Changing views of emotion regulation and neurobiological models of the mechanism of action of psychotherapy

Influential neurobiological models of the mechanism of action of psychotherapy attribute its success to increases of activity in prefrontal areas and decreases in limbic areas, interpreted as the successful and adaptive recruitment of controlled processes to achieve emotion regulation. In this article, we review the behavioral and neuroscientific evidence in support of this model and its applicability to explain the mechanism of action of psychotherapy. Neuroimaging studies of explicit emotion regulation, evidence on the neurobiological substrates of implicit emotion regulation, and meta-analyses of neuroimaging studies of the effect of psychotherapy consistently suggest that areas implicated in coding semantic representations play an important role in emotion regulation not covered by existing models based on controlled processes. We discuss the findings that implicate these same areas in supporting working memory, in encoding preferences and the prospective outcome of actions taken in rewarding or aversive contingencies, and show how these functions may be integrated into process models of emotion regulation that depend on elaborate semantic representations for their effectiveness. These alternative models also appear to be more consistent with internal accounts in the psychotherapeutic literature of how psychotherapy works.     

Correlations of spaces of pencils

The paper introduces an axiomatic system of a conjugacy in partial linear spaces, and provides its analytical characterization in spaces of pencils. A correlation of a space of pencils is defined and it is shown to correspond to a polarity of the underlying projective space, i.e. to a reflexive sesqui-linear form, or also to an involutory collineation, i.e. to an injective semi-linear map, in the self-dual case. A geometric characterization of segment subspaces in spaces of pencils is also provided.     

The dimensionality of judgments of heaviness

Two groups of Ss judged differences in heaviness between all pairs of stimuli in three series of five weights each. One group judged differences in the 100-300 g range, the other group judged differences in the 700–900 g range. The three series of weights in the two ranges consisted of one series of constant size varying in both weight and density, one series varying only in weight, and one series varying only in density. Multidimensional scaling analysis revealed at least two dimensions, and indicated that where both weight and density are allowed to vary, both will affect judgment of the magnitude of differences in heaviness. With heavier weights, density appears to exert an increasingly important influence on judgments of heaviness. Predictions from Ross and Di Lollo’s vector theory were confirmed.     

Development of perception of the unity of musical events

Infants' and young children's perception of the unity of musical events was investigated in three studies. In the first two, children watched video displays of two musicians playing different musical instruments side by side in synchrony, and heard a soundtrack in synchrony with both instruments but specific to one. The children judged which instrument was producing the music they heard. Three- to 4-year-olds differentiated instruments from different families but not instruments from the same family. Five- to 7-year-olds additionally differentiated instrument pairs differing in size and pitch range (e.g., violin, cello). In the third study, infants were presented some of the same musical events in order to assess whether specific experience with the instruments is necessary for perceiving the unity of musical events. Looking times revealed that 7- to 9-month-olds detected the correspondence of the sight and sound of some musical instruments. Specific experience with a variety of instruments is evidently not necessary for detecting correspondences of audible and visible properties and for differentiating instruments from different families.     

Examination of the Validity of a Stages of Exercise Change Algorithm

The purpose of this study was to examine the validity of a stages of exercise change questionnaire with self-reported exercise, age, and body mass index (BMI) in 1,034 male and female community residents. It was found that the maintenance stage participants reported more strenuous exercise than did individuals in the other stages; and participants in the action stage reported more strenuous exercise than did individuals in the preparation and contemplation stages. There were no significant group differences among participants in the preparation, contemplation, and precontemplation stages for strenuous and moderate exercise. The maintenance stage participants engaged in more moderate exercise than did the preparation, contemplation, and precontemplation individuals; and the action stage participants reported more moderate exercise than did individuals in the preparation and precontemplation stages. The participants in the maintenance stage were older than were those in the action stage. No significant stage differences were found for mild exercise or BMI. Knowing an individual's stage of exercise change may provide researchers and practitioners with a mechanism for developing, testing, and delivering stage-matched exercise interventions.     

Accuracy of knowledge of family history of cardiovascular disorders

There has been increased interest in the use of familial trends in physical and psychological disorders for identifying individuals at risk; research on individuals who have relatives with certain health problems may contribute to knowledge of etiology. In addition, accurate family health information may allow targeting of prevention and early detection programs to minimize cost and maximize utility. This study compared 292 undergraduates' reports of their parents' and grandparents' histories of six medical disorders with the parents' reports. Results showed moderate agreement concerning the parents' health, but substantial disagreement concerning the grandparents' health. Demographic and personality variables did not predict accuracy of students' reports of parental hypertension. Among the disorders, differences in agreement of reporting arose; the most salient condition, heart attack, had the highest agreement for both parents and grandparents. These results suggested that caution is necessary in evaluating family health information from subjects in research and from target individuals in prevention programs. This problem is especially serious for disorders such as hypertension, which is less salient and which also shows age-related penetrance, with the disorder often not evident until the 5th or 6th decade of life.     

Effect of local context of responding on human judgment of causality

Two experiments examined the effect of various relationships between a response (pressing the space bar of a computer) and an outcome (a triangle flashing on a screen) on judgments of the causal effectiveness of the response. In Experiment 1, when responses were required to be temporarily isolated from each other prior to an outcome, ratings of the causal effectiveness of the responses were higher than in a condition in which the probability of an outcome following a response was the same but in which no temporal isolation was required. In Experiment 2, when a number of responses were required to be emitted temporally close to the outcome, ratings of the causal effectiveness of the responses were lower than in a condition in which the probability of an outcome following a response was the same but in which no temporal proximity was required. These results suggest that, in addition to the overall probability that an outcome will follow a response, the local context of responding at the time an outcome is presented is critical in influencing ratings of causal effectiveness.     

A study of the foundations of ethical decision-making of nurses

A study of nurses and nursing students was conducted to determine the various philosophical positions they hold with respect to ethical decision-making in nursing and their relationship to the subjective-objective controversy in value theory. The study revealed that most nurses and nursing students tend to be subjectivists in value theory, i.e., believe that value judgments are purely personal, private expressions of one's own opinion or inner-feelings and not believe that value judgments are knowledge claims capable of being true or false and therefore not expressions of moral requirements and normative imperatives emanating from an external value structure or moral order in the world. In addition, the study revealed that most nurses and nursing students are inconsistent in the philosophical foundations of their ethical decision-making, i.e., in decision-making regarding values they tend to hold beliefs which are incompatible with other beliefs they hold about values.     

亚健康研究进展述评

从亚健康的概念范畴、病因学、症状学、检测和评估、流行病学等角度系统分析了亚健康的研究现状,检讨了在其研究过程中的不足,探索了相应的对策,指出亚健康作为一门新兴学科和一个重要领域,在其学科化建设中的缺憾,以及今后的建构重点。     

Identification of disoriented objects: effects of context of prior presentation

Half of the subjects in the training phase of Experiment 1 named objects shown in a number of orientations, whereas the other half named objects shown upright only. All subjects named objects seen in a number of different orientations in the transfer phase. Half of the objects in the transfer phase were the ones they had seen in the training phase (old objects), whereas the other half were objects they had not seen before (new objects). Mean naming time in the transfer phase increased more as the objects were rotated further from the upright for new objects than for old objects when the old objects had been seen in a variety of orientations. In contrast, a substantial and equivalent orientation effect on identification time was obtained for old and new objects when the old objects had been seen upright only. These results suggest that the extraction and use of orientation-invariant attributes to identify objects is not a "default" identification strategy employed by the human visual system. In Experiment 2, half of the objects named in the training phase were shown upright only, whereas the other half were shown in a number of orientations. Both types of objects (upright vs. rotated) were presented in a mixed fashion from trial to trial. The results revealed that prior naming of the objects in this context resulted in equivalent reductions in the magnitude of the orientation effect on identification time for both sets of objects (upright and rotated). Together, the results of these two experiments suggest that markedly different representations of objects are encoded, depending on the context in which objects are seen. Implications for models of pattern recognition are discussed.     

Specification of variables predictive of victories in the sport of boxing

Compared to other sports, very little research has been conducted on which variables can predict victory in the sport of boxing. This investigation examined whether boxers' age, weight change from their preceding contest, country of origin, total number of wins, total number of losses, performance in their preceding contest, or the possession of a championship title was predictive of a winning performance in a given bout. A 1-mo. sample of male professional boxing records for all contests held in the USA (N = 400) were collected from the BoxRec online database. Logistic regression analysis indicated that only boxers' age, total number of wins and losses, and the performance in the preceding contest predicted significant variance in outcome.     

Mediators of the effects of magnitude of reinforcement

The characteristics of mediational mechanisms based upon magnitude of reinforcement were investigated using rats. In two experiments, two-choice discriminations were trained in which selections of one lever in one external stimulus and a second lever in another external stimulus were reinforced with food. In the first experiment, it was found that the discrimination was acquired more rapidly when one choice was reinforced with a large number of food pellets and the other with a smaller number of pellets than when other configurations of reinforcement magnitude were provided. In the second experiment, reversal of a two-choice discrimination was found to be facilitated by prior exposure of the animals to the reversed relationships between the external stimuli and magnitudes of reinforcement. These results were consistent with predictions from a stimulus or associative view of anticipatory processes based upon magnitude of reinforcement.     

Differential influence of stereoisomers of estradiol on sexual behavior of female hamsters

Morphological and behavioral responses to estradiol-17 beta (E2-17 beta) and estradiol-17 alpha (E2-17 alpha) were examined in a series of three experiments. The E2-17 beta augmented uterine growth in hamsters to a greater extent than did E2-17 alpha. Lordosis in ovariectomized adults was elicited by treatment with E2-17 beta but not with E2-17 alpha (each tested in combination with progesterone). When administered neonatally only E2-17 beta disrupted estrous cyclicity in the intact female and induced the ability to mount in ovariectomized, androgen-treated adults. These results suggest the existence of a stereospecific response to estrogenic stimulation in neural tissue comparable with that occurring in the uterus.     

Neighborhood Determinants of Quality of Life

In this paper we analyze various dimensions of the quality of life in Uruguay. The results suggest that differences in overall happiness and in domain satisfaction can partly be explained by different levels of access to public goods. We find that the monetary equivalent value of public goods such as electricity, running water, sewage system, drainage, waste disposal system, street lighting, sidewalks in good condition, trees in the street, and the absence of air or noise pollution is considerable.     

A study of management's view of the motivation of workpeople

The analysis of the responses from certain questions in a series of guided interviews suggests that the views of workpeople's motivation held by executives relate more to the size and type of company in which they are employed than to their age, training, education or amount shop floor of contact arising from periods of apprenticeship or of line management experience. The ways in which their view of the motivation of workpeople differs from their own attitudes to work are indicated. In particular, the commonly held dictum that apprenticeship is valuable in creating an understanding of workpeople and their viewpoints does not appear to be supported. The limitations of the study are discussed and future work indicated.     

Code of Ethics of the National Society of Genetic Counselors: Explication of Revisions

The Code of Ethics (COE) of the National Society of Genetic Counselors (NSGC) was adopted in 1992. In 2004, the NSGC leadership appointed the Code of Ethics Work Group (COEWG) to consider revisions to the NSGC COE based on advice from the NSGC legal counsel, and to consider additional changes given growth in the scope of genetic counseling practice since the adoption of the original COE. After input from the NSGC membership, changes to the COE addressing the recommendations of the NSGC legal counsel were approved in December 2004. The COEWG then reviewed ethical codes and codes of professional conduct from 22 professional organizations, deemed to have similar goals and philosophies to the NSGC, searching for themes that encompassed genetic counseling practice that might not yet be addressed in the NSGC COE. Additional revisions to the COE were proposed, and after feedback from the NSGC membership, the revised COE was approved in January 2006 by majority vote of full members of the NSGC. The explications for the 2004 and 2006 revisions are presented.     

Determinants of infants' understanding of supporting relations: amount of contact versus position of the center of gravity

This study investigated the developmental age at which infants recognize about supporting relations between objects and what information they use to judge whether a supported object will fall down or not. Four kinds of events were used. All events involved support in relation of two boxes, which differed in the amount of contact between objects and the amount of discrepancy between the supported object's position and its most balanced position. 115 infants (3 to 13 mo.) saw 4 events which differed on these two variables. Infants 10 months and older looked longer at the event in which the center of a supported box was just outside of the edge of a supporting box, that is, a support relation in which it was difficult to anticipate whether the box would fall down or not. Analysis suggested that infants' attention is not determined by only one simple stimulus variable but by more complicated variables (such as uncertainty of prediction).     

Detection of a deficit in visual discrimination of pattern following lesions of anterior cortex: role of type of motivation.

6 albino rats were trained under appetitive motivation to perform diametrically opposed visual discriminations of pattern via opposite eyes. Small lesions were subsequently placed unilaterally in anterior neocortex. Following a period of post-surgical recovery, subjects were re-trained on the diammetrically opposed discriminations in alternating 10-trial blocks. Every subject made more post-surgical errors on the discrimination mediated by the eye contralateral to the lesion. Since albino rats have virtually complete decussation of the visual system, this indicates selective impairment in mediation of performance of pattern discrimination in the part of the lesioned hemispheres. Thus, findings previously obtained in studies involving aversive motivation are general to appetitively motivated tasks.