Postural and Locomotor Contributions to Affordance Perception

The authors sought to evaluate the relative importance of locomotor control and postural control in the perception of affordances. While seated in a stationary wheelchair, participants made a series of judgments about the minimum lintel height under which they could roll in the wheelchair. Prior to making judgments, participants were given brief (～2 min) experience with wheelchair locomotion. They expected that this practice would influence the accuracy of subsequent affordance judgments. During practice, participants moved under their own power (using their hands on the wheels) or with an experimenter pushing the wheelchair. Also during wheelchair locomotion the participant's head was restrained, or was not. Results revealed that head restraint during the practice session had no effect on the accuracy of subsequent judgments. By contrast, the judgments of participants who controlled locomotion during practice were significantly more accurate than the judgments of participants who had not controlled their locomotion during practice.     

Influences of head and torso movement before and during affordance perception

Previous research has shown that body sway (both standing and seated) is related to the accuracy of affordance judgments. The authors investigated the influence of seated head and torso movement on the perception of a novel affordance for wheelchair locomotion. Healthy adults without prior wheelchair experience judged the lowest lintel under which they could roll in the wheelchair. Prior to judgments, participants were given brief (≈ 2 min) practice at self-controlled wheelchair locomotion. During practice, the participant's head either was or was not restrained within the wheelchair. During the subsequent judgment session, the participant's head was or was not restrained. The accuracy of affordance judgments was influenced by restraint during the practice session and also by restraint during the judgment session. The authors collected data on head movement during the judgment session (when participants were not restrained). These data revealed that movement during judgment sessions was influenced by whether or not participants were restrained during the practice session. Overall, the results reveal that the availability of head movements (i.e., being unrestrained) and the nature of head movements (during unrestrained judgment sessions) were causally related to the accuracy of affordance judgments.     

Substance P is involved in terminating the hypothalamo- pituitary-adrenal axis response to acute stress through centrally located neurokinin-1 receptors

The neurokinin substance P (SP) has been previously shown to inhibit basal hypothalamo-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis activity. This study was designed to investigate the effects of central injection of the specific neurokinin-1 receptor antagonist RP67580 on the HPA axis response to acute restraint stress. In non-restrained rats injected with RP67580, plasma ACTH and corticosterone levels were elevated at 30 and 60 min compared to rats injected with vehicle, but there were no differences between vehicle and RP67580 groups at 4h. In restrained rats injected with vehicle, plasma ACTH and corticosterone levels were significantly elevated at 30 min and 60 min following initiation of the stress but had returned to basal levels at 4h. In restrained rats injected icv with RP67580, plasma corticosterone and ACTH levels were significantly elevated at 30 min and 60 min, with no significant differences compared to the restraint stressed vehicle-injected group. However, in the RP67580-injected group, corticosterone and ACTH levels remained significantly elevated at 4h following onset of restraint compared to those in the restraint stressed vehicle-injected group. Corticotrophin-releasing factor mRNA levels in the parvocellular subdivision of the paraventricular nucleus of the hypothalamus and POMC mRNA levels in the anterior pituitary were significantly increased in the stressed group 4h following injection with RP67580 compared to the stressed group injected with vehicle alone. These data show that endogenous SP does not inhibit the initial magnitude of the HPA axis response to restraint stress, but does act through neurokinin-1 receptors at a central level to reduce the duration of the response to stress. This suggests that SP may be an important central agent controlling the transition between acute and chronic stress.     

Post-weaning social and cognitive performance of piglets raised pre-weaning either in a complex multi-suckling group housing system or in a conventional system with a crated sow

We studied the social and cognitive performance of piglets raised pre-weaning either in a conventional system with a sow in a farrowing crate (FC) or in a multi-suckling (MS) system in which 5 sows and their piglets could interact in a more physically enriched and spacious environment. After weaning at 4 weeks of age, 8 groups of 4 litter-mates per pre-weaning housing treatment were studied under equal and enriched post-weaning housing conditions. From each pen, one pair consisting of a dominant and a submissive pig was selected, based on a feed competition test (FCT) 2 weeks post-weaning. This pair was used in an informed forager test (IFT) which measured aspects of spatial learning and foraging strategies in a competitive context. During individual training, submissive (informed) pigs learned to remember a bait location in a testing arena with 8 buckets (the same bucket was baited in a search visit and a subsequent relocation visit), whereas dominant (non-informed) pigs always found the bait in a random bucket (search visits only). After learning their task, the informed pigs’ individual search visit was followed by a pairwise relocation visit in which they were accompanied by the non-informed pig. Effects of pre-weaning housing treatment were not distinctly present regarding the occurrence of aggression in the FCT and the learning performance during individual training in the IFT. During paired visits, informed and non-informed pigs changed their behaviour in response to being tested pairwise instead of individually, but MS and FC pigs showed few distinct behavioural differences.     

Investigating emotional contagion in dogs (<Emphasis Type="Italic">Canis familiaris</Emphasis>) to emotional sounds of humans and conspecifics

Emotional contagion, a basic component of empathy defined as emotional state-matching between individuals, has previously been shown in dogs even upon solely hearing negative emotional sounds of humans or conspecifics. The current investigation further sheds light on this phenomenon by directly contrasting emotional sounds of both species (humans and dogs) as well as opposed valences (positive and negative) to gain insights into intra- and interspecies empathy as well as differences between positively and negatively valenced sounds. Different types of sounds were played back to measure the influence of three dimensions on the dogs’ behavioural response. We found that dogs behaved differently after hearing non-emotional sounds of their environment compared to emotional sounds of humans and conspecifics (“Emotionality” dimension), but the subjects responded similarly to human and conspecific sounds (“Species” dimension). However, dogs expressed more freezing behaviour after conspecific sounds, independent of the valence. Comparing positively with negatively valenced sounds of both species (“Valence” dimension), we found that, independent of the species from which the sound originated, dogs expressed more behavioural indicators for arousal and negatively valenced states after hearing negative emotional sounds. This response pattern indicates emotional state-matching or emotional contagion for negative sounds of humans and conspecifics. It furthermore indicates that dogs recognized the different valences of the emotional sounds, which is a promising finding for future studies on empathy for positive emotional states in dogs.     

Observing conspecifics scratching induces a contagion of scratching in Japanese monkeys (Macaca fuscata)

Although a large number of studies have examined self-directed behaviors (SDBs) such as scratching and self-grooming as nonverbal leakage of negative emotional arousal in humans, few studies have investigated the informative function of SDBs in nonhuman primates. The present study investigated whether viewing another monkey scratching itself elicited negative arousal from conspecific observers in Japanese monkeys (Macaca fuscata). An experimental situation was created in which the target monkey watched a stranger through a small peephole and the observer monkey(s) watched the target in turn. Scratching spread when conspecific observers watched the target scratching itself while performing monitoring behavior. The author proposes that the possible contagion of scratching by monkeys observing another's scratching may involve transmission of a psychological state, a primitive style of empathy.     

What to copy: the key factor of observational learning in striped jack (Pseudocaranx dentex) juveniles

Animals in social environments can enhance their learning efficiency by observing the behaviour of others. Our previous study showed that learning efficiency of schooling fish increased through the observation of the behaviour of trained demonstrator conspecifics. The present study aimed to verify the key factor of observational learning by investigating what information is important for social transmission of feeding information. A striped jack (Pseudocaranx dentex) observer was provided with one of the five observation treatments: (a) pellets observation, where pellets were dropped near the aeration in an adjacent tank; (b) responding conspecific observation, where a trained conspecific demonstrator responded to the aeration without food in the adjacent tank; (c) foraging conspecific observation, where a conspecific demonstrator foraged near the aeration in the adjacent tank; (d) nearby pellets observation, where pellets were dropped in a transparent column near the aeration in the observer tank; and (e) foraging heterospecific observation, where a filefish (Stephanolepis cirrhifer) demonstrator foraged near the aeration in the adjacent tank. The response to the aeration in these observers was compared with that of controls who did not observe any behaviour. Only individuals who observed foraging conspecifics showed a response to the aeration after observing. These results suggest that observer fish acquire feeding information not through recognition of prey items or through imitation of the demonstrator, but through the vicarious reinforcement of a conspecific for foraging.     

Do stigma and its psychosocial impact differ between Asian-born Chinese immigrants and Western-born Caucasians with head and neck cancer?

Stigma appears to influence emotional distress and well-being in cancer survivors, but cross-cultural differences have been ignored. Previous studies suggest that stigma may be especially relevant for survivors of Asian origin. However, their study designs (e.g. focused on female cancers, qualitative designs, and an absence of comparison groups) limit the strength of this conclusion. We hypothesized that (1) Asian-born Chinese immigrants (AI) would report more perceived cancer-related stigma than Western-born Caucasians (WBC); and (2) the impact of stigma on emotional distress and well-being would be greater in AI as compared to WBC. Head and neck cancer survivors (n = 118 AI and n = 404 WBC) completed measures of well-being, emotional distress, and a three-item indicator of stigma in structured interviews. The majority of respondents (59%) reported one or more indicators of stigma. Stigma correlated significantly with emotional distress (r = .13, p = .004) and well-being (r = ?.09, p = .032). Contrary to our hypotheses, WBCs and AIs did not differ in reported stigma nor did we detect differences in its psychosocial impact. Stigma exerts a deleterious psychosocial impact on head and neck cancer survivors. It did not differ significantly between AI and WBC survivors.     

The effects of distraction on performance in the chronically obese: Restraint, obesity, and neuroticism

The present study was conducted in order to assess the effect of distraction on the proof-reading performance of obese restrained and unrestrained eaters. Chronically obese subjects were categorized as restrained or unrestrained and assigned to conditions of distraction and no distraction. Results support the notion that restrained vs unrestrained eaters in the obese class differentially respond to external cues in their non-eating behavior. The pattern of the interaction suggested that distraction facilitates the performance of unrestrained eaters and inhibits the performance of restrained eaters. These results support previous research findings that some characteristics of the obese may be due to the over-representation of restrained eaters in that class. Also, neuroticism was found to be correlated with restraint. Additional analyses indicated that neuroticism moderated the restraint x distraction interaction. The relationship between neuroticism and restraint as well as the therapeutic implications of the study are discussed.     

Updating representations of learned scenes

Two experiments were designed to compare scene recognition reaction time (RT) and accuracy patterns following observer versus scene movement. In Experiment 1, participants memorized a scene from a single perspective. Then, either the scene was rotated or the participants moved (0°–360° in 36° increments) around the scene, and participants judged whether the objects’ positions had changed. Regardless of whether the scene was rotated or the observer moved, RT increased with greater angular distance between judged and encoded views. In Experiment 2, we varied the delay (0, 6, or 12 s) between scene encoding and locomotion. Regardless of the delay, however, accuracy decreased and RT increased with angular distance. Thus, our data show that observer movement does not necessarily update representations of spatial layouts and raise questions about the effects of duration limitations and encoding points of view on the automatic spatial updating of representations of scenes.     

No evidence for contagious yawning in lemurs

Among some haplorhine primates, including humans, relaxed yawns spread contagiously. Such contagious yawning has been linked to social bonds and empathy in some species. However, no studies have investigated contagious yawning in strepsirhines. We conducted an experimental study of contagious yawning in strepsirhines, testing ring-tailed and ruffed lemurs (n = 24) in a paradigm similar to one that has induced contagious yawning in haplorhines. First, in a control experiment, we investigated whether lemurs responded to projected video content in general (experiment 1). We showed them two videos to which we expected differential responses: one featured a terrestrial predator and the other a caretaker holding food. Next, to test for yawn contagion, we showed individual lemurs life-size video projections of groupmates and conspecific strangers yawning, and control footage of the same individuals at rest (experiment 2). Then, to examine whether a group context might enhance or allow for contagion, we exposed subjects to the same videos in a group setting (experiment 3). Lemurs produced alarm vocalizations and moved upward while viewing the predator, but not the caretaker, demonstrating that they do perceive video content meaningfully. However, lemurs did not yawn in response to yawning stimuli when tested alone, or with their groupmates. This study provides preliminary evidence that lemurs do not respond to yawning stimuli similarly to haplorhines, and suggests that this behavior may have evolved or become more exaggerated in haplorhines after the two major primate lineages split.     

Dietary restraint, body dissatisfaction, and psychological distress: a prospective analysis

This study uses prospective data from a survey of 1,177 adolescent girls to examine whether emotional eating, binge eating, abnormal attitudes to eating and weight, low self-esteem, stress, and depression are associated with dietary restraint or body dissatisfaction. In analyses that included both restraint and body dissatisfaction as independent predictors, restraint was associated only with more negative attitudes to eating, whereas body dissatisfaction was significantly associated with all the adverse outcomes. These results cast doubt on the proposition that restrained eating is a primary cause of bulimic symptoms, emotional eating, and psychological distress seen in individuals who are trying to control their weight, and rather suggest that body dissatisfaction is the key factor.     

Spatial updating during locomotion does not eliminate viewpoint-dependent visual object processing

Two experiments were conducted to investigate whether locomotion to a novel test view would eliminate viewpoint costs in visual object processing. Participants performed a sequential matching task for object identity or object handedness, using novel 3-D objects displayed in a head-mounted display. To change the test view of the object, the orientation of the object in 3-D space and the test position of the observer were manipulated independently. Participants were more accurate when the test view was the same as the learned view than when the views were different no matter whether the view change of the object was 50° or 90°. With 50° rotations, participants were more accurate at novel test views caused by participants’ locomotion (object stationary) than caused by object rotation (observer stationary) but this difference disappeared when the view change was 90°. These results indicate that facilitation of spatial updating during locomotion occurs within a limited range of viewpoints, but that such facilitation does not eliminate viewpoint costs in visual object processing.     

Effects of physical threat and ego threat on eating behavior

Restrained and unrestrained subjects were subjected to one of three distress manipulations prior to an ad lib taste task. The physical fear threat (anticipated electric shock) significantly decreased unrestrained subjects' eating and slightly increased restrained subjects' eating. Both ego threats (failure at an easy task or anticipating having to give a speech in front of an evaluative audience) significantly increased restrained subjects' eating but did not significantly suppress unrestrained subjects' eating. This pattern supports the proposition that physical fear differs from more general dysphoria in its effects on eating, perhaps because of the divergent effects of these two types of distress on eating control mechanisms, which in turn differ in restrained and unrestrained eaters.     

High Satisfaction and Low Distress in Breast Cancer Patients One Year after <Emphasis Type="Italic">BRCA</Emphasis>-Mutation Testing without Prior Face-to-Face Genetic Counseling

According to standard practice following referral to clinical genetics, most high risk breast cancer (BC) patients in many countries receive face-to-face genetic counseling prior to BRCA-mutation testing (DNA-intake). We evaluated a novel format by prospective study: replacing the intake consultation with telephone, written and digital information sent home. Face-to-face counseling then followed BRCA-mutation testing (DNA-direct). One year after BRCA-result disclosure, 108 participants returned long-term follow-up questionnaires, of whom 59 (55 %) had previously chosen DNA-direct (intervention) versus DNA-intake (standard practice i.e., control: 45 %). Questionnaires assessed satisfaction and psychological distress. All participants were satisfied and 85 % of DNA-direct participants would choose this procedure again; 10 % would prefer DNA-intake and 5 % were undecided. In repeated measurements ANOVA, general distress (GHQ-12, p?=?0.01) and BC-specific distress (IES-bc, p?=?0.03) were lower in DNA-direct than DNA-intake at all time measurements. Heredity-specific distress (IES-her) did not differ significantly between groups. Multivariate regression analyses showed that choice of procedure did not significantly contribute to either general or heredity-specific distress. BC-specific distress (after BC diagnosis) did contribute to both general and heredity-specific distress. This suggests that higher distress scores reflected BC experience, rather than the type of genetic diagnostic procedure. In conclusion, the large majority of BC patients that used DNA-direct reported high satisfaction without increased distress both in the short term, and 1 year after conclusion of genetic testing.     

The association between biopsychosocial factors and disability in a national health survey in South Africa

The association between psychosocial factors and disability is less clear. This study investigated the biological and psychosocial (employment and psychological distress) factors associated with level of disability in an adult sample in South Africa. Data were analysed from a cross-sectional survey among adults aged 18–64 (n = 4974). Multiple linear regression was used to investigate the associations of the selected variables with disability. The mean percentage score on the WHODAS scale of disability was 5.31% (95% CI: 4.74–5.88). Age (p < 0.001) and race (p = 0.0002) were significantly associated with disability, and history of stroke (β = 7.19, 95% CI: 3.19–11.20) and heart-related conditions (β = 2.08, 95% CI: [0.23–3.93) showed positive associations. Of the psychosocial variables, psychological distress (β = 10.49 [8.63–12.35]) showed a strong positive association while employment (?1.62 [?2.36 to ?0.88]) showed a negative association with disability. The association between demographic factors, medical conditions and increased disability confirms the findings in the literature. The finding that psychological distress is associated with increased disability has not been frequently reported. This study highlights specific psychosocial targets that may be usefully addressed by health policies and interventions in order to improve disability management.     

CAN IMITATION IN PIGEONS BE EXPLAINED BY LOCAL ENHANCEMENT TOGETHER WITH TRIAL-AND-ERROR LEARNING?

Abstract— Zentall Sultan and Sherburne (1996) reported that pigeons observing a conspecific demonstrator either step on or peck at a treadle to obtain food subsequently showed a significant tendency to manipulate the treadle as had their demonstrator. Zentall et al suggested this finding showed observer pigeons had learned by imitation to peck at or step on the treadle. However, the same result might have been obtained of pigeons had learned to step on the treadle by trial and error, and pigeons exposed to a treadle-pecking demonstrator had come to peck at the treadle as a result of nonimitative social learning processes such as local enhancement or contagion. Here we report the results for two control groups showing that pigeons do not learn to step on or peck at a treadle for food reward unless they observe a relevant demonstrator. These results considerably strengthen the original conclusion. Future research using the two action method to demonstrate imitative learning should include similar controls.     

Predictability and heritability of individual differences in fear learning

Our objective was to characterize individual differences in fear conditioning and extinction in an outbred rat strain, to test behavioral predictors of these individual differences, and to assess their heritability. We fear-conditioned 100 Long-Evans rats, attempted to extinguish fear the next day, and tested extinction recall on the third day. The distribution of freezing scores after fear conditioning was skewed, with most rats showing substantial freezing; after fear extinction, the distribution was bimodal with most rats showing minimal freezing, but a substantial portion showing maximal freezing. Longer rearing episodes measured prior to conditioning predicted less freezing at the beginning of extinction, but differences in extinction learning were not predicted by any baseline exploratory behaviors. We tested the heritability of extinction differences by breeding rats from the top and bottom 20 % of freezing scores during extinction recall. We then ran the offspring through the same conditioning/extinction procedure, with the addition of recording ultrasonic vocalizations throughout training and testing. Only a minority of rats emitted distress vocalizations during fear acquisition, but the incidence was less frequent in the offspring of good extinguishers than in poor extinguishers or randomly bred controls. The occurrence of distress vocalizations during acquisition predicted higher levels of freezing during fear recall regardless of breeding line, but the relationship between vocalization and freezing was no longer evident following extinction training, at which point freezing levels were influenced only by breeding and not by vocalization. The heritability (h ²) of extinction recall was estimated at 0.36, consistent with human estimates.     

Empathie,contagion émotionnelle et coupure par rapport aux émotions : validation d’un test pour repérer et aider des élèves à risque

Our previous research on the prevention of violent behaviors in the school environment led to an investigation of the capacities of students in terms of emotion sharing and regulation. In a previous critical and historical study, we defined empathy in relation to other concepts such as sympathy, personal distress, emotional contagion and what we propose to call “splitting with emotions”. To put into effect this distinction, we designed a test with three components (Coupure/splitting with emotions-Empathie/empathy Contagion/emotional contagion, CEC), the validation of which we present here. Five groups of pupils (total 761) were studied with ages ranging from eight to 17 years and coming from France, Switzerland and Canada. These studies evaluated our CEC test with regard to the Balanced Emotional Empathy Scale (BEES) and other scales measuring self-esteem, anxiety, depression, social skills, delinquency and student school achievements. Answers were compared with regards to sex, major school discipline and school results. Empathy is slightly but significantly correlated with school success. Contrary to suggestions in previous studies, however, this cannot be attributed more to female subjects. “Splitting with emotions” is more developed in male subjects and “emotional contagion” is more developed in female students. It is the “splitting with emotions” component which appears to constitute an indirect indicator of the risks of developing violent behaviors.     

The buffering effect of family functioning on the psychological consequences of headache

The current study aimed to examine whether high family functioning mitigates the association between headache intensity and distress. The sample consisted of 124 patients with chronic or recurrent headache. Patients completed validated questionnaires about headache intensity, family functioning, and distress. Hierarchical regression analyses were performed to examine the interaction between headache intensity and family functioning on distress. Headache intensity was positively associated with distress (r = .28, p = .002). As hypothesized, family functioning moderated this association (B = ?.01, p = .023). More specifically, the positive association between headache intensity and distress was significant only among patients with lower family functioning (B = .01, p < .001) and not among patients with higher levels of family functioning (B = .006, p = .075). Functional families appear to buffer the distress level in patients; they showed relatively low levels of distress regardless of the severity of their headache. In contrast, patients with dysfunctional families who experienced more pain reported more distress, presumably because they did not receive adequate help and support from these families. This study underlines the importance of a broader perspective on family dynamics in coping with pain.