Neurobiology and clinical implications of lucid dreaming

Several lines of evidence converge to the idea that rapid eye movement sleep (REMS) is a good model to foster our understanding of psychosis. Both REMS and psychosis course with internally generated perceptions and lack of rational judgment, which is attributed to a hyperlimbic activity along with hypofrontality. Interestingly, some individuals can become aware of dreaming during REMS, a particular experience known as lucid dreaming (LD), whose neurobiological basis is still controversial. Since the frontal lobe plays a role in self-consciousness, working memory and attention, here we hypothesize that LD is associated with increased frontal activity during REMS. A possible way to test this hypothesis is to check whether transcranial magnetic or electric stimulation of the frontal region during REMS triggers LD. We further suggest that psychosis and LD are opposite phenomena: LD as a physiological awakening while dreaming due to frontal activity, and psychosis as a pathological intrusion of dream features during wake state due to hypofrontality. We further suggest that LD research may have three main clinical implications. First, LD could be important to the study of consciousness, including its pathologies and other altered states. Second, LD could be used as a therapy for recurrent nightmares, a common symptom of depression and post-traumatic stress disorder. Finally, LD may allow for motor imagery during dreaming with possible improvement of physical rehabilitation. In all, we believe that LD research may clarify multiple aspects of brain functioning in its physiological, altered and pathological states.

Retratos, imagens, letras e numeros colados nas paredes:representaçãoes sociais de escola para ribeirinhos dos rios Môa e Azul - Acre

Remote Communities. Absence of artifacts and minimization of the exacerbated consumption of modernity. The desire which spread beyond what reality can provide. Expressions like this are present in this paper which focus in the social representations of school built by residents who live at the riversides of Môa and Azul Rivers, in Mâncio Lima, Acre State. To do so, we used the methodological contribution of the semi-structured interview, observation of the place while a natural inhabitant of the region, and also photos analyses of local reality. A key feature of the riverside homes is the glued paper on the walls of houses forming a panel set of portraits, pictures, letters and numbers for all appreciated. Regardless of whether or not read, there is admiration for the color of the images, the layout of the letters, and the things of the city awakening the desire to obtain school knowledge. The resident of this Amazon region maintains a close relationship between thinking, acting and feeling living harmonically with nature that connects them to the ideal landscape which is revisited by the graphic material that attracts wondering what exists beyond the shores of the river, beyond the horizon of green forests. It is a life entirely accomplished by the imaginary where exist a framed landscape merged and confused by the real and the supernatural, in which men and gods walk together by the forest, sailing by the rivers and seek a possible aesthetic between the real and ideal. The Theory of Social Representations spread by Serge Moscovici (2005) and Jodelet (2001) guided our gaze on the understanding what the school is and its representation to the riversides, as well to reveal the relation they practice with the knowledge that is spread by the mystification and the knowledge that is practice daily. Based in Bardin s thematic analysis (2004) we tried to raise such contents combining them in five analysis categories

O cidadão técnico em enfermagem :analisando as mudanças na sua profissionalização

The study analyzes the changes occurring in the professional qualification of the Nursing Technician in the Natal School of Nursing. It provides a historical discussion of Brazilian professional education, of the pertinent legislation in this type of teaching, and the repercussions related to the institutionalization of the Educational Directives Law. It interprets the discourse of the graduates of the complementary course of nursing auxiliary to nursing technician, for the year 2002, using the collective subject analysis and individual interviews. These revealed changes in the areas of knowledge-learning, knowledge-doing, knowledge-being, and an awakening to other changes besides the challenges being confronted. In this sense, nursing as a participant in a society that is effervescent with process changes, interacts socially, politically and professionally in this context, able to experience advances and retrogrades, depending on its political competency

Responsabilidade social empresarial: modalidades e grau de participação em meios de hospedagem em Ponta Negra, Natal/RN

That work has as objective to investigate and to analyze the strategies which they were developed by companies of lodging means with ends of social responsibility in Rio Grande do Norte (RN). Therefore, it got data along with the Office of Tourism of the Municipal district of Natal , the Office of Tourism of RN and the cadasters of the firms of the lodging means in the district of Ponta Negra. In after research of field, it verified the enterprises that now develop lodging activities in that quarter in Ponta Negra. It applied Instrument of research which it was elaborated based on the set of indicators of social responsibility of Ethos Institute, structured with binary questions and some open ones. It shows as results which actions the investigated companies develop. Confronting these results with researched theoretical referencial, it points an intermediate degree of socially responsible actions. Comparing with the evaluation accomplished by Ethos Institute, the investigated firms are in incipient condition, with punctual actions, however, they already present the awakening about this thematic

O cuidado e a ética do cuidado: um diálogo entre Leonardo Boff, Carol Gilligam e Nel Noddings

To elucidate the important contribution of care ethics in improving human relations and social intimates, this work reveals the fragility and lack of ethics on the formation of a just society, equal, peaceful and caring. To this end, we study on the moral development of men and women, warning of the natural differences between the sexes, which change for both the way of seeing life and live it - which does not imply inferiority to some genres. From this study it is clear that the natural care is innate to humans, it provides a tendency to act for the good of all life forms and nature as a whole. But it is evident here a greater sensitivity of women to such care because they possess perception and more emotion than men, which make them more participatory and involved in relationships. This greater openness to care found in women, due in part to the strong and lasting relationship with their mothers. Thus is revealed the power that women have to positively change the direction of human relationships, providing careful with your example, protective and caring, the awakening of a new and comprehensive ethics - opens to the truth, and features especially for affections. Therefore, the care ethics arises from the life experiences of women and aims, through them, to join the men's morality in order to bring out the relevant fact of interdependence between human beings, of human fragility and the need for relationships to the fullness of life

Investigação da relação entre conteúdo onírico e aprendizado de uma tarefa cognitiva complexa

Several lines of evidence indicate that sleep is beneficial for learning, but there is no experimental evidence yet that the content of dreams is adaptive, i.e., that dreams help the dreamer to cope with challenges of the following day. Our aim here is to investigate the role of dreams in the acquisition of a complex cognitive task. We investigated electroencephalographic recordings and dream reports of adult subjects exposed to a computer game comprising perceptual, motor, spatial, emotional and higher-level cognitive aspects (Doom). Subjects slept two nights in the sleep laboratory, a completely dark room with a comfortable bed and controlled temperature. Electroencephalographic recordings with 28 channels were continuously performed throughout the experiment to identify episodes of rapid-eye-movement (REM) sleep. Behaviors were continuously recorded in audio and video with an infrared camera. Dream reports were collected upon forced awakening from late REM sleep, and again in the morning after spontaneous awakening. On day 1, subjects were habituated to the sleep laboratory, no computer game was played, and negative controls for gamerelated dream reports were collected. On day 2, subjects played the computer game before and after sleep. Each game session lasted for an hour, and sleep for 7-9 hours. 9 different measures of performance indicated significant improve overnight. 81% of the subjects experienced intrusion of elements of the game into their dreams, including potentially adaptative strategies (insights). There was a linear correlation between performance and dream intrusion as well as for game improval and quantity of reported dreaming. In the electrophysiological analysis we mapped the subjects brain activities in different stages (SWS 1, REM 1, SWS 2, REM 2, Game 1 and Game 2), and found a modest reverberation in motor areas related to the joystick control during the sleep. When separated by gender, we found a significant difference on female subjects in the channels that indicate motor learning. Analysis of dream reports showed that the amount of gamerelated elements in dreams correlated with performance gains according to an inverted-U function analogous to the Yerkes-Dodson law that governs the relationship between arousal and learning. The results indicate that dreaming is an adaptive behavior

Políticas públicas e as transformações socioespaciais correlacionadas ao turismo no município de Caicó: uma análise do período 2000 a 2010

The study presents an approach on planning, sociospatial transformations and public touristic policies implemented between 2000 and 2010 in Caicó, encompassing people from the government, private sector and the population of the municipality and informal traders who use the leisure facilities and services arranged in place. As the main goal, the research intends to analyze the performance of public and private sectors correlated to the touristic activity in Caicó city and their reflections in the process changes sociospatial. The dissertation is structured in order to carry out an investigation into the role of public policies to the development of a location with touristic potential, in this case, the municipality of Caicó; to investigate public policies implemented in the touristic industry of Rio Grande do Norte, particularly the actions of PRODETUR-Nordeste focused on the development of the tourism in the countryside, affecting particularly the region of Seridó region and the municipality of Caicó, and, finally, to check the main changes sociospatial verified in Caicó between 2000 and 2010. Cultural issues and certain natural beauties can be seen as attractions that can attract tourist demand, taking into consideration the awakening increasingly more evident quest by the tourist for knowledge of the peculiarities of the region. Several authors have worked in this view, pointing to the cultural aspects of the region as elements that are able to boost the touristic activity. The questions raised in this study was based on a literature, based mainly on authors like Beni, Dias, Cruz, Azevedo and Morais. To obtain the necessary data in the analysis, the methodological procedures used in intensive direct observation, using interviews, applied together with the public representatives who are acting as leaders of the political actions related to tourism in the municipality and members of the private sector related to tourism services such as lodging establishments, food and travel agency and, finally, the local people and informal traders benefited directly or indirectly, with the touristic resources and structure. These research agents were investigated by means of structured forms such as support for analysis. Was detected in the survey that the leisure facilities and services installed in the last decade in the city of Caico has a priority the population of the municipality, is necessary to emphasize that the residents interviewed perceive the importance of these tools for tourist activity. It was also found that the public sector is the main responsible for the observed changes. Therefore, proved to be relevant to study the role public private sector partnerships and population influences, considering that this analysis may contribute to the work of researchers, public administrators and businessmen, may serve as a norteador for planning and development of tourism in the city of Caico

Estudo das percepções ambientais e de ações educativas promotoras da biodiversidade em unidade de conservação no Rio Grande do Norte

Important issues involving the awakening to the need for conservation of biodiversity and the importance of establishing protected areas as a strategy in pursuit of environmental protection, are increasingly being developed in biological and social investigative fields. In this sense, this research aimed to emphasize the use of environmental perception of social agents are significant elements for the understanding of the man / nature, and develop educational activities aimed at raising awareness and changing attitudes towards environmental issues thus promoting reflections on Environmental Education (EE) as a critical and transformative tool for conservation of rich biological diversity. This research covers as a place of study, schools located in the Environmental Protection Area Jenipabu (APAJ), Rio Grande do Norte. Methodology in general, we highlight the use of questionnaires and mind maps as generators of the contents of empirical research, and execution of content analysis for the treatment of data collected. This dissertation has two chapters in the form of scientific articles, where the first is entitled: "Study of the perceptions and evaluation of interactions concerning environmental education in schools in a conservation area of Rio Grande do Norte - Brazil", obtaining thus a primary diagnosis for analysis about the visions that students and teachers from two schools located in APAJ have on the environment. The second article, entitled: "Effective and analysis of educational activities that promote biodiversity in a coastal area of Environmental Protection Northeast - Brazil" provides an analysis of the educational use of biodiversity as a way to raise awareness of the need for environmental conservation. It appears from research that there is a lack of training in EA by teachers, but there is a need for greater involvement of students in conservation areas, however, from the analysis of educational activities, we observed that the effectiveness of such actions acts to promote awareness and change in actors involved. Thus, environmental education needs to take into account the different perceptions found in each individual, and it can not be based solely on transmission of knowledge, so that we reach a model of conservation.

Empreendedorismo social e protagonismo juvenil: a estratégia socioeducativa do projeto Oasis de intervivência universitária

This dissertation aims to analyze the strategy of socio Intervivência University Project OASIS training of community development from the perspective of social entrepreneurship. This project was part of the context of a sort of university extension, called Intervivência University, which emerged in 2008 through the announcement MCT / CNPq / CT-Agribusiness / MDA - No. 23/2008 - Intervivência University Program. With the analysis of the OASIS project sought to identify a strategy socio, which was used elements of popular education and aimed to develop young people within the social entrepreneurship that made contributions to such has taken actions in their communities seeking range of social gains. For this, the methodological aspect, it was used in the research, a qualitative approach, case study, content analysis, semi-structured interviews and non-participant observation. In the theoretical aspect was addressed in the affairs of: social entrepreneurship, with emphasis on the concept, their differentiations of business entrepreneurship and social responsibility, and characterizing the social entrepreneur, popular education, as for the development of social entrepreneurship is the need for a new way of thinking and seeing reality for the people, and youth leadership, given the importance in the context of social action, to have young people seeking a better life for their communities. Addressed the theory were drawn categories (capital, empowerment and youth participation) and subcategories of analysis (value, attitude, behavior, trust, cooperation, civic participation) used in this work. Given the information and analysis of interviews and observations could be perceived that the strategy promoted socio Project OASIS changes, or the reaffirmation of values, resulting in new attitudes and, consequently, new behaviors in the students interviewed. Has been identified in them the development of trust and cooperation. In the aspect of civic awakening was observed in some of them only. In relation to juvenile activity was perceived to develop actions aimed at social benefits for all respondents. Thus, the OASIS Project Intervivência University made contributions to the young participants in the research aspect of social entrepreneurship, influencing them in developing activities in the social sphere in which cities are embedded

Intercompreensão de línguas românicas: uma proposta para a leitura literária plurilíngue no ensino fundamental

The developed research aimed to investigate how students behave on elementary school in a plurilingual context, based on Intercomprehension of Romanic Languages with literary texts in the classroom. The theoretical framework prioritizes authors who consider reading literary text as an essential tool to the formation of reading and writing skills for students, such as: Amarilha (1997; 2003; 2007), Resende (1993), Kleiman, (1999), Villardi (1997), Aguiar (1991), Perrone-Moisés (2000), Lajolo (1993), Zilberman (1991), Cosson (2006), Andrade, Melo-Pfeifer, Santos, (2009), Sá; De Carlo; Antoine (2011), Alas Martins (2014), Doyé (2005), Souza, (2013), and others, according to the intercomprehension approach and plurilingualism. We use questionnaires as a methodological resources for this research, and we applied some activities that was developed based on intercomprehension from literary texts which represent three types of Romanic languages (Spanish, French and Italian), in addition to the participant observation in classes with students of the 8th grade from an elementary public school in the city of Natal (RN). The students could read and (inter) understand some texts of classic literature in those Latin languages and also in Portuguese, whose titles include “D. Quixote de la mancha” by Miguel de Cervantes; “O pequeno príncipe” by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry; and “Pinóquio” by Carlo Collodi. The data analysis shows that students understood the lessons with plurilingual texts as something which goes beyond the structure of language teaching, awakening themselves to the knowledge of new languages and cultures, and linguistic diversity as motivation at the time of understanding and literature as transforming element to Citizen formation of students.

A pedagogia de projetos e o ensino de música na educação básica da cidade de Natal/RN

This research aims to investigate the use of Project based learning as a method for teaching music in Elementary Schools located in Natal, RN. Its main objective is to analyze how this method is used during the classes of music at school context and which are its implications to the process of music learning acquirement. The specific objectives comprise: gathering the music teachers in preschool that work with project based learning as a method for their classes; identifying how the theory meets their practice; and analyzing how project based learning contributes to the learning process of music within schools. The main scholars adopted as theoretical reference were Boutinet (2002), Hernández (1998; 200), Antunes (2001), Cavalcante (2009), from Education area; and Penna (2008), Fonterrada (2008), Queiroz (2012), regarding Musical Education. Such choice was made in views of identifying the relationship and how project based pedagogy associates to the current Brazil school curriculum. For data collection, mixed methodological strategies were used, of qualitative and quantitative approaches that are complementary for better meeting the research needs. By applying a questionnaire, it was sought to identify the music schools and teachers who reported working with project based learning. Based on these results were selected two schools, one private school and one public school to perform a participant observation in two groups following the development of music classes based on project based learning, and the information were recorded in a diary of audio and video recordings. The results of this work show that the Project Education is a methodology frequently used by music teachers from Natal/ RN contributing to the integration of content and subjects and engages students in activities awakening interest and contributing to the development of music education at school. However, it was identified that many of the conceptions of the teachers about projects are confused by ambiguities from the use of the term in different areas and in various theoretical perspectives as well as the lack of publications that address the music education through the project based learning. It is hoped that this study provides discussions and research about the project based learning applied to music education in elementary school.

Neurobiology and clinical implications of lucid dreaming

Several lines of evidence converge to the idea that rapid eye movement sleep (REMS) is a good model to foster our understanding of psychosis. Both REMS and psychosis course with internally generated perceptions and lack of rational judgment, which is attributed to a hyperlimbic activity along with hypofrontality. Interestingly, some individuals can become aware of dreaming during REMS, a particular experience known as lucid dreaming (LD), whose neurobiological basis is still controversial. Since the frontal lobe plays a role in self-consciousness, working memory and attention, here we hypothesize that LD is associated with increased frontal activity during REMS. A possible way to test this hypothesis is to check whether transcranial magnetic or electric stimulation of the frontal region during REMS triggers LD. We further suggest that psychosis and LD are opposite phenomena: LD as a physiological awakening while dreaming due to frontal activity, and psychosis as a pathological intrusion of dream features during wake state due to hypofrontality. We further suggest that LD research may have three main clinical implications. First, LD could be important to the study of consciousness, including its pathologies and other altered states. Second, LD could be used as a therapy for recurrent nightmares, a common symptom of depression and post-traumatic stress disorder. Finally, LD may allow for motor imagery during dreaming with possible improvement of physical rehabilitation. In all, we believe that LD research may clarify multiple aspects of brain functioning in its physiological, altered and pathological states.