Strain-dependent differences in LTP and hippocampus-dependent memory in inbred mice

Many studies have used "reverse" genetics to produce "knock-out" and transgenic mice to explore the roles of various molecules in long-term potentiation (LTP) and spatial memory. The existence of a variety of inbred strains of mice provides an additional way of exploring the genetic bases of learning and memory. We examined behavioral memory and LTP expression in area CA1 of hippocampal slices prepared from four different inbred strains of mice: C57BL/6J, CBA/J, DBA/2J, and 129/SvEms-+(Ter?)/J. We found that LTP induced by four 100-Hz trains of stimulation was robust and long-lasting in C57BL/6J and DBA/2J mice but decayed in CBA/J and 129/SvEms-+(Ter?)/J mice. LTP induced by one 100-Hz train was significantly smaller after 1 hr in the 129/SvEms-+(Ter?)/J mice than in the other three strains. Theta-burst LTP was shorter lasting in CBA/J, DBA/2J, and 129/SvEms-+(Ter?)/J mice than in C57BL/6J mice. We also observed specific memory deficits, among particular mouse strains, in spatial and nonspatial tests of hippocampus-dependent memory. CBA/J mice showed defective learning in the Morris water maze, and both DBA/2J and CBA/J strains displayed deficient long-term memory in contextual and cued fear conditioning tests. Our findings provide strong support for a genetic basis for some forms of synaptic plasticity that are linked to behavioral long-term memory and suggest that genetic background can influence the electrophysiological and behavioral phenotypes observed in genetically modified mice generated for elucidating the molecular bases of learning, memory, and LTP.     

Reviews

E dinger , E dward P. Encounter with the Self: a Jungian Commentary on William Blake's
C ovitz , J oel , Emotional Child Abuse: The Family Curse.
T uby , M olly . (Ed). In the Wake of Jung
M artin , L uther H., G oss , J ames (Eds). Essays on Jung and the Study of Religion
C oward , H. with B ocelli , J. , J ordens , J. , and H enderson , J. Jung and Eastern Thought.     

The Font of all Wisdom

Can Religion be Explained Away ? D. Z. Phillips (ed.) Atheism and Theism , J. J.C. Smart and J. J. Haldane Arguing for Atheism: An Introduction to the Philosophy of Religion , Robin Le Poidevin     

Exemplar and prototype models revisited: response strategies,selective attention,and stimulus generalization

J. D. Smith and colleagues (J. P. Minda & J. D. Smith, 2001; J. D. Smith & J. P. Minda, 1998,2000; J. D. Smith, M. J. Murray, & J. P. Minda, 1997) presented evidence that they claimed challenged the predictions of exemplar models and that supported prototype models. In the authors' view, this evidence confounded the issue of the nature of the category representation with the type of response rule (probabilistic vs. deterministic) that was used. Also, their designs did not test whether the prototype models correctly predicted generalization performance. The present work demonstrates that an exemplar model that includes a response-scaling mechanism provides a natural account of all of Smith et al.'s experimental results. Furthermore, the exemplar model predicts classification performance better than the prototype models when novel transfer stimuli are included in the experimental designs.     

THREE BY TWO: TWO AUTHORS,TWO VOLUMES,BUT THREE BOOKS

LEE, J. M. PALLONE, N. J Guidance and Counseling in Schools: Foundations and Processes. LEE, J. M. AND PALLONE, N. J. (EDS.) Readings in Grdidance and Conmeling.     

BOOK REVIEWS

Book Reviewed in this article:
S chein , E dgar H. Organizational Psychology.
O ttaway , R ichard N. (Editor) Change Agents at Work.
H unt , J ames G. and L arson , L ars L. (Editors) Crosscurrents in Leadership.
M oore , L arry F. and C harach , L arry . (Editors) Manpower Planning for Canadians: An Anthology.
P otter , B everly A. Turning Around: The Behavioral Approach to Managing People.
B ass , B ernard M. and B urger , P hilip C. In collaboration with Robert Doktor and Gerald V. Barrett. Assessment of Managers: An International Comparison.
S ingleton , W. T. (Editor) Compliance and Excellence. The Study of Real Skills, Volume 2.
L andy , F rank J. and T rumbo , D on A. Psychology of Work Behavior.
P eterson , R ichard B., T racy , L ane and C abelly , A lan . (Editors) Readings in Systematic Management of Human Resources.
C hampion , J ohn M. and J ames , J ohn H. (Editors). Critical Incidents in Management.
M assey , M orris . The People Puzzle: Understanding Yourself and Others.
A dair , J ohn . Action-Centered Leadership.
D u B rin , A ndrew J. The Practice of Supervision: Achieving Results through People.
B udde , J ames F. Measuring Performance in Human Service Systems: Planning, Organization, and Control.
A dair , J ohn . Training for Leadership.
A dair , J ohn . Training for Decisions.
A dair , J ohn . Training for Communication.
Y ates , J ere E. Managing Stress: A Businessperson's Guide.     

ERRATUM

Book Reviewed in this article:
S chein , E dgar H. Organizational Psychology.
O ttaway , R ichard N. (Editor) Change Agents at Work.
H unt , J ames G. and L arson , L ars L. (Editors) Crosscurrents in Leadership.
M oore , L arry F. and C harach , L arry . (Editors) Manpower Planning for Canadians: An Anthology.
P otter , B everly A. Turning Around: The Behavioral Approach to Managing People.
B ass , B ernard M. and B urger , P hilip C. In collaboration with Robert Doktor and Gerald V. Barrett. Assessment of Managers: An International Comparison.
S ingleton , W. T. (Editor) Compliance and Excellence. The Study of Real Skills, Volume 2.
L andy , F rank J. and T rumbo , D on A. Psychology of Work Behavior.
P eterson , R ichard B., T racy , L ane and C abelly , A lan . (Editors) Readings in Systematic Management of Human Resources.
C hampion , J ohn M. and J ames , J ohn H. (Editors). Critical Incidents in Management.
M assey , M orris . The People Puzzle: Understanding Yourself and Others.
A dair , J ohn . Action-Centered Leadership.
D u B rin , A ndrew J. The Practice of Supervision: Achieving Results through People.
B udde , J ames F. Measuring Performance in Human Service Systems: Planning, Organization, and Control.
A dair , J ohn . Training for Leadership.
A dair , J ohn . Training for Decisions.
A dair , J ohn . Training for Communication.
Y ates , J ere E. Managing Stress: A Businessperson's Guide.     

Structured perceptual arrays and the modulation of Fitts's law: examining saccadic eye movements

On the basis of recent observations of a modulation of Fitts's law for manual pointing movements in structured visual arrays (J. J. Adam, R. Mol, J. Pratt, & M. H. Fischer, 2006; J. Pratt, J. J. Adam, & M. H. Fischer, 2007), the authors examined whether a similar modulation occurs for saccadic eye movements. Healthy participants (N = 19) made horizontal saccades to targets that appeared randomly in 1 of 4 positions, either on an empty background or within 1 of 4 placeholder boxes. Whereas in previous studies, placeholders caused a decrease in movement time (MT) without the normal decrease in movement accuracy predicted by Fitts's law, placeholders in the present experiment increased saccadic accuracy (decreased endpoint variability) without an increase in MT. The present results extend the findings of J. J. Adam et al. of a modulation of Fitts's law from the temporal domain to the spatial domain and from manual movements to eye movements.     

Book Reviews

Book Reviewed in This Article:
S heldon , W illiam H. Atlas of Men: A Guide for Somatotyping the Adult Male at all Ages.
B rown , J. A. C. The Social Psychology of Industry.
R oethlisberger , F. J., L ombard , G eorge F., and R ankin , H arriet O. Training for Human Relations.
O tis , J ay L. and L eukart , R ichard H. Job Evaluation
A dams , W alter (Ed.) The Structure of American Industry: Some Case Studies.
R iley , M atilda W hite , R iley , J ohn W., J r ., and T oby , J ackson . Sociological Studies in Scale Analysis.     

Inner Subjective Experiences and Social Constructionism: A Response to Rudes and Guterman (2007)

In an earlier article, the author argued that there had been a devaluation of inner subjective experiences by the counseling profession over the last several decades (J. T. Hansen, 2005). In their reply to this article, J. Rudes and J. T. Guterman (2007) advocated for a social constructionist position for the counseling profession. In the current article, 2 fundamental premises that are inherent in the reply of J. Rudes and J. T. Guterman are examined. Disagreements with 1 of these premises are elaborated, and implications for the counseling profession are discussed.     

What Is an Affordance?

What should and should not be considered an affordance is still an open issue. At the 2002 North American meeting of the International Society for Ecological Psychology, a symposium was held concerning this topic. The articles in this special issue are expanded versions of the papers presented at that symposium. To set the stage for those discussions, this article presents an analysis of the evolution of J. J. Gibson's thinking on this issue, from some of his earliest writings (i.e., J. J. Gibson & Crooks, 1938) through his most recent writings (i.e., J. J. Gibson, 1979/1986). It is hoped that this forum will stimulate thinking concerning this important ecological concept.     

Discussion: The Roots of Emerging Ecological Psychology

I briefly trace the topics presented in the 4 symposium papers in a cyclic order. Sheena Rogers' (this issue) paper discussing an example of J. J. Gibson's sense of 'information' (the horizon ratio) and Eleanor J. Gibson's (this issue) paper discussing affordance learning bring together the 2 core concepts of ecological psychology (information and affordance). Robert Lickliter (this issue) and Gene C. Goldfield (this issue), along with E. J. Gibson, discuss skill development in context utilizing comparative psychology and human infant research. For the recent history that holds these topics together, the early contributions of E. B. Holt and J. J. Gibson are emphasized.     

Book Review Section

Book reviews in this article:
C ox , D onald F. (Editor) Risk Taking and Information Handling in Consumer Behavior .
L awrence , P aul R., and L orsch , J ay W. Organization and Environment: Managing Differentiation and Integration .
P rice , J ames L. Organizational Effectiveness: An Inventory of Propositions .
M offie , D. J., and G oodner , S usan . A Predictive Validity Study of Creative and Effective Managerial Performance .
O'C onnell , J eremiah J. Managing Organizational Innovation .
F rye , R oland . Analysis of Patterns of Life History Antecedents of Executives from Different Countries .
B underson , C. V ictor , R igby , J anice , and T aylor , C alvin W. The Validity of Pellowship Selection Informution .
Books and Materials Received     

Telling stories: the perils and promise of using verbal reports to study math strategies

The problem size effect in adult arithmetic performance is generally attributed to direct retrieval processes operating on a network representation in long-term memory. J. LeFevre and her colleagues (J. LeFevre, J. Bisanz, et al., 1996; J. LeFevre, G. S. Sadesky, & J. Bisanz, 1996) challenged this explanation using verbal report evidence that adults also use time consuming nonretrieval strategies to solve simple addition and multiplication. The authors replicated J. LeFevre and colleagues' methods, but added instructional biasing and silent control conditions to test these methods. Both reaction time and report results suggest that LeFevre and colleagues' conclusions about nonretrieval frequency may have been influenced by instructions that revealed the experimental hypothesis and affected participants' strategy reports. Obtaining evidence about adult strategy use in simple arithmetic will require understanding instructional demand and appropriate report methodology.     

Forebyggande Arbete I Skolan

Allen G J, Chinsky J M, Lawrence S W, Lockman J E and Selinger H V: Community Psychology and the Schools. Lawrence Erlbaum Ass. Publ., Hillsdale, Hew Jersey, 1976. 205 s.     

Genotype modulates prenatal stress effects on aggression in male and female mice

Prenatal stress (heat and restraint) significantly increased postpartum aggression (proportion of animals fighting and/or the intensity of the behavior) in C57BL/6J female mice and reduced the behavior in DBA/2J females. For intermale aggression, prenatal stress increased the behavior (intensity of aggression) in C57BL/6J males but did not affect aggressive behavior in DBA/2J animals. Infanticidal behavior (the killing of young) exhibited by male mice was not influenced by prenatal stress in either strain. Relative anogenital distance measurements in neonates at birth did not serve as a reliable predictor of strain variation in prenatal stress effects. Prenatal stress did not influence this measure of prenatal androgen exposure in DBA/2J or C57BL/6J females. For males, prenatal stress elevated relative anogenital distance in C57BL/6J mice and decreased this measure in DBA/2J animals. Prenatal stress effects on aggressive behavior in male and female mice therefore depend upon genotype. Strain-dependent differences may be modulated by differences in endocrine reactivity to prenatal stress/and or differential central neural tissue sensitivity to hormones.     

Sjalvfortroendetraning

Cotter S B & Guerra J J: Assertion Training Lange A J & Jakubowski P: Responsible Assertive Behavior Research Press, 111. 1976.     

Empathy scores in medical school and ratings of empathic behavior in residency training 3 years later

The authors designed the present study to examine the association between individuals' scores on the Jefferson Scale of Physician Empathy (JSPE; M. Hojat, J. S. Gonnella, S. Mangione, T. J. Nasca, & M. Magee, 2003; M. Hojat, J. S. Gonnella, T. J. Nasca, S. Mangione, M. Vergare, & M. Magee, 2002; M. Hojat, S. Mangione, T. J. Nasca, M. J. M. Cohen, J. S. Gonnella, J. B. Erdmann, J. J. Veloski, & M. Magee, 2001), a self-report empathy scale, during medical school and ratings of their empathic behavior made by directors of their residency training programs 3 years later. Participants were 106 physicians. The authors examined the relationships between scores on the JSPE (with 20 Likert-type items) at the beginning of the students' 3rd year of medical school and ratings of their empathic behavior made by directors of their residency training programs. Top scorers on the JSPE in medical school, compared to Bottom scorers, obtained a significantly higher average rating of empathic behavior in residency 3 years later (p < .05, effect size = 0.50). The findings support the long-term predictive validity of the self-report empathy scale, JSPE, despite different methods of evaluations (self-report and supervisors' ratings) and despite a time interval between evaluations (3 years). Because empathy is relevant to prosocial and helping behavior, it is important for investigators to further enhance our understanding of its correlates and outcomes among health professionals.     

REVIEWS

Gender and Thought: Psychological Perspectives , M ary C rawford and M argaret G entry
Psychotherapists' Sexual Involvement With Clients: Intervention and Prevention , G ary E. S choener , J eanette H. M ilgrom , J ohn C. G onsiorek , E llen T. L eupker , AND R ay M. C onroe
Invisible Lives , M artha B arron B arrett
Lesbians at Midlife: The Creative Transition , B arbara S ang , J oyce W arshow , and A drienne J. S mith
Making Connections: The Relational Worlds of Adolescent Girls at Emma Willard School , C arol G illigan , N ona P. L yons , and T rudy J. H anmer     

The Wheel of Wellness Counseling for Wellness: A Holistic Model for Treatment Planning

A holistic model of wellness and prevention over the life span was presented by T. J. Sweeney and J. M. Witmer (1991) and J. M. Witmer and T. J. Sweeney (1992). Recent advances in research and theory related to wellness support modifications of the original model. The foundation for the model is examined, research related to each component is explored, and implications for use of the model as a basis for counseling interventions are presented.