A previously undescribed scene-selective site is the key to encoding ego-motion in naturalistic environments.

Current models of scene processing in the human brain include three scene-selective areas: the parahippocampal place area (or the temporal place areas), the restrosplenial cortex (or the medial place area), and the transverse occipital sulcus (or the occipital place area). Here, we challenged this model by showing that at least one other scene-selective site can also be detected within the human posterior intraparietal gyrus. Despite the smaller size of this site compared to the other scene-selective areas, the posterior intraparietal gyrus scene-selective (PIGS) site was detected consistently in a large pool of subjects (n = 59; 33 females). The reproducibility of this finding was tested based on multiple criteria, including comparing the results across sessions, utilizing different scanners (3T and 7T) and stimulus sets. Furthermore, we found that this site (but not the other three scene-selective areas) is significantly sensitive to ego-motion in scenes, thus distinguishing the role of PIGS in scene perception relative to other scene-selective areas. These results highlight the importance of including finer scale scene-selective sites in models of scene processing - a crucial step toward a more comprehensive understanding of how scenes are encoded under dynamic conditions.

The effects of online art therapy on ego functions, emotion regulation, and interpersonal relationship styles in neurotic personality organization.

Art therapy, as an effective therapeutic intervention, is used to improve positive self-image and self-awareness, promote insight, and enhance therapeutic communication. This study aimed to evaluate the efficacy of art psychotherapy on ego functions, emotion regulation, and interpersonal relationship styles of individuals with neurotic personality organization. Using a quasi-experimental pretest-posttest design, 60 participants were assigned to intervention and control groups, each further divided into three subgroups (n = 10 per subgroup). The intervention group engaged in online art therapy sessions twice weekly over nine weeks, while the control group received no intervention. Data analysis involved descriptive statistics, paired samples t-tests, and independent t-tests. There was a significant decrease in the intervention group's judgmental subdimensions of the Ego Function Assessment Scale. A significant decrease was found in the intervention group in "awareness" (p < 0.01), "clarity" (p < 0.05), and "impulse" (p < 0.001) subdimensions and total scores of the Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale. There was no statistical difference between the intervention and control groups' mean pretests and posttests and comparing those groups with each other concerning IRSQ scores. The online group art therapy led to successful improvements in participants' ego functions and emotion regulations.

Development of the Japanese version of the Ego-Dissolution Inventory (EDI).

AIM: Psychedelics have recently gained attention as potential therapeutic agents for various psychiatric disorders. Previous research has highlighted that a diminished sense of self, commonly termed "ego-dissolution" is a pivotal feature of the psychedelic-induced state. While the Ego-Dissolution Inventory (EDI) is a widely acknowledged instrument for measuring this phenomenon, no Japanese version has been available. This study aimed to develop a Japanese version of the EDI. METHODS: We adhered to the "Guidelines for Best Practices in the Translation and Cultural Modification Process for Patient-Reported Outcomes Instruments: Document from the ISPOR Committee on Translation and Cultural Modification" during our translation approach. Two Japanese psychiatrists independently conducted initial translations, and a consolidated version was achieved via mutual agreement. This version was then back-translated to English and assessed by the original authors for consistency. The repetitive modification process was conducted in continuous dialogues with the original authors until they accepted the concluding back-translated version. RESULTS: The finalized, approved back-translated version of the EDI is presented in the accompanying figure. In addition, the authorized Japanese version of the EDI is included in the Appendix. CONCLUSIONS: In this study, we successfully developed the Japanese version of the EDI. This instrument will assist in assessing ego-dissolution experiences associated with psychedelic-assisted therapy among Japanese speakers. Additional studies are necessary to evaluate the reliability and validity of this newly translated instrument.

Changes in pupil size track self-control failure.

People are more likely to perform poorly on a self-control task following a previous task requiring self-control (ego-depletion), but the mechanism for this effect remains unclear. We used pupillometry to test the role of attentional effort in ego-depletion. We hypothesized that an elevated pupil diameter (PD)-a common physiological measure of effort-during an initial task requiring self-control should be negatively associated with performance on a subsequent control task. To test this hypothesis, participants were first assigned to either a high- or low-demand attention task (manipulation; a standard ego-depletion paradigm), after which all participants completed the same Stroop task. We then separately extracted both sustained (low-frequency) and phasic (high-frequency) changes in PD from both tasks to evaluate possible associations with lapses of cognitive control on the Stroop task. We first show that in the initial task, sustained PD was larger among participants who were assigned to the demanding attention condition. Furthermore, ego-depletion effects were serially mediated by PD: an elevated PD response emerged rapidly among the experimental group during the manipulation, persisted as an elevated baseline response during the Stroop task, and predicted worse accuracy on incongruent trials, revealing a potential indirect pathway to ego-depletion via sustained attention. Secondary analyses revealed another, independent and direct pathway via high levels of transient attentional control: participants who exhibited large phasic responses during the manipulation tended to perform worse on the subsequent Stroop task. We conclude by exploring the neuroscientific implications of these results within the context of current theories of self-control.

Exploring the connection between ego-resiliency and health behaviors: a cross-sectional study of Polish health sciences students.

BACKGROUND: The aim of this study was to examine the relationship between ego-resiliency and the intensity of health behaviors among Polish health sciences students. METHODS: The study involved 483 students from health-related faculties in southern Poland, consisting of 314 women (63.7%) and 179 men (36.3%). The average age of the participants was 21.7 ± 2.5 years. To assess resiliency (ER), the Ego-Resiliency Scale (ER89-R12) by Block and Kremen was used in its Polish adaptation. The intensity of health behaviors was examined using the Health Behavior Inventory (HBI) developed by Z. Juczynski. RESULTS: The results revealed a positive correlation between the intensity of health behaviors and ER (r = 0.43, p < 0.001), both for the general factor and its categories (positive mental attitude, proper eating habits, preventive actions, and prohealth activities). Students with a high level of health behaviors exhibited significantly higher ER (M = 38.95, SD = 5.15) compared to those with average (M = 35.93, SD = 5.03) and low (M = 32.97, SD = 5.12) HBI levels. Among the HBI categories, Positive Mental Attitude showed the strongest correlation with both general ER and its factors: optimal regulation (OR) and openness to life experiences (OL). Furthermore, the correlation was found to be stronger with the OR and weaker with OL. CONCLUSION: Higher ER in students is correlated with a greater frequency of health behaviors. Nurturing the development of ER may contribute to the maintenance of prohealth practices despite life difficulties and temporary loss of motivation. This, in turn, promotes the regularity of health behaviors, which is crucial for their positive impact on overall health.

Ego- and Geo-Centered References: A Functional Neuroimagery Study.

INTRODUCTION: The integration of vestibular, visual, and somatosensory cues allows the perception of space through the orientation of our body and surrounding objects with respect to gravity. The main goal of this study was to identify the cortical networks recruited during the representation of body midline and the representation of verticality. METHODS: Thirty right-handed healthy participants were evaluated using fMRI. Brain networks activated during a subjective straight-ahead (SSA) task were compared to those recruited during a subjective vertical (SV) task. RESULTS: Different patterns of cortical activation were observed, with differential increases in the angular gyrus and left cerebellum posterior lobe during the SSA task, in right rolandic operculum and cerebellum anterior lobe during the SV task. DISCUSSION: The activation of these areas involved in visuo-spatial functions suggests that bodily processes of great complexity are engaged in body representation and vertical perception. Interestingly, the common brain networks involved in SSA and SV tasks were comprised of areas of vestibular projection that receive multisensory information (parieto-occipital areas) and the cerebellum, and reveal a predominance of the right cerebral and cerebellar hemispheres. The outcomes of this first fMRI study designed to unmask common and specific neural mechanisms at work in gravity- or body-referenced tasks pave a new way for the exploration of spatial cognitive impairment in patients with vestibular or cortical disorders.

An Ego-Involving Motivational Climate Can Trigger Inflammation, a Threat Appraisal, and Basic Psychological Need Frustration in an Achievement Context.

In this experimental investigation, male college students (N = 56; Mage = 19.95 years) who did not yet know how to juggle were randomly assigned to a 30-min instructional juggling session with either a caring, task-involving climate or an ego-involving climate. An inflammatory response to psychosocial stress was assessed via salivary interleukin-6 prior to (t = 0) and following (t = +30, +45, +60 min) the session. Surveys were utilized to examine positive and negative affect prior to the session and affect, psychological needs, challenge and threat appraisals, and perceived ability to juggle following the session. This is the first investigation to show that ego-involving climates can trigger inflammation, along with maladaptive psychological responses. Participants in the caring, task-involving climate responded with greater psychological need satisfaction, resource evaluations, positive affect, and perceived juggling ability. This research suggests there may be important physiological consequences to ego-involving climates, in addition to concerning cognitive, affective, and behavioral responses.

Multi-eGO: Model Improvements toward the Study of Complex Self-Assembly Processes.

Structure-based models have been instrumental in simulating protein folding and suggesting hypotheses about the mechanisms involved. Nowadays, at least for fast-folding proteins, folding can be simulated in explicit solvent using classical molecular dynamics. However, other self-assembly processes, such as protein aggregation, are still far from being accessible. Recently, we proposed that a hybrid multistate structure-based model, multi-eGO, could help to bridge the gap toward the simulation of out-of-equilibrium, concentration-dependent self-assembly processes. Here, we further improve the model and show how multi-eGO can effectively and accurately learn the conformational ensemble of the amyloid ß42 intrinsically disordered peptide, reproduce the well-established folding mechanism of the B1 immunoglobulin-binding domain of streptococcal protein G, and reproduce the aggregation as a function of the concentration of the transthyretin 105-115 amyloidogenic peptide. We envision that by learning from the dynamics of a few minima, multi-eGO can become a platform for simulating processes inaccessible to other simulation techniques.

A Kleinian appreciation of the Ego and the Id (1923-2023).

I divide this paper into three parts. First, I discuss Freud's ideas about repression and the unconscious sense of guilt in order to compare them with Klein's view that we disown uncomfortable facts through a process of splitting and projection, leading to a paranoid defence against guilt. Second, I describe Klein's struggle to understand the origin and the severity of the primitive super-ego which was so prominent in her child patients. She considered that an important aim of analysis was to moderate the severity of the super-ego to create a more humane inner world. Finally, I will elaborate on her view, as well as Freud's, that some of the primitive terrifying objects that lie buried deep in the unconscious are fixed and unmodifiable. I will use some ideas from Ron Britton to suggest that instead of trying to modify or get rid of these persecuting figures, it might be possible to stand up to them and to emancipate the ego from the tyranny of the super-ego.

Psilocybin's Erasure of EGO.

The psychoanalytic journey and the psilocybin journey both reveal unconscious dynamics. In this article a psychoanalyst discusses his own psilocybin journey. Similarities and differences between these journeys are discussed. Possibilities are offered for a dialogue in which psilocybin may contribute to psychoanalytic understanding and psychoanalysis may contribute to the understanding of psychedelic sessions. Patients may benefit from this cross-fertilization.

On looking into The Ego and the Id 100 years after its publication.

Freud's publication of The Ego and the Id sparked a diverging set of psychoanalytic models - ego psychology, structural conflict theory, Kleinianism, object relations theories, Lacanianism, etc. - each of which attempted to deal with the clinical limitations of his first topography in regard to unconscious guilt, negative therapeutic reactions and primitive character organizations. This paper attempts to look back on these developments from the perspective of contemporary, post-Freudian psychoanalytic theories.

"The Ego and the Id": How and why Freud transformed his model of the mind.

This paper argues that, despite its title, "The Ego and the Id" can be seen as the book of the superego, and although it is a metapsychological work, Freud's introduction of the new conceptual tools provided by the structural model was a response to the clinical problems he faced. The implications of Freud's introduction of the superego for the analytic relationship are discussed, with an attempt to deepen our understanding of what he had in mind by reading "Group Psychology and the Analysis of the Ego" alongside "The Ego and the Id". Finally, the paper draws on Bion to consider the implications of this remodelling of the analytic scene for listening and interpretation.

The Ego and the Id: Concepts and developments.

In this note I have limited myself to describing some convergent and divergent developments arising from the innovative concepts present in The Ego and the Id. It could be argued that a part of the psychoanalytic movement wished to emphasize the function of the Ego (Anna Freud, Hartmann, Rapaport), while another part (Melanie Klein and her followers) delved into the dynamics of the Superego and the Id in primitive and pathological states of mind. I will examine three themes presents in The Ego and the Id: the assertion that a part of the Ego is unconscious; the idea that the death drive becomes part of the dynamics of melancholia and its Superego; the concept of fusion and defusion of the life and death instinct. Freud's writing represents a forge of new ideas that have made psychoanalysis ever more creative and capable of understanding the complexity and mysteriousness of the human mind.

Desexualization: An interesting problem in The Ego and the Id.

The sudden appearance of the term "desexualization" in The Ego and the Id is considered as a marker of the subtle, almost unnoticeable changes that occurred in Freud's thinking after 1920. The strict dichotomy between life and death drives posed a series of new problems that force Freud to invoke a "desexualized libido" in order to restore some fluidity in the psychic apparatus. But the mechanism of desexualization was difficult to describe and Freud seems to resort to a circular explanation. In the end, the restored dialectics between Eros and the death drive, thanks to desexualization, force Freud to invoke a split in the ego itself.

The significance of the ego in "The Ego and the Id" and its unfulfilled promise.

It is not well known that The Ego and the Id, where Freud presented his second model of the mind, and introduced a new role for the Ego, was ignored by many of the major theorists that followed. I will attempt to demonstrate the importance of this new view of the ego for clinical psychoanalysis, and what has been lost by its being ignored.

Introduction to Jacques Lacan "Some Reflections on the Ego".

This is a brief introduction to Jacques Lacan's paper "Some Reflections on the Ego" which summarizes his main ideas.

How Can Autonomy Support from a Coach, Basic Psychological Needs, and the Psychological Climate Explain Ego and Task Involvement?

The aim of this study was to consider the relationships among the autonomy support an athlete perceives from their coach, the three basic psychological needs (autonomy, competence, and relatedness), the psychological motivational climate of the team (a task or ego climate), and the athlete's motivational orientation (ego or task involvement). No other studies have investigated this. My three hypotheses were as follows: autonomy support from a coach will have an impact on motivational involvement, all three basic needs will have an impact on motivational involvement, and motivational involvement will be explained by the motivational climate. A total of 175 elite male ice hockey players from Norway, ranging in age from 15 to 18 years old, answered questionnaires about autonomy support, perceived motivational climate, achievement goal orientation, and basic psychological needs. A multiple regression analysis was conducted to predict ego-task involvement using autonomy support from the coach, the need for autonomy, the need for competence, the need for relatedness, the task climate, and the ego climate. The only two variables that statistically significantly predicted ego-task involvement were the autonomy support from the coach (std. beta = 0.28, sign = 0.05) and the ego climate (std. beta = 0.34, sign = 0.01). The analysis revealed that the athletes had a higher score on task (M = 4.85) than ego (M = 3.34) involvement, but when these were transformed into two variables (high and low) for task and ego involvement, we found that most players scored high for both task and ego involvement. We found that autonomy support from the coach had a positive relationship with a high score for players on both task and ego involvement. We also found that the three basic psychological needs had no impact on the motivational involvement of the athletes. Lastly, we found that the ego climate had an impact on motivational involvement. There was a positive relationship between a high score for the ego climate and a high score for both ego and task involvement.

Parental emotional neglect and academic procrastination: the mediating role of future self-continuity and ego depletion.

The purpose of this study was to explore the effect of parental emotional neglect on the academic procrastination of late adolescents and further analyze the mediating role of future self-continuity and ego depletion. This study included 609 college students, 344 males and 265 females, ranging in age from 17 to 21 years (M = 18.39, SD = 0.82), who responded to four questionnaires measuring parental emotional neglect, academic procrastination, future self-continuity, and ego depletion, respectively. The results showed that future self-continuity and ego depletion mediated the association between parental emotional neglect and late adolescents' academic procrastination in a serial pattern. Perceived higher levels of parental emotional neglect correlated with lower future self-continuity and higher ego depletion in these late adolescents, leading to higher levels of academic procrastination.