This essay is about the somatosensory system, which is divided into different kinds of touch. Described briefly are the proprioceptive touch, which is transported to the brain via A-alfa fibers and transmits information about e. g. limb position and movement. The cutaneous touch is the main focus and it is divided into discriminative touch and affective touch. The first corresponds to stimuli such as vibration and pressure and is transported via A-beta axons. The second, affective touch, corresponds to e.g. painful and pleasant stimuli which are transported to the brain via A-delta and C-fibers. The aim of the essay is to give an overview of the sense of touch, by doing a literature search, including a discussion of relevant neuronal correlates focusing particularly on affective touch. Moreover, the physiological aspects of touch will be presented. The sources that are used are review and original articles taken from databases such as ScienceDirect, and some articles send by the author. Some books have also been used to find more general knowledge. The conclusion for the essay is that touch is important for humans to function in everyday life. Additional, a specific receptor called C- tactile (CT) is identified to correspond to gentle touch and is suggested to have a vital role for humans in maintaining and forming social bounds. Moreover, discriminative touch is associated with activation in the primary and secondary somatosensory cortex, whereas affective touch seems to be associated with activity in the orbitofrontal cortex, cingulate cortex and the insula cortex, as well as the prefrontal cortex, which is suggested to be activated during interpersonal touch. Further, the sense touch needs to be more researched in order to understand its functions and benefits deeper.
Why is it that we humans have a tendency to construct transcendental entities? That is one of the big questions the scientific discipline Cognitive Science of Religion is trying to answer. In order to gain validation for the concepts used by this discipline neural correlates are needed. The aim of the present work is to investigate the concepts Hypersensitive Agency Detection Device ((H)ADD) and Theory of Mind (ToM) both in psychological, cognitive and neural aspects to see if those concepts are enough to explain the human tendencies to construct transcendental entities. This work is developed as philosophical a literature study and uses literature from the scientific disciplines of cognitive neuroscience, cognitive science of religion, cognitive science, neurotheology, psychology of religion and philosophy of religion. This means that the present work is interdisciplinary and stands on a bridge between the theoretical and empirical sciences. A word of caution: Regardless the findings this work presents, the explanatory value is limited as it is a theoretical study in an empirical scientific field. It is when the findings in this work are tested empirically that the findings sustainability are decided.
What this work shows is that neural correlates for ToM already exist in the form of the Mirror Neuron-Theory (MNT), but it is problematic because it can not show how higher orders of representations are possible. No scientific data about neural correlates to (H)ADD has been found for this study, but here the amygdala may play a prominent role. Furthermore this work shows that (H)ADD and ToM is not enough to explain why humans have a tendency to construct transcendental entities. We are in need of peripheral cognitive mechanisms such as intuitive knowledge modules, ontological categories, teleological thinking, our drive to seek causal connections and our ability for pattern recognition.
In this study, we explored how contextual information about threat dynamics affected the electrophysiological correlates of face perception. Forty-six healthy native Swedish speakers read verbal descriptions signaling an immediate vs delayed intent to escalate or deescalate an interpersonal conflict. Each verbal description was followed by a face with an angry or neutral expression, for which participants rated valence and arousal. Affective ratings confirmed that the emotional intent expressed in the descriptions modulated emotional reactivity to the facial stimuli in the expected direction. The electrophysiological data showed that compared to neutral faces, angry faces resulted in enhanced early and late event-related potentials (VPP, P300 and LPP). Additionally, emotional intent and temporal immediacy modulated the VPP and P300 similarly across angry and neutral faces, suggesting that they influence early face perception independently of facial affect. By contrast, the LPP amplitude to faces revealed an interaction between facial expression and emotional intent. Deescalating descriptions eliminated the LPP differences between angry and neutral faces. Together, our results suggest that information about a person's intentions modulates the processing of facial expressions.
Increasing evidence illustrates an involvement of stress in a large variety of physical and mental illness. Together with the evolutionary development of the social behavior in humans, the traditional interpretations of the attachment theory and the social support theory underscores the importance of affection, belonging and appreciation for human well-being. Not only can an imbalanced stress system be the cause of severe pathological consequences, insufficient social contact can also hamper recovery. Frequent usage of animals in various settings steadily illustrates both physiological and psychological benefits on both the young and the old, the healthy and the ill. Through the study of neurobiological factors, with oxytocin as a central mediator of social behavior and its impact in turn on the stress- and cortisol system, this paper examines the possibility of animals to function as social support. The potential of animals to reduce the suffering in patients with stress related psychiatric disorders, such as the highly frequent exhaustion disorder, human-animal interactions might offer a non-invasive complementary tool to current treatment methods.
When the patient wishes to die at their own home requires that the advanced care also moved to their home. District nurses have primary care responsibilities in palliative home care and may experience ethical, moral and communicative difficulties. For a good palliative care requires that district nurses is involved, have the experience and have advanced skills in palliative care. The purpose of this study is to illuminate district nurses' experiences of caring for patients in the final stage in palliative home care. Nine district nurses were interviewed. To analyze the data, a qualitative content analysis with an inductive approach was applied. The analysis resulted in four main themes with its eight sub- themes. Main themes titled; Being able to collaborate and cooperate in care, Being able to care for relatives, Being able to manage negative emotions and Able to create a good care environment. The conclusion was that, a good teamwork is important for district nurses but having different care providers can complicate caring. It is important for district nurses to meet relatives and receive grief when grief could come as dissatisfaction. This could affect the nursing staff negatively. It is important that district nurses are supported in the sense of inadequacy and emotional reactions. Further research may be aimed at relatives ' point of view in order to understand family members' reactions.