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Supplemental material, PMS876741 Supplemental Material for Understanding Body Language Does Not Require Matching the Body's Egocentric Map to Body Posture: A Brain Activation fMRI Study by Cinzia Canderan, Marta Maieron, Franco Fabbro and Barbara Tomasino in Perceptual and Motor Skills

Objective: To evaluate the association between language impairments and behavioural-emotional problems in children aged 4 to 12 (N=186), referred for observation to three Child Psychiatry centres in the North of Italy. Method: Children received a battery of tests assessing IQ, different linguistic skills and behavioural-emotional profiles. Comparisons were made between children with language impairments in at least one language test and children with unimpaired language development. Results: Group-related differences emerge on all IQ measures, being higher in children with unimpaired language development. Linguistic impairments are evident on the tests assessing morphosyntactic comprehension and repetition skills. Children with language impairments evidence more internalizing problems than children with unimpaired language development according to CBCL results, especially on the Withdrawn/Depressed scale. Conclusion: Screening instruments for behavioural-emotional problems should be used regularly during linguistic evaluation. Moreover, the influence of cognitive level on linguistic impairment effects should not be underestimated.

The definition of meditation (or yoga) by Patanjali as “restriction (or stilling) of the fluctuations of the mind” (cf, Woods, 1927/2003, p. xxx, 8) may be an appropriate starting point for research on meditation using fMRI. An operational definition of the neural substrate of meditation which is adequate to Patanjalis definition, may be developed on the basis of a non-reductionistic understanding of the neural underpinnings of the mind in terms of dynamical functional brain systems.

Although most aspects of world and self-consciousness are inherently subjective, neuroscience studies in humans and non-human animals provide correlational and causative indices of specific links between brain activity and representation of the self and the world. In this article we review neuroanatomic, neurophysiological and neuropsychological data supporting the hypothesis that different levels of self and world representation in vertebrates rely upon (i) a "basal" subcortical system that includes brainstem, hypothalamus and central thalamic nuclei and that may underpin the primary (or anoetic) consciousness likely present in all vertebrates; and (ii) a forebrain system that include the medial and lateral structures of the cerebral hemispheres and may sustain the most sophisticated forms of consciousness [e.g., noetic (knowledge based) and autonoetic, reflective knowledge]. We posit a mutual, bidirectional functional influence between these two major brain circuits. We conclude that basic aspects of consciousness like primary self and core self (based on anoetic and noetic consciousness) are present in many species of vertebrates and that, even self-consciousness (autonoetic consciousness) does not seem to be a prerogative of humans and of some non-human primates but may, to a certain extent, be present in some other mammals and birds.

The aim of the present review is to investigate previous studies concerning the effects of meditation and dispositional mindfulness on conscious and implicit or non-conscious attitudes. First we present a brief perspective on conscious and non-conscious states of mind. Then we introduce the fundamental bases of mindfulness meditation. Third we review studies on dispositional mindfulness and meditation that employed either direct or indirect measures to assess explicit and implicit attitudes. Finally, we briefly present how meditation has been associated with the psychotherapeutic practice of psychoanalysis and, hence, as a therapeutic technique to access the unconscious. Until now, few studies have investigated the impact of meditation on non-conscious states of mind and personality; nevertheless, both scientific studies involving implicit measures and reflections from psychotherapy have underlined the importance of meditation in promoting psychological well-being, leading to de-automatization of automatic patterns of responding and to higher levels of self-awareness.