The contingent negative variation laterality and dynamics in antisaccade task in normal and unmedicated schizophrenic subjects

Contingent negative variation (CNV) topography, hemispheric asymmetry and time-course were investigated in healthy subjects and non-medicated paranoid schizophrenic patients in two antisaccade paradigms with the short (800-1000 ms) and long (1200-1400 ms) durations of the fixation period. EEG and electrooculogram (EOG) were recorded. Saccade characteristics and mean amplitudes of slow cortical potentials time-locked to peripheral target were analyzed in 23 healthy volunteers and 19 schizophrenic patients. Compared to healthy control subjects, schizophrenic patients had significantly slower antisaccades and committed significantly more erroneous saccades in the both antisaccade tasks. The prolongation of the fixation period resulted in noticeable decrease of error percent in patients group. The analysis of CNV time-course has revealed two distinct stages in both groups. The early CNV stage was represented by a negative wave with the maximal amplitude over midline fronto-central area, and the late stage was characterized by increased CNV amplitude at the midline and left parietal electrode sites. In healthy subjects the simultaneous activation of frontal and parietal areas was observed in the paradigm with the shorter fixation interval; the increase of the fixation period produced consecutive activation of these areas. Schizophrenic patients' CNV amplitude was generally smaller than that of healthy subjects. The most pronounced between-group differences of the negative shift amplitude were revealed at frontal electrode sites during the early CNV stage in both modifications of the antisaccade task. The deficit of frontal activation revealed in patients at the early stage of antisaccade preparatory set in both antisaccadic paradigms may be related to pathogenesis of paranoid schizophrenia.     

Effects of pharmacological manipulations of NMDA-receptors on deliberation in the Multiple-T task

Both humans and non-human animals have the ability to navigate and make decisions within complex environments. This ability is largely dependent upon learning and memory processes, many of which are known to depend on NMDA-sensitive receptors. When humans come to difficult decisions they often pause to deliberate over their choices. Similarly, rats pause at difficult choice points. This behavior, known as vicarious trial and error (VTE), is hippocampally dependent and entails neurophysiological representations of expectations of future outcomes in hippocampus and downstream structures. In order to determine the dependence of VTE behaviors on NMDA-sensitive receptors, we tested rats on a Multiple-T choice task with a reward-delivery reversal known to elicit VTE. Rats under the influence of NMDA-receptor antagonists (CPP) showed a significant reduction in VTE, particularly at the reward reversal, implying a role for NMDA-sensitive receptors in the generation of vicarious trial and error behaviors.     

Interference in eyewitness and earwitness recognition

Face identification and voice identification were examined using a standard old/new recognition task in order to see whether seeing and hearing the target interfered with subsequent recognition. Participants studied either visual or audiovisual stimuli prior to a face recognition test, and studied either audio or audiovisual stimuli prior to a voice recognition test. Analysis of recognition performance revealed a greater ability to recognise faces than voices. More importantly, faces accompanying voices at study interfered with subsequent voice identification but voices accompanying faces at study did not interfere with subsequent face identification. These results are similar to those obtained in previous research using a lineup methodology, and are discussed with respect to the interference that can result when earwitnesses are also eyewitnesses. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Are You Really Happy? Children’s Understanding of Real vs. Pretend Emotions

This paper studies children’s capacity to understand that the emotions displayed in pretend play contexts do not necessarily correspond to internal emotions, and that pretend emotions may create false beliefs in an observer. A new approach is taken by asking children about pretend emotions in terms of pretence-reality instead of appearance-reality. A total of 37 four-year-olds and 33 six-year-olds were asked to participate in tasks where they had to pretend an emotion or where they were told stories in which the protagonists pretended an emotion. In each task children were asked: a) if the pretend emotion was real or just pretended and b) if an observer would think that the emotional expression was real or just pretended. Results showed that four-year-olds are capable of understanding that pretend emotions are not necessarily real. Overall, six-year-olds performed better than younger children. Furthermore, both age groups showed difficulty in understanding that pretend emotions might unintentionally mislead an observer. Results are discussed in relation to previous research on children’s ability to understand pretend play and the emotional appearance-reality distinction.     

Examining the Validity of Cyclothymic Disorder in a Youth Sample: Replication and Extension

DSM-IV-TR defines four subtypes of bipolar disorder (BP): bipolar I, bipolar II, cyclothymic disorder and bipolar not otherwise specified (NOS). However, cyclothymic disorder in children is rarely researched, or often subsumed in an “NOS” category. The present study tests the replicability of findings from an earlier study, and expands on the criterion validity of cyclothymic disorder in youth. Using the Robins and Guze (1970) framework we examined the validity of cyclothymic disorder as a subtype of BP. Using a youth (ages 5–17) outpatient clinical sample (N?=?894), participants with cyclothymic disorder (n?=?53) were compared to participants with other BP spectrum disorders (n?=?399) and to participants with non-bipolar disorders (n?=?442). Analyses tested differences in youth with cyclothymic disorder and bipolar disorder not otherwise specified who do, and those who do not, have a parent with BP. Compared to youth with non-bipolar disorders, youth with cyclothymic disorder had higher irritability (p?<?0.001), more comorbidity (p?<?0.001), greater sleep disturbance (p?<?0.005), and were more likely to have a family history of BP (p?<?0.001). Cyclothymic disorder was associated with a younger age of onset compared to depression (p?<?0.001) and bipolar II (p?=?0.05). Parental BP status was not significantly associated with any variables. Results support that cyclothymic disorder belongs on the bipolar spectrum. Epidemiological studies indicate that cyclothymic disorder is not uncommon and involves significant impairment. Failing to differentiate between cyclothymic disorder and bipolar NOS limits our knowledge about a significant proportion of cases of bipolarity.     

PROFESSIONALIZING SURVIVAL: THE POLITICS OF PUBLIC MEMORY AMONG HOLOCAUST SURVIVOR-EDUCATORS IN MONTREAL

The majority of Holocaust survivors never speak publicly about their experiences, but those who do tend to find themselves at the centre of commemorative work in their communities. As Holocaust scholars, Holocaust education institutions, and members of the general public become increasingly interested in how to ethically universalize the lessons of the Holocaust, the public Holocaust survivor's role has broadened. It is no longer enough to recount one's own experience; survivors are expected to speak to current human rights abuses and genocides.In Montreal, Canada, a city which once claimed the third largest survivor population in the world, public survivors do a great deal of work. They give testimony in schools and at commemorative events, organize book clubs, write plays, direct films, teach, act as museum docents, and assume roles as community spokespeople. Given their dedication to this work, and a push to get them to speak beyond their personal experiences, we argue that there is a major shift taking place: the act of giving public Holocaust testimony is being professionalized. This professionalization raises unique questions about how people who lived through the Holocaust conceptualize themselves and their identities as survivors. By treating testimony as professional work, survivors contemplate, on a daily basis and in an applied manner, their stances on big questions regarding hierarchies of suffering, comparability, the connection between the personal and the political, blame and forgiveness, as well as many other relevant themes that are central to Holocaust and memory scholarship. All of this plays out in their testimonies.     

Collaborative recall of details of an emotional film

Collaborative inhibition refers to the phenomenon that when several people work together to produce a single memory report, they typically produce fewer items than when the unique items in the individual reports of the same number of participants are combined (i.e., nominal recall). Yet, apart from this negative effect, collaboration may be beneficial in that group members remove errors from a collaborative report. Collaborative inhibition studies on memory for emotional stimuli are scarce. Therefore, the present study examined both collaborative inhibition and collaborative error reduction in the recall of the details of emotional material in a laboratory setting. Female undergraduates (n = 111) viewed a film clip of a fatal accident and subsequently engaged in either collaborative (n = 57) or individual recall (n = 54) in groups of three. The results show that, across several detail categories, collaborating groups recalled fewer details than nominal groups. However, overall, nominal recall produced more errors than collaborative recall. The present results extend earlier findings on both collaborative inhibition and error reduction to the recall of affectively laden material. These findings may have implications for the applied fields of forensic and clinical psychology.     

Can the effectiveness of health promotion campaigns be improved using self-efficacy and self-affirmation interventions? An analysis of sun protection messages

Health-risk communications frequently target self-efficacy in order to encourage adaptive responses. Research has also indicated that self-affirmation may be a useful supplementary or alternative intervention technique. This study compared the effects of self-efficacy, self-affirmation and a combination of these techniques for two risk messages. Young British females (N?=?677) read about ultraviolet light and skin cancer or skin ageing (‘photoageing’) and were randomly assigned to a single intervention (self-affirmation/self-efficacy), the combined intervention or no intervention. The efficacy intervention led to greater message acceptance and perceived risk in both the cancer and photoageing conditions, while the only main effect of self-affirmation was on acceptance of the photoageing message. However, self-affirmation moderated the effect of efficacy information. For photoageing messages, efficacy information was associated with greater message acceptance only amongst self-affirmed participants, but the opposite occurred for skin cancer messages. Although these findings should be interpreted cautiously, they imply that health promoters should select efficacy information if only one intervention is used but that self-affirmation can influence responsiveness to efficacy interventions for particular messages.     

The Treatment of Mental Contamination: A Case Series

The recommended treatment for obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is cognitive behavior therapy (CBT) incorporating exposure and response prevention (ERP), which is effective for approximately 50% of patients. However, there has been little advance in treatment outcomes since the introduction of ERP in 1979. It has been suggested that some progress can be made in treating contamination obsessions and washing compulsions by addressing feelings of dirtiness and contamination that arise without physical contact with a tangible contaminant. To date, the treatment of these “mental contamination” fears in OCD has not been systematically explored. This paper reports on a case series of 12 participants with OCD who received 10 to 20 sessions of a CBT-based treatment for mental contamination. At the end of treatment, 7 participants no longer met the diagnostic criteria for OCD and mental contamination and these gains were maintained at 6-month follow-up. The clinical implications of these findings are discussed.