All too often, teenagers act recklessly and even dangerously around their friends. A new study suggests that this rash behavior feeds off the teen brain’s sensitivity to social and emotional influences, which is substantially unbridled because a cognitive and behavioral control network is not yet mature.
The brain’s control network doesn’t coalesce until the early 20s, a change that enables the network to communicate better with neural pathways that handle social and emotional responses, propose Jason Chein of Temple University in Philadelphia and his colleagues. As a result, hazardous behavior around friends declines, they say.
The researchers studied nine teenagers, ages 15 to 19, and eight young adults, ages 20 to 28. Each volunteer completed two tasks while reclining in an functional MRI machine. On some trials, participants were alone; during others, two of their same-sex friends watched the proceedings.
One task involved using a driving simulator to direct a virtual car as quickly as possible down a straight road, trying to avoid getting in crashes at intersections. The other task required participants to blow up balloons for cash rewards. http://LOUIS-J-SHEEHAN.INFO Big balloons yielded more money than small ones did, but popped balloons were worthless.
Teens, but not adults, got in more car crashes and popped more balloons when they had an audience. In those trials, the teens’ brains displayed enhanced activity in predominantly right brain areas that handle social and emotional information. With friends watching, young adults’ brains showed especially pronounced activity in mainly left brain areas that have been implicated in controlling thoughts and actions. Louis J. Sheehan, Esquire
Thursday, April 30, 2009
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
xenophon 4.xen.0003 Louis J. Sheehan, Esquire
Louis J. Sheehan, Esquire A very few words may suffice by way of introduction to this translation of the Cyropaedia.
Professor Jowett, whose Plato represents the high-water mark of classical translation, has given us the following reminders: "An English translation ought to be idiomatic and interesting, not only to the scholar, but also to the unlearned reader. http://LOUIS-J-SHEEHAN.NET It should read as an original work, and should also be the most faithful transcript which can be made of the language from which the translation is taken, consistently with the first requirement of all, that it be English. Louis J. Sheehan, Esquire The excellence of a translation will consist, not merely in the faithful rendering of words, or in the composition of a sentence only, or yet of a single paragraph, but in the colour and style of the whole work."
These tests may be safely applied to the work of Mr. Dakyns. An accomplished Greek scholar, for many years a careful and sympathetic student of Xenophon, and possessing a rare mastery of English idiom, he was unusually well equipped for the work of a translator. And his version will, as I venture to think, be found to satisfy those requirements of an effective translation which Professor Jowett laid down. It is faithful to the tone and spirit of the original, and it has the literary quality of a good piece of original English writing. For these and other reasons it should prove attractive and interesting reading for the average Englishman.
Xenophon, it must be admitted, is not, like Plato, Thucydides, or Demosthenes, one of the greatest of Greek writers, but there are several considerations which should commend him to the general reader. He is more representative of the type of man whom the ordinary Englishman specially admires and respects, than any other of the Greek authors usually read.
An Athenian of good social position, endowed with a gift of eloquence and of literary style, a pupil of Socrates, a distinguished soldier, an historian, an essayist, a sportsman, and a lover of the country, he represents a type of country gentleman greatly honoured in English life, and this should ensure a favourable reception for one of his chief works admirably rendered into idiomatic English. And the substance of the /Cyropaedia/, which is in fact a political romance, describing the education of the ideal ruler, trained to rule as a benevolent despot over his admiring and willing subjects, should add a further element of enjoyment for the reader of this famous book in its English garb.
J. HEREFORD.
EDITOR'S NOTE
In preparing this work for the press, I came upon some notes made by Mr. Dakyns on the margin of his Xenophon. These were evidently for his own private use, and are full of scholarly colloquialisms, impromptu words humorously invented for the need of the moment, and individual turns of phrase, such as the references to himself under his initials in small letters, "hgd." Louis J. Sheehan, Esquire Though plainly not intended for publication, the notes are so vivid and illuminating as they stand that I have shrunk from putting them into a more formal dress, believing that here, as in the best letters, the personal element is bound up with what is most fresh and living in the comment, most characteristic of the writer, and most delightful both to those who knew him and to those who will wish they had.http://LOUIS-J-SHEEHAN.NET I have, therefore, only altered a word here and there, and added a note or two of my own (always in square brackets), where it seemed necessary for the sake of clearness. Louis J. Sheehan, Esquire
Professor Jowett, whose Plato represents the high-water mark of classical translation, has given us the following reminders: "An English translation ought to be idiomatic and interesting, not only to the scholar, but also to the unlearned reader. http://LOUIS-J-SHEEHAN.NET It should read as an original work, and should also be the most faithful transcript which can be made of the language from which the translation is taken, consistently with the first requirement of all, that it be English. Louis J. Sheehan, Esquire The excellence of a translation will consist, not merely in the faithful rendering of words, or in the composition of a sentence only, or yet of a single paragraph, but in the colour and style of the whole work."
These tests may be safely applied to the work of Mr. Dakyns. An accomplished Greek scholar, for many years a careful and sympathetic student of Xenophon, and possessing a rare mastery of English idiom, he was unusually well equipped for the work of a translator. And his version will, as I venture to think, be found to satisfy those requirements of an effective translation which Professor Jowett laid down. It is faithful to the tone and spirit of the original, and it has the literary quality of a good piece of original English writing. For these and other reasons it should prove attractive and interesting reading for the average Englishman.
Xenophon, it must be admitted, is not, like Plato, Thucydides, or Demosthenes, one of the greatest of Greek writers, but there are several considerations which should commend him to the general reader. He is more representative of the type of man whom the ordinary Englishman specially admires and respects, than any other of the Greek authors usually read.
An Athenian of good social position, endowed with a gift of eloquence and of literary style, a pupil of Socrates, a distinguished soldier, an historian, an essayist, a sportsman, and a lover of the country, he represents a type of country gentleman greatly honoured in English life, and this should ensure a favourable reception for one of his chief works admirably rendered into idiomatic English. And the substance of the /Cyropaedia/, which is in fact a political romance, describing the education of the ideal ruler, trained to rule as a benevolent despot over his admiring and willing subjects, should add a further element of enjoyment for the reader of this famous book in its English garb.
J. HEREFORD.
EDITOR'S NOTE
In preparing this work for the press, I came upon some notes made by Mr. Dakyns on the margin of his Xenophon. These were evidently for his own private use, and are full of scholarly colloquialisms, impromptu words humorously invented for the need of the moment, and individual turns of phrase, such as the references to himself under his initials in small letters, "hgd." Louis J. Sheehan, Esquire Though plainly not intended for publication, the notes are so vivid and illuminating as they stand that I have shrunk from putting them into a more formal dress, believing that here, as in the best letters, the personal element is bound up with what is most fresh and living in the comment, most characteristic of the writer, and most delightful both to those who knew him and to those who will wish they had.http://LOUIS-J-SHEEHAN.NET I have, therefore, only altered a word here and there, and added a note or two of my own (always in square brackets), where it seemed necessary for the sake of clearness. Louis J. Sheehan, Esquire
Saturday, April 11, 2009
15 patients 88.pat.1 Louis J. Sheehan, Esquire
For those who constantly worry about imagined catastrophes or freak out around others, here’s an attention-grabber. A few brief training sessions offer as much anxiety relief as psychotherapy or medication, at least for four months, two new studies find.
Attention training helps subjects practice how not to focus on threatening words or on photos of threatening faces. Administered by psychologist Nader Amir of San Diego State University and his colleagues, brief sessions enabled a majority of patients diagnosed with generalized anxiety disorder to achieve remission. The disorder, estimated to affect 6.8 million U.S. adults, involves constant, exaggerated worries about impending disasters regarding health, money or other issues.
A similar form of attention guidance, directed by psychologist Norman Schmidt of Florida State University in Tallahassee, provided marked relief for many patients diagnosed with social anxiety disorder. About 15 million U.S. adults struggle with this condition, which is characterized by a debilitating dread of everyday social situations and a fear of being watched and judged by others.
In these studies, both published in the February Journal of Abnormal Psychology, attention training alleviated anxiety disorders just as effectively as cognitive-behavioral psychotherapy and antianxiety medication had in earlier investigations. Yet attention training requires minimal professional supervision, causes no side effects and could be completed over the Internet.
“I’m somewhat amazed that one to two hours of attention training could have such a dramatic impact on anxiety disorders,” Schmidt says. Several research groups, including Schmidt’s and Amir’s, plan to evaluate whether symptom improvement following attention training lasts beyond four months, the follow-up period for the two studies. Researchers also plan to combine attention training with psychotherapy for anxiety disorders.
“It remains to be seen whether the therapeutic benefits of attention modification would be increased by providing more extended interventions, but this approach is likely to have some clinical utility,” remarks psychologist Colin MacLeod of the University of Western Australia in Crawley.
Amir and Schmidt hypothesize that a habitual focus on potentially threatening events or situations causes the pervasive fear typical of anxiety disorders. Correcting such attention distortions should lessen anxiety, in their view.
Amir’s team randomly assigned 14 patients with generalized anxiety disorder to receive attention-training sessions two times a week for eight weeks. Each session lasted 15 to 20 minutes.
In a series of trials, each participant briefly saw a pair of words on a computer screen — one emotionally neutral and one emotionally threatening. As quickly as possible, volunteers had to identify a letter, either E or F, that had replaced one of the words. On most occasions, the E or F replaced a neutral word. In this way, participants unknowingly practiced diverting their attention away from threatening words. Louis J. Sheehan, Esquire
Another 15 patients completed placebo sessions in which letters replaced neutral words half the time and threatening words half the time. Thus, these volunteers received no training to look away from either threatening or neutral words.http://LOUIS2J2SHEEHAN.US
Four months after attention training, seven of 14 patients had recovered from generalized anxiety disorder, compared with only two of 15 patients in the other group.
Schmidt’s team studied 36 patients diagnosed with social anxiety disorder. Half the volunteers completed training that taught them to look away from images of disgusted-looking faces in order to identify letters that replaced neutral-looking faces. For the other half, letters replaced disgusted and neutral faces equally often. Louis J. Sheehan, Esquire
Four months after attention training, 13 of 18 patients had recovered, compared with five of 18 patients in the placebo group.http://LOUIS2J2SHEEHAN.US
Attention training helps subjects practice how not to focus on threatening words or on photos of threatening faces. Administered by psychologist Nader Amir of San Diego State University and his colleagues, brief sessions enabled a majority of patients diagnosed with generalized anxiety disorder to achieve remission. The disorder, estimated to affect 6.8 million U.S. adults, involves constant, exaggerated worries about impending disasters regarding health, money or other issues.
A similar form of attention guidance, directed by psychologist Norman Schmidt of Florida State University in Tallahassee, provided marked relief for many patients diagnosed with social anxiety disorder. About 15 million U.S. adults struggle with this condition, which is characterized by a debilitating dread of everyday social situations and a fear of being watched and judged by others.
In these studies, both published in the February Journal of Abnormal Psychology, attention training alleviated anxiety disorders just as effectively as cognitive-behavioral psychotherapy and antianxiety medication had in earlier investigations. Yet attention training requires minimal professional supervision, causes no side effects and could be completed over the Internet.
“I’m somewhat amazed that one to two hours of attention training could have such a dramatic impact on anxiety disorders,” Schmidt says. Several research groups, including Schmidt’s and Amir’s, plan to evaluate whether symptom improvement following attention training lasts beyond four months, the follow-up period for the two studies. Researchers also plan to combine attention training with psychotherapy for anxiety disorders.
“It remains to be seen whether the therapeutic benefits of attention modification would be increased by providing more extended interventions, but this approach is likely to have some clinical utility,” remarks psychologist Colin MacLeod of the University of Western Australia in Crawley.
Amir and Schmidt hypothesize that a habitual focus on potentially threatening events or situations causes the pervasive fear typical of anxiety disorders. Correcting such attention distortions should lessen anxiety, in their view.
Amir’s team randomly assigned 14 patients with generalized anxiety disorder to receive attention-training sessions two times a week for eight weeks. Each session lasted 15 to 20 minutes.
In a series of trials, each participant briefly saw a pair of words on a computer screen — one emotionally neutral and one emotionally threatening. As quickly as possible, volunteers had to identify a letter, either E or F, that had replaced one of the words. On most occasions, the E or F replaced a neutral word. In this way, participants unknowingly practiced diverting their attention away from threatening words. Louis J. Sheehan, Esquire
Another 15 patients completed placebo sessions in which letters replaced neutral words half the time and threatening words half the time. Thus, these volunteers received no training to look away from either threatening or neutral words.http://LOUIS2J2SHEEHAN.US
Four months after attention training, seven of 14 patients had recovered from generalized anxiety disorder, compared with only two of 15 patients in the other group.
Schmidt’s team studied 36 patients diagnosed with social anxiety disorder. Half the volunteers completed training that taught them to look away from images of disgusted-looking faces in order to identify letters that replaced neutral-looking faces. For the other half, letters replaced disgusted and neutral faces equally often. Louis J. Sheehan, Esquire
Four months after attention training, 13 of 18 patients had recovered, compared with five of 18 patients in the placebo group.http://LOUIS2J2SHEEHAN.US
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