Moretto et al., 2010) and frontotemporal dementia (Gleichgerrcht et al., 2011), there is no research reported regarding moral judgements in AgCC. This study employed the Moral Dilemmas Scale (Greene, 2001) to compare the moral judgements of persons with AgCC to neurotypical controls. It was predicted that individuals with AgCC would be less contextually nuanced than neurotypical controls in responding to moral dilemmas.
Participants and Methods:Results consist of data derived from 57 neurotypical control participants (ages 23 to 64 years) recruited from MTurk Cloud and 19 AgCC participants (ages 23 to 77 years) with normal-range FSIQ (>80) drawn from the individuals with AgCC involved with the Human Brain and Cognition Lab at the Travis Research Institute. All participants completed an online version of the Moral Dilemmas Scale (Greene, 2001). The scale consists of 25 dilemmas, of which 11 are considered high-conflict, 7 low-conflict and 7 impersonal. Participants were instructed to read each dilemma and rate whether they found the action to be “appropriate” or not. The high-conflict dilemmas share a similar structure in which responses reflect either a utilitarian or deontological judgement.
Results:“Approve” responses to each of the 3 categories of dilemma were separately tallied for each individual and subjected to a 2group ANOVA. Results revealed the control group produced a significantly higher rate of “appropriate” responses to high-conflict dilemmas than did the individuals with AgCC (F=8.17, p = .006, n2 =.113). However, no significant differences were found among the two groups for results on low (n2 = .013) and impersonal (n2 = .003) dilemmas alone. Furthermore, a X2 analysis of responses to each high conflict dilemma revealed a significant difference in 5 out of the 11 such that more persons with AgCC gave a deontological judgement.
Conclusions:Results suggested that adults with AgCC respond similarly to neurotypical controls with respect to the low conflict or
impersonal dilemmas. However, with respect to high conflict dilemmas, compared to controls they tend to respond in a more deontological than utilitarian basis - that is, based on general principles without contextual nuance. These findings are consistent with the conclusion of Renteria-Vasquez et al. (2021) that persons with AgCC have difficulty imagining the wider implications of present information.
Everyday Executive Function and Self-Awareness in Agenesis of the Corpus Callosum
- Ryan W. Mangum, Justin S. Miller, Warren S. Brown, Anne A.T. Nolty, Lynn K. Paul
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- Journal:
- Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society / Volume 27 / Issue 10 / November 2021
- Published online by Cambridge University Press:
- 22 March 2021, pp. 1037-1047
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Objective:
Agenesis of the corpus callosum (AgCC) is associated with a range of cognitive deficits, including mild to moderate problems in higher order executive functions evident in neuropsychological assessments. Previous research has also suggested a lack of self-awareness in persons with AgCC.
Method:We investigated daily executive functioning and self-awareness in 36 individuals with AgCC by analyzing self-ratings on the Behavior Rating Inventory of Executive Function-Adult Version (BRIEF-A), as well as ratings on the same instrument from close relatives. Discrepancies between self- and informant-ratings were compared to the normative sample and exploratory analyses examined possible moderating effects of participant and informant characteristics.
Results:Significant deficiencies were found in the Behavioral Regulation and Metacognitive indices for both the self and informant results, with elevated frequency of metacognition scores in the borderline to clinical range. Informants also endorsed elevated frequency of borderline to clinically significant behavioral regulation scores. The proportion of AgCC participants whose self-ratings indicated less metacognitive impairment than informant-ratings was greater than in the normative sample. Self-ratings of behavioral regulation impairment decreased with age and informant-ratings of metacognition were higher in males than females.
Conclusions:These findings provide evidence that individuals with AgCC experience mild to moderate executive functioning problems in everyday behavior which are observed by others. Results also suggest a lack of self-understanding or insight into the severity of these problems in the individuals with AgCC, particularly with respect to their metacognitive functioning.
The Neuropsychological Syndrome of Agenesis of the Corpus Callosum
- Warren S. Brown, Lynn K. Paul
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- Journal:
- Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society / Volume 25 / Issue 3 / March 2019
- Published online by Cambridge University Press:
- 29 January 2019, pp. 324-330
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Background: Agenesis of the corpus callosum (AgCC) involves congenital absence of all or part of the corpus callosum. Because the disorder can only be firmly diagnosed via neuroradiology, it has a short research history, and only recently has the cognitive syndrome become clear. Purpose: Our purpose is to review the primary deficits in AgCC that constitute the core syndrome. Conclusions: The cores syndrome includes: (1) reduced interhemispheric transfer of sensory-motor information; (2) reduced cognitive processing speed; and (3) deficits in complex reasoning and novel problem-solving. These domains do not appear to reflect different neuroanatomical abnormalities, but rather different domains of expression of reduced interhemispheric communication from callosal absence. Implications: These core deficits are expressed across various domains of cognitive, behavioral, and social functioning. The impact of these deficits varies across development and may be moderated by individual factors such as co-occurrence of other neurodevelopmental conditions, general intellectual capacity, and environmental support. (JINS, 2019, 25, 324–330)
Selection and Treatment of Data for Radiocarbon Calibration: An Update to the International Calibration (IntCal) Criteria
- Paula J Reimer, Edouard Bard, Alex Bayliss, J Warren Beck, Paul G Blackwell, Christopher Bronk Ramsey, David M Brown, Caitlin E Buck, R Lawrence Edwards, Michael Friedrich, Pieter M Grootes, Thomas P Guilderson, Haflidi Haflidason, Irka Hajdas, Christine Hatté, Timothy J Heaton, Alan G Hogg, Konrad A Hughen, K Felix Kaiser, Bernd Kromer, Sturt W Manning, Ron W Reimer, David A Richards, E Marian Scott, John R Southon, Christian S M Turney, Johannes van der Plicht
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- Journal:
- Radiocarbon / Volume 55 / Issue 4 / 2013
- Published online by Cambridge University Press:
- 09 February 2016, pp. 1923-1945
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- 2013
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High-quality data from appropriate archives are needed for the continuing improvement of radiocarbon calibration curves. We discuss here the basic assumptions behind 14C dating that necessitate calibration and the relative strengths and weaknesses of archives from which calibration data are obtained. We also highlight the procedures, problems, and uncertainties involved in determining atmospheric and surface ocean 14C/12C in these archives, including a discussion of the various methods used to derive an independent absolute timescale and uncertainty. The types of data required for the current IntCal database and calibration curve model are tabulated with examples.
6 - How We Are Changed and Transformed
- Warren S. Brown, Brad D. Strawn
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- Book:
- The Physical Nature of Christian Life
- Published online:
- 05 July 2012
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- 11 June 2012, pp 88-100
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Summary
THE MALFORMATION OF JANE
Jane reported that she didn’t “feel in control of her life or herself.” She had come to notice a persistent discrepancy between what she said she believed as a Christian and how she lived. For example, Jane believed it was important to “love God and to love your neighbor as yourself,” but she continually found herself gossiping about others, being hurtful to friends and family, losing her temper, and even engaging in behaviors that violated her own Christian ethics. Jane would become aware of the discrepancy between her beliefs and behavior (often after the fact) and feel terribly guilty. Her typical cycle would be to act (her inappropriate behavior was always triggered by interpersonal interactions), feel regret and guilt, repent, and then, pulling herself up by the bootstraps, try to muster the willpower to do better next time. This never-ending cycle was not only leading Jane to social isolation, but to a growing sense of depression and hopelessness.
Throughout Part II, we have been describing how people develop and change. We enter the world as physically open and self-organizing systems, but also prewired for relating to other persons. Therefore, it is relationships that shape our process of self-organization. Through interpersonal experiences and imitation, we learn to interact with others, and, in the process, hopefully emerge as complete persons (fully capable of reciprocal loving relationships with others). As we continually interact with others, these reciprocal interactions become reinforced, creating habitual patterns that come to characterize our interpersonal interactions. If it is true that we are formed in and through relationships with others, then it makes sense that it is also in and through relationships that we can be changed and transformed. In a nutshell, we believe people change in, through, and with other people.
8 - Church Bodies
- Warren S. Brown, Brad D. Strawn
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- The Physical Nature of Christian Life
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- 05 July 2012
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- 11 June 2012, pp 121-139
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Summary
IT’S NOT ABOUT ME
I was attending a meeting of the worship committee at the home of our pastor, Josh. We were partway through the Christmas series in our little church and the task of the meeting was to discuss the next series that was going to focus on the mission of the church.
Part of the impetus for the next topic was a comment made by a congregant that he had a hard time describing our church to anyone. Josh was asking us how we talk about our church to those who don’t know us. Various comments were made, but we all agreed that we tend to mention our church’s founding scripture and consistent challenge, Micah 6:8, “What does the Lord require of you but to do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with God.”
Committee member Sonia then said, “I have to tell you a story. In years past, whenever I have talked about my faith to non-Christians, I was always doing my best to avoid ever mentioning the church. Somehow the church was not only not relevant, but terribly distracting. Last week I spent five hours with a non-Christian friend and we talked a lot about faith. To my own surprise, I found that, having been a part of this church for the past few years, I could not talk about my faith without talking about our church – our community of faith is so much a part of my spiritual life and my faith. It’s just not about me or my individual faith.”
CHURCH AND CHRISTIAN LIFE
Sonia’s story well captures a major point of this book – robust Christian faith is embedded within and emergent from the life of a community of faith. In the previous chapter we explored the processes of Christian formation and transformation in individual persons, with a particular eye toward our more general discussion of how people develop and change. The strong theme of this previous discussion was the very social nature of all human development. It is primarily in the context of interactions with others that persons change – for better or worse.
5 - How Relationships Shape Us
- Warren S. Brown, Brad D. Strawn
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- The Physical Nature of Christian Life
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- 05 July 2012
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- 11 June 2012, pp 71-87
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Summary
TRANSFORMATION OF SAUL
Meanwhile Saul was still breathing out murderous threats against the Lord’s disciples. He went to the high priest and asked him for letters to the synagogues in Damascus, so that if he found any there who belonged to the Way, whether men or women, he might take them as prisoners to Jerusalem. As he neared Damascus on his journey, suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him. He fell to the ground and heard a voice say to him, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?”
“Who are you, Lord?” Saul asked.
“I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting,” he replied. “Now get up and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do.”
Saul spent several days with the disciples in Damascus. At once he began to preach in the synagogues that Jesus is the Son of God. All those who heard him were astonished and asked, “Isn’t he the man who raised havoc in Jerusalem among those who call on this name? And hasn’t he come here to take them as prisoners to the chief priests?” Yet Saul grew more and more powerful and baffled the Jews living in Damascus by proving that Jesus is the Messiah.
[Acts 9:1–6; 19–22 NIV]RE-FORMING PERSONS
We are often caused to wonder whether adults can change. Can you teach an old dog new tricks? It is obvious that children change readily. They are adaptable and very open to new learning. The processes involved in the formation of children, and the most significant influences on their development, were the topic of the last chapter. In this chapter, we consider similar processes of change in adults that allow for their continued formation and re-formation.
Selected Resources
- Warren S. Brown, Brad D. Strawn
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- Book:
- The Physical Nature of Christian Life
- Published online:
- 05 July 2012
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- 11 June 2012, pp 169-172
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7 - Why Bodies Need Churches
- Warren S. Brown, Brad D. Strawn
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- The Physical Nature of Christian Life
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- 05 July 2012
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- 11 June 2012, pp 105-120
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Summary
TO GO OR NOT TO GO?
The Sunday morning scene was familiar. As Sally attempted to get herself and the children ready and dressed for church, her husband Phil leisurely sipped his coffee and read the paper dressed in shorts and hiking boots. While Sally and the kids would spend the morning at church, Phil would be up hiking in the foothills. This was a pattern they had developed over the years and Sally had learned to rarely challenge the arrangement, but this particular morning she felt compelled.
“Why don’t you come to church with us this week?” she asked sweetly.
“Hon, we have been through this a thousand times. You go to church and I go hiking,” Phil responded.
“But I don’t go to church for fun or exercise, I go for spiritual reasons,” Sally retorted.
“That is exactly why I go hiking. I have told you that before. I feel more spiritual in the mountains. Communing with nature is a religious experience for me.”
“Going to the mountains is not the same as going to church” Sally said.
“Why not?”
“It just isn’t; everybody knows that.”
Phil paused, breathed deeply, and asked, “Tell me again why you go to church?”
“Well,” Sally hesitated, “I get closer to God there. I learn about him and grow in my faith journey.”
“You keep using the same argument over and over,” responded Phil. “By your definition of church, I am experiencing the same thing in the mountains every week that you experience in church. I can do exactly what you are doing in church by myself in the foothills. I experience God there, through nature, and subsequently grow spiritually. I am quieted and centered there. I am a better person because I hike weekly! Until you can show me how church is uniquely different, I don’t see any reason to put on uncomfortable clothes and sit in a state of boredom two hours every week.”
“Well hiking isn’t church, no matter what you say,” Sally said, not hiding her exasperation.
“The mountains are my church and I’d love to have you and the kids come to my church every Sunday, but I don’t make you feel guilty when you don’t want to come,” he chided. Phil kissed her gently on the cheek as he headed out the door.
Frontmatter
- Warren S. Brown, Brad D. Strawn
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- Book:
- The Physical Nature of Christian Life
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- 05 July 2012
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- 11 June 2012, pp i-iv
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9 - The Embodied Church
- Warren S. Brown, Brad D. Strawn
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- The Physical Nature of Christian Life
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- 05 July 2012
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- 11 June 2012, pp 140-157
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Summary
REINCARNATION OF THE BETHLEHEM MANGER
In the midst of Sonia’s story during the worship committee meeting, we were startled by the sound of gun shots coming from just outside the front of the house. We all hit the floor. After calling 911 and waiting to hear the police arrive, we went out to find on the sidewalk next door a young man shot dead and his girlfriend shot in the leg. Apparently the young man, who was part of a gang from another city, had been walking down the street with his girlfriend when he was confronted by members of another gang and shot. We stood amidst the gathering neighbors – all somewhat stunned. For Josh and his family, the rest of the night and much of the next day were filled with police and news media in front of the house and conversations with concerned neighbors.
Such events create incredible fear for everyone living in the neighborhood – certainly also for Josh, who was concerned about the safety of his family, which included his three young boys. Josh decided to do something to deal with the fear descending on his neighborhood. He organized a service on his front lawn for the very next evening.
Getting there late, I ended up standing in the back, leaning on the fence in front of Josh’s house. There were thrity to forty persons gathered in the front yard, about half of them Josh’s neighbors and about half persons from our congregation who lived close by. Josh was sitting on his front steps and Justin from our church was sitting beside him, playing the guitar as the group sang.
Contents
- Warren S. Brown, Brad D. Strawn
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- Book:
- The Physical Nature of Christian Life
- Published online:
- 05 July 2012
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- 11 June 2012, pp v-viii
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Part I - Human Nature as Physical
- Warren S. Brown, Brad D. Strawn
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- Book:
- The Physical Nature of Christian Life
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- 05 July 2012
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- 11 June 2012, pp 11-12
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PROSPECT
We begin our exploration into the implications of a more wholistic and embodied understanding of persons for Christian life and the church in Chapter 2. We first describe briefly and thus somewhat simply the philosophical, historical, and theological background of body-soul dualism. In evaluating this view of human nature, it is important to know where it came from. Thus, we give a short history of the philosophical origins of body-soul dualism. We argue that the origins of body-soul dualism are mostly in the philosophy of Plato, with contributions and elaborations by St. Augustine in early Church history, and by René Descartes during the Enlightenment. We also argue that body-soul dualism is not the view of the Bible. Along with many biblical scholars, we believe that body-soul dualism has been taken as an a priori premise and read into scripture, rather than being the view we learn from scripture. Historically, dualism has also had a strong influence on the church in the form of the heresy of Gnosticism fought by the early church fathers. However, versions of Gnostic spirituality have hung around the church throughout the centuries, including a strong influence of this form of spirituality in modern religious life.
Part II - The Formation of Persons: Retrospect and Prospect
- Warren S. Brown, Brad D. Strawn
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- Book:
- The Physical Nature of Christian Life
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- 05 July 2012
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- 11 June 2012, pp 49-50
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REVIEW
In Part I of this book we laid the ground work for a more wholistic, less dualist, understanding of the nature of persons. In Chapter 2, we briefly described the history of the idea that human beings are composed of a body and a soul. We contrasted this body-soul dualism with the alternative proposal that we are bodies with capacities to be soulish, not bodies inhabited by souls. We briefly described the origins of dualism in philosophy, as well as the degree to which this view affected the early church in the form of the Gnostic heresy. This is in contrast to what most modern biblical scholars believe to be a more wholist-monist view of persons in scripture. We also tried to highlight the implications of the modern inclination toward inward and individualist forms of spirituality.
In Chapter 3, we considered some of the evidence from brain science that shows that the soulish capacities of persons are things that our bodies and brains do. There our tactic was to focus on properties of human beings that have at one time or another in Christian history been assigned to the soul: rationality, relationality, morality, and religiousness. In all cases, we found ample evidence that these important human capacities are properties of the functioning of our brains and bodies. Nevertheless, it is rather mind-boggling that such complex, high-level human capacities can emerge from the functioning of neural systems.