Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Gower's "Herte-Thoght": Thinking, Feeling, Healing, Eve Salisbury

Accessus

While much has been said about the ethical principles of Gower's poetry, less has been said about his understanding of the body, its principal organs, and its relation to the medical discourse of the time. This short paper, presented initially as part of the "Hope and Healing Symposium" sponsored by The Gower Project, approaches the poet's work from a more medically inflected point of view, one that suggests a stronger kinship between the material body and its use as a metaphor for the body politic. Gower appears to be situated within a continuing debate launched by Aristotle and taken up …

Influence Of Stress And Cytokinic Profiles On Cognitive Performance In Older Adults, Kerri S. Rawson

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

ABSTRACT

With aging, changes in the immune system, makes cognitive performance, and the prevalence of stressors can lead to poorer overall functioning. Within the immune system, a balance should exist between cytokines regulating Th1 and Th2 immune responses; however, age-related declines in the endocrine and immune systems can disrupt this equilibrium. Several studies report higher levels of Th1 associated cytokines in inflammatory conditions of the brain, whereas fewer studies remark on Th2 associated cytokines and cognitive functioning. Declining cognitive abilities are a common concern that accompanies advancing age and some research has suggested the prevalence and impact of stressors lead …

Hallucination Proneness, Schizotypy And Meta-Cognition, John Stirling, Emma Barkus, Shon Lewis

Emma Barkus

Disordered or maladaptive meta-cognitive processing appears to be a prominent feature for some individuals with a diagnosis of schizophrenia. We sought to establish whether healthy individuals distinguished either in terms hallucination proneness (HP) or level of schizotypy could also be differentiated on the sub-scales of the Meta-cognitions Questionnaire (MCQ), or a modified version of it in which items about worry were replaced with items specifically related to thinking. A total of 106 healthy volunteers completed the Oxford and Liverpool Inventory of Feelings and Experiences and Launay-Slade hallucination scale, the Schizotypal Personality Questionnaire and two versions of the MCQ: the original …

Cannabis And Cognition: Short- And Long-Term Effects, Nadia Solowij, Nicole Pesa

Faculty of Health and Behavioural Sciences - Papers (Archive)

Twenty years ago cannabis was generally perceived to be a benign drug with few significant adverse effects. As outlined elsewhere in this book, evidence has since mounted in the scientific literature for a range of harms associated with the use of cannabis, including the development of dependence and health-related harms (see also Hall and Solowij, 1998; Hall and Degenhardt, 2009). As the overall theme of this book indicates, an association between cannabis use and the development of psychotic symptoms or overt psychosis has grown to be recognized as a significant potential harm, and investigating the mechanisms by which cannabis may …

Visual Search For Smoking Stimuli: Detection And Distraction, Jason A. Oliver

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Extensive research has shown that the attentional systems of addicted individuals are biased towards drug-related stimuli, but despite several decades of effort these results have frequently been inconsistent. Though commonly believed to result from addiction and dependence, cognitive research would suggest that frequent exposure to drug-related stimuli could affect the attentional processing of drug-related cues even if no actual drug use occurs. The present investigation examined attentional bias for smoking cues using a novel visual search paradigm amongst smokers currently in nicotine withdrawal and fully satiated smokers, as well as a non-smoker control group. Variables related to smoking behavior, as …

Examining The Relationship Between Spiritual Resources, Self-Efficacy, Life Attidues, Cognition, And Personal Characteristics Of Homeless African American Women, Jean Gash

Wayne State University Dissertations

African Americans comprise 12% of the American population and 45% of the homeless sheltered population (United States Department of Housing and Urban Development [HUD], 2007). The fastest growing segment is African American women and African American women with children. The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between spiritual resources, self-efficacy, life attitudes, cognition, and personal characteristics (e.g., physical and mental health, age, marital status, number of children, number and length of times homeless and perceptions of being at risk for serious illness) of homeless African American women from 30 years of age and older who were trying …