Careful consideration of the issues raised by Pezard and colleagues (in this issue of Psychophysiology) allows for the conclusion that spatial embedding may be valid as a method of dynamical reconstruction. However, two problems with the technique cannot be ignored. First, spatial embedding of EEG invariably involves linear cross-correlation among channels, which distorts the dynamical reconstruction due to compression toward the main state-space diagonal. Further, before spatially embedding across a set of channels, one must first check for at least “similar” dynamics among them, using, for example, a measure such as estimated mutual dimension. Measuring a “whole cortex” state via spatial embedding may also be possible in principle, except for the nontrivial obstacle of separating local dynamics that are heterogeneous across the cortex from activity reflecting the “unified field” of the cortex as a whole.

This study examined the effect of mothers' exposure to the 1957 A2/Singapore influenza virus in the first, second, and third trimesters of pregnancy on the electrodermal activity of their 15-year-old offspring. The epidemic occurred during cold months of the year. The results show that maternal viral (and cold) exposure during all trimesters of pregnancy produced a lower frequency of nonspecific electrodermal responses and diminished responsivity to 75-db and 90-db tones as compared with the offspring of mothers who were not exposed. However, there was a critical effect of second trimester exposure as indicated by an increase in frequency of nonresponses to orienting tones. The findings are compared with those from an earlier study from Mauritius involving 3-year-old children in which the effects of exposure to the 1968 A2/Hong Kong virus were examined and in which the effect of cold exposure could be examined separately because viral exposure occurred during the hot months.

This study examined the effect of mothers' exposure to the 1957 A2/Singapore influenza virus in the first, second, and third trimesters of pregnancy on the electrodermal activity of their 15-year-old offspring. The epidemic occurred during cold months of the year. The results show that maternal viral (and cold) exposure during all trimesters of pregnancy produced a lower frequency of nonspecific electrodermal responses and diminished responsivity to 75-db and 90-db tones as compared with the offspring of mothers who were not exposed. However, there was a critical effect of second trimester exposure as indicated by an increase in frequency of nonresponses to orienting tones. The findings are compared with those from an earlier study from Mauritius involving 3-year-old children in which the effects of exposure to the 1968 A2/Hong Kong virus were examined and in which the effect of cold exposure could be examined separately because viral exposure occurred during the hot months.

In a recent paper, Pritchard, Krieble, and Duke (Psychophysiology, 33, 362–368, 1996) studied the validity of spatial embedding of electroencephalographic (EEG) data and rejected this method in favor of time-delay embedding. The present paper describes the nonlinear characterization of brain dynamics using either spatial or time-delay embedding. We discuss the arguments published in Pritchard et al. (1996) and demonstrate that the spatial embedding cannot be rejected on this basis. We also point out the limitations of both spatial and time-delay embeddings related to the spatial extension and the high-dimensional dynamics of brain activity.

In an era characterized by an increasing bias in favor of molecular paradigms in neuroscience, this ambitious volume attests to the fundamental value of conceptualizing neural systems on a more molar and integrative level. Researchers in the area of brain asymmetry are in a unique position to make connections between brain functioning and behavioral functioning and are using sophisticated behavioral and clinical methods and advanced electrophysiological and hemodynamic techniques to do so. Chapters in this book elucidate complex cognitive and emotional phenomena from multifaceted perspectives ranging from the biochemical to the sociocultural. Indeed, the editors consider the study of brain asymmetry, with its ability to address various levels of analysis with diverse methodological and conceptual approaches, as an exemplary paradigm for future brain/behavior research.

At the Thirty-Eighth Annual Meeting of the Society for Psychophysiological Research (SPR), the award for Distinguished Contributions to Psychophysiology was presented to David Lykken. The following is based on the text of the citation given by Don Fowles on behalf of the Society's Awards Committee on September 26, 1998.

William James famously described the infant's perceptual world as a “blooming, buzzing confusion,” and a century later, the same words might apply to the field of psychology. With historical roots in both physiology and philosophy, psychology has proliferated into a multitude of subdisciplines served by specialized journals and conferences. In the face of such diversity, a few conferences and publications hold fast to the goal of presenting psychological research across the broad spectrum of subdisciplines. This edited volume, together with its companion volume (Vol. 1: Social, Personal, and Cultural Aspects), represents the proceedings of the XXVIth International Congress of Psychology, convened in Montreal in 1996, with the goal of providing “the latest research developments in psychology from around the world.” The volume contains quality reviews by an international roster of authors, and demonstrates at once both the sophisticated “blooming and buzzing” of many individual research programs in cognitive and biological psychology, and a largely untapped potential for the development of unifying themes and principles across the discipline.

The ground covered by psychophysiology throughout the decades prior to its constitution as an independent discipline has not been well documented, despite its historical interest. A bibliometric study of the research published in scientific journals by 66 of the most relevant psychophysiologists from 1930 to 1964, analyzing the contents of the records indexed in the PsycINFO database, gives us an image of the state of the emergent discipline during that period. This study reveals that this was a period of consolidation, marked by the refinement of instruments and procedures, the characterization of measurements, and the establishment of the basic relationships between physiological and psychological variables, the development and validation of basic constructs such as activation, or interest in the study of psychopathology. In these years the foundations of psychophysiology were laid, leading to the formalization of the discipline at the end of the period.

In an era characterized by an increasing bias in favor of molecular paradigms in neuroscience, this ambitious volume attests to the fundamental value of conceptualizing neural systems on a more molar and integrative level. Researchers in the area of brain asymmetry are in a unique position to make connections between brain functioning and behavioral functioning and are using sophisticated behavioral and clinical methods and advanced electrophysiological and hemodynamic techniques to do so. Chapters in this book elucidate complex cognitive and emotional phenomena from multifaceted perspectives ranging from the biochemical to the sociocultural. Indeed, the editors consider the study of brain asymmetry, with its ability to address various levels of analysis with diverse methodological and conceptual approaches, as an exemplary paradigm for future brain/behavior research.

This volume is a very welcome addition to the relatively limited set of texts for students of psychophysiology. Kenneth Hugdahl is an exceptionally broad psychophysiologist who has used all of the major response systems in his own research and has also made important contributions to experimental and clinical neuropsychology. He is therefore well-equipped to produce a particularly distinctive text in this area and he has delivered on the promise.

At the Thirty-Ninth Annual Meeting of the Society for Psychophysiological Research (SPR), the award for Distinguished Contributions to Psychophysiology was presented to Steven A. Hillyard. The following is the citation given by Risto Näätänen on behalf of the Society's Awards Committee on October 9, 1999.