Brainstem control of sensory information: A mechanism for perception

Bullying victimization increases the risk of displaying internalized and externalized symptoms and alexithymia traits among adolescents. The aim of this study is to examine the mediating role of Alexithymia in the relationships between bullying victimization and internalized and externalized symptoms. A total of 1092 students and their teachers (N = 67) of 4th to 6th grade anonymously completed a series of measures about experiences of bullying victimization, internalizing and externalizing symptoms, and alexithymia. Our data suggest that three types of bullying victimization (verbal, physical and social) predicted internalized, externalized and alexithimic symptoms. Furthermore, alexithymia partially mediated the positive effect of all the three types of bullying victimization on both internalizing and externalizing symptoms. This study provided empirical data about the mediating role of alexithimia in exacerbation of internalized and externalized symptoms among adolescents and pre-adolescents exposed to three types of bullying victimization.

Effects of Bullying Victimization on Internalizing and Externalizing Symptoms: The Mediating Role of Alexithymia

Detection of potential customers’ empathy behavior towards customers' reviews

The paper presents a hierarchical spike timing neural network model developed in NEST simulator aimed to reproduce human decision making in simplified simulated visual navigation tasks. It includes multiple layers starting from retina photoreceptors and retinal ganglion cells (RGC) via thalamic relay including lateral geniculate nucleus (LGN), thalamic reticular nucleus (TRN), and interneurons (IN) mediating connections to the higher brain areas-visual cortex (V1), middle temporal (MT), and medial superior temporal (MTS) areas, involved in dorsal pathway processing of spatial and dynamic visual information. The last layer-lateral intraparietal cortex (LIP)-is responsible for decision making and organization of the subsequent motor response (saccade generation). We simulated two possible decision options having LIP layer with two sub-regions with mutual inhibitory connections whose increased firing rate corresponds to the perceptual decision about motor response-left or right saccade. Each stage of the model was tested by appropriately chosen stimuli corresponding to its selectivity to specific stimulus characteristics (orientation for V1, direction for MT, and expansion/contraction movement templates for MST, respectively). The overall model performance was tested with stimuli simulating optic flow patterns of forward self-motion on a linear trajectory to the left or to the right from straight ahead with a gaze in the direction of heading.

/pdf/spike-timing-neural-model-of-motion-perception-and-decision-2baj17dhu7.pdf

Spike Timing Neural Model of Motion Perception and Decision Making.

Student-teacher conflict moderates the link between students' social status in the classroom and involvement in bullying behaviors and exposure to peer victimization.

Background The literature indicates that separate significant links exist in adolescence between empathy, cognitive and affective motivation to defend victims, and behavioural problems in bullying episode in schools. Aims The aim of the study was to investigate the relationship between empathy, motivation to defend, and defending behaviour in bullying situations. The hypothesis focuses on the possible role of autonomous motivation in the association between empathy and defending attitudes. Samples and methods Data were collected from 430 Italian adolescents (48.4% male, 51.6% female) who completed a questionnaire in their schools. The mean age of the participants was 13.1 years (SD = 2.1). Results Results showed that empathy significantly predicts defending behaviour and also has a significant effect on extrinsic, introjected, and intrinsic motivation to defend. Autonomous motivation, in turn, has a mediating role in the relationship between empathy and defending behaviour. Conclusions Our study suggests the importance of focusing on empathy and on developing autonomous motivation to defend in children, to raise spontaneous defending attitudes against bullying.

/pdf/empathy-and-defending-behaviours-in-school-bullying-the-4evl6a6qyj.pdf

Empathy and defending behaviours in school bullying: The mediating role of motivation to defend victims

In this paper we propose a model of visual perception in which a positive feedback mechanism can reproduce the pattern stimulus on a neurons screen. The pattern stimulus reproduction is based on informations coming from the spatial derivatives of visual pattern. This information together with the response of the feature extractors provides to the reproduction of the visual pattern as neuron screen electric activity. We simulate several input patterns and prove that the model reproduces the percept.

Laura Borello

Papers

Empathy and defending behaviours in school bullying: The mediating role of motivation to defend victims

A model of visual perception