PubMed · 1443072
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J L Pulec. 1992. Creativity: the key to progress.. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/1443072/
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1. The effect of cholinergic modulation on associative memory function was studied in a computational model based on the physiology and anatomic structure of piriform cortex. Both the cholinergic suppression of intrinsic fiber synaptic transmission and the cholinergic changes in postsynaptic excitability described in the companion paper were examined. 2. Distributed input patterns representing odors were stored in the model with the use of a synaptic modification rule dependent on pre- and postsynaptic activity (i.e., Hebbian). Associative recall of these patterns was tested by presenting the model with degraded versions of the learned patterns and testing whether these degraded patterns evoked the same network response as the full learned input pattern. Storage was evaluated with the use of a performance measure designed to reflect how well degraded input patterns could be recognized as a particular learned input pattern. 3. When memory function was evaluated with a selective cholinergic suppression of intrinsic fiber synaptic transmission during learning, associative memory performance was greatly enhanced. Cholinergic suppression during learning prevents previously stored patterns from interfering with the storage of new patterns. 4. When memory function was evaluated with a cholinergic mediated enhancement in cell excitability during learning, the speed of learning increased, but so did the decay in performance due to interference during learning. 5. When suppression of intrinsic fiber synaptic transmission was coupled with an increase in cell excitability, the best memory performance was obtained. 6. These results provide a possible theoretical framework for linking the neuropharmacological effects of acetylcholine to behavioral evidence for a role of acetylcholine in memory function. This could help describe how memory deficits might arise from cholinergic dysfunction in diseases such as Alzheimer's dementia.
The German physicist and writer Lichtenberg (1742-1799) was well known during the nineteenth century as a humorist, thinker, and psychologist. He was also a favorite author of Freud, who read him beginning in his teens, quoted him frequently, and called him a "remarkable psychologist." Despite this, he has been ignored by psychoanalysts and historians of psychiatry alike, and most of his writing is still unavailable in English. An introduction to Lichtenberg as a psychologist is provided, stressing material dealing with dream analysis, association theory, and drives. Relevant excerpts are translated into English. Lichtenberg is shown to have insisted upon the need for a systematic and rationalistic study of dreams, to have analyzed individual dreams (describing them as dramatized representations of thoughts, associations, and even conflicts from his own waking life), and to have emphasized the functional link between dreams and daydreams. His remarks on drives and commentary on eighteenth-century association theory represent a significant practical application, and thus refinement, of Enlightenment rationalistic psychology. These achievements are assessed in light of Freud's early fascination with him; it is argued that Lichtenberg is an example of the relevance of the historical and cultural background of psychoanalysis to clinical practice.
To aid young children in learning and using Blissymbols, the characters are often enhanced by the drawing of additional components. Thirty standard or 30 enhanced Blissymbols, designed to represent familiar actions (10), attributes (10), and objects/entities (10), were shown to 20 normal 3-year-old children, who were asked to guess what they mean. Their responses were examined to learn what children perceive when they see such symbols. They mainly identified perceptual features and related elements of symbols to something with which they were familiar. The number of their guesses that referred to the embellishments of the enhanced Blissymbols was twice as great as the number that referred to the standard Blissymbol base. The results are discussed in terms of the role of enhancements and possible applications to symbol introduction, as well as an early glimpse at emerging literacy.