Videoconferencing-based cognitive-behavioral therapy for obsessive-compulsive disorder

Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is a prevalent, chronic and disabling anxiety disorder. Despite the efficacy and strength of pharmacologic interventions for OCD, medications are not always well accepted or effective, making an efficacious psychosocial alternative especially attractive. Cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) has been established as an effective treatment for adult OCD, yet access to such treatment is limited, especially in rural areas. Technological advances allow for therapy to be provided in a real-time format over a videoconferencing network. This method allows therapists to provide state-of-the-art treatment to patients who would not otherwise have access to it. This paper presents three cases of OCD successfully treated via videoconferencing CBT. The presence of OCD was established via structured clinical interview and clinician-rated outcome measures were completed by evaluators blinded to the method of treatment. A multiple baseline across individuals design was used to support the internal validity of the CBT outcome data. Patient ratings of therapeutic alliance were high across all three cases. Information gathered from qualitative interviews post-treatment confirmed quantitative measures finding high levels of patient satisfaction. This pilot study suggests that videoconferencing-based CBT is a promising method to bring appropriate treatment to thousands who live far distances from well-trained therapists.     

Walking perception by walking observers

People frequently analyze the actions of other people for the purpose of action coordination. To understand whether such self-relative action perception differs from other-relative action perception, the authors had observers either compare their own walking speed with that of a point-light walker or compare the walking speeds of 2 point-light walkers. In Experiment 1, observers walked, bicycled, or stood while performing a gait-speed discrimination task. Walking observers demonstrated the poorest sensitivity to walking speed, suggesting that perception and performance of the same action alters visual-motion processes. Experiments 2-6 demonstrated that the processes used during self-relative and other-relative action perception differ significantly in their dependence on observers' previous motor experience, current motor effort, and potential for action coordination. These results suggest that the visual analysis of human motion during traditional laboratory studies can differ substantially from the visual analysis of human movement under more realistic conditions.     

Unconditioned freezing is enhanced in an appetitive context: implications for the contextual dependency of unconditioned fear

It has been well established that expression of conditioned fear is context independent, but the context dependency of unconditioned fear expression has rarely been explored. A recent study reported that unconditioned freezing in rats is enhanced in a familiar context, which suggests that unconditioned fear expression can be modulated by contextual processing. In order to further explore this possibility we examined unconditioned freezing in novel, familiar, and appetitive contexts; and attempted to identify brain regions critical for context-related changes in unconditioned freezing by measuring c-Fos mRNA levels in emotional circuits. Unconditioned freezing was enhanced in the appetitive context, and this enhancement was accompanied by increased c-Fos mRNA expression in the medial amygdala and hippocampus, but attenuated expression in the medial prefrontal cortex. In the appetitive context, expectation of a reward coupled with detection of threat may have enhanced unconditioned fear expression, which suggests that unconditioned fear expression can be modulated by contextual factors. Context-related expectancy mismatch may explain the enhancement of unconditioned fear expression seen in this study and warrants further examination.     

Sleep-wake state tradeoffs, impulsivity and life history theory

Evolutionary ecological theory predicts that sleep-wake state tradeoffs may be related to local environmental conditions and should therefore correlate to alterations in behavioral life history strategies. It was predicted that firefighters who slept more and reported better quality sleep on average would exhibit lower impulsivity inclinations related to slower life history trajectories. UPPS impulsivity scores and self-reported sleep averages were analyzed and indicated a negative association between sleep variables and urgency and a positive association with premeditation. Perseverance, and in some cases premeditation, however, disclosed an unpredicted marginally significant positive association between increased and emergency nighttime waking-related sleep deprivation. Sensation seeking was not associated with sleep variables, but was strongly associated with number of biological children. This research contributes to understanding the implications of human sleep across ecological and behavioral contexts and implies further research is necessary for constructing evolutionarily oriented measures of impulsivity inclination and its meaning in the context of life history strategies.     

Gaze behavior predicts memory bias for angry facial expressions in stable dysphoria

Interpersonal theories suggest that depressed individuals are sensitive to signs of interpersonal rejection, such as angry facial expressions. The present study examined memory bias for happy, sad, angry, and neutral facial expressions in stably dysphoric and stably nondysphoric young adults. Participants' gaze behavior (i.e., fixation duration, number of fixations, and distance between fixations) while viewing these facial expressions was also assessed. Using signal detection analyses, the dysphoric group had better accuracy on a surprise recognition task for angry faces than the nondysphoric group. Further, mediation analyses indicated that greater breadth of attentional focus (i.e., distance between fixations) accounted for enhanced recall of angry faces among the dysphoric group. There were no differences between dysphoria groups in gaze behavior or memory for sad, happy, or neutral facial expressions. Findings from this study identify a specific cognitive mechanism (i.e., breadth of attentional focus) that accounts for biased recall of angry facial expressions in dysphoria. This work also highlights the potential for integrating cognitive and interpersonal theories of depression.     

When babies watch television: Attention-getting,attention-holding,and the implications for learning from video material

The recent increase in the availability of infant-directed video material (e.g., Baby Einstein) and the corresponding increase in the amount of time that infants and toddlers spend viewing them have prompted concern among parents and professionals that these media might impede aspects of cognitive and social development. In contrast, supporters and producers of these media contend that, as has been shown with preschool children, age-appropriate videos with carefully selected educational content can provide an opportunity to support and enhance early learning. The scientific evidence for these opposing views is reviewed, evaluated, and interpreted in a developmental framework.