Amnesia induced by 2-deoxygalactose in the day-old chick: lateralization of effects in two different one-trial learning tasks

2-Deoxy-D-galactose, an inhibitor of brain glycoprotein fucosylation, was injected intracranially (10 mumole dose in 10 microliters) into either the left or the right forebrain hemisphere of day-old chicks (Gallus domesticus). Bilateral injection of this dose of 2-deoxy-D-galactose is known to induce amnesia for several learning tasks including one-trial passive avoidance and sickness-induced learning. When a tritiated form of the drug was injected into one forebrain hemisphere only, a significantly large proportion of the dose remained in that hemisphere. Chicks were trained in two different one-trial learning tasks. The first was a passive avoidance task in which the chicks were allowed to peck at a green training stimulus (a small light-emitting diode, LED) coated in the bitter liquid, methylanthranilate, giving rise to a strong disgust response and consequent avoidance of the green stimulus. In the second paradigm the chicks were allowed to peck at a similarly colored dry stimulus but, 30 min later, were injected intraperitoneally with lithium chloride (0.1 ml of 1 M solution), causing a sickness-induced aversion for the green LED. 2-Deoxy-D-galactose caused amnesia for the passive avoidance task when injected before training into the right hemisphere but not the left. However, unilateral injection of the drug before training on the sickness-induced learning task did not cause amnesia. The results indicate that fucosylation of brain glycoproteins is required in the right hemisphere for learning the passive avoidance task but that memory for sickness-induced learning can be retained by either hemisphere.     

Women's Dress Fashions as a Function of Reproductive Strategy

Despite many speculations, there is no well-supported explanation for cycles of fashion in.women's dress and scholars cannot agree whether fashions reflect societal changes. Generalizing from cycles of bodily attractiveness for women, it was hypothesized that dress styles are reflective of reproductive economics. Using data from three studies of dress fashion extending from 1885-1976, the prediction was tested thatshortskirts (signaling sexual accessibility) would be correlated with low sex ratios (indicating limited marital opportunity for women), with increased economic opportunities for women and with marital instability. Predictions for narrowwaists and low necklines (which signal reproductive value) were opposite. These predictions received strong support indicating that dress styles, like standards of bodily attractiveness may be partly determined by marital economics.     

Lesions of the intermediate medial hyperstriatum ventrale impair sickness-conditioned learning in day-old chicks.

Lesion studies show that the intermediate medial hyperstriatum ventrale (IMHV), a forebrain visual association area in chicks, is involved in learning and memory for one-trial passive avoidance and imprinting. We examined the effects of IMHV lesions in a one-trial, nongustatory, sickness-conditioned learning task. This task is similar to passive avoidance and imprinting because all three tasks require the chick to remember visual cues in order to respond correctly. However, sickness-conditioned learning differs from imprinting and passive avoidance because it uses sickness as the aversive stimulus and there is a longer conditioned stimulus-unconditioned stimulus interval (30-min delay compared to seconds). Bilateral IMHV lesions given 24 h before training impaired the ability of the chicks to avoid a bead associated with sickness produced by lithium chloride injection, as did pretraining unilateral left or right IMHV lesions. Post-training IMHV lesions given 1 h after training did not impair avoidance of the test bead in the sickness-conditioned learning task. However, lesioned chicks showed generalized avoidance of all test beads. The pretraining lesion results are similar to those found in imprinting and passive avoidance learning; however, the effects of unilateral IMHV lesions differed. Post-training lesion effects are similar to those found in passive avoidance learning. We propose that both left and right IMHV are necessary for sickness-conditioned learning and that post-training IMHV lesions impair the ability of the chick to learn or remember the association between the color of the bead and the aversive consequences of LiCl injection.     

Student mental health: how can psychiatrists better support the work of university medical centres and university counselling services?

Student psychiatric morbidity is rising. Whilst the influence of university counselling services is widely reported, NHS involvement by psychiatrists and general practitioners is not so well described. Counselling and mental health service providers for students at the University of Leeds were approached for numerical data and a university Group on Student Mental Health discussed the findings. The Student Counselling Centre, the University Medical Practice and a dedicated student psychiatric clinic have all seen a rise in referral rates. The University Medical Practice has also seen a rise in the prescribing of psychoactive medication. Collaborative links at the University of Leeds are explored and options for the future discussed. These include self-help over the internet, a research project to assess student mental health needs and the provision of a dedicated NHS psychiatric team for the university.     

Assessment of visual-spatial deficits in patients with Parkinson's disease and closed head injuries using virtual environments.

Cognitive spatial deficits have been reliably reported in patients with Closed Head Injury (CHI), though in patients with Parkinson's disease (PD) the phenomenon is disputed. CHI and non-demented PD patients were tested using a Judgement of Line Orientation Test, and two spatial tests using virtual environments (VEs). Performance on the Line Orientation and one VE test was worse in the CHI group than controls, but PD patients showed no apparent spatial deficits. However, performance on the second VE test (virtual tray of objects task) did reveal a deficit, both CHI and PD groups being significantly impaired. The data illustrate that particular spatial deficits can be differentiated using appropriate VE-based tasks, and that non-demented PD patients show a paradigm-specific visual-spatial impairment.     

Richard Hooker and the Principle of Sola Scriptura

The traditional view that Richard Hooker argued for the religiousauthority of Scripture, reason, and tradition, in that order,has come under sustained criticism in recent years, especiallyfrom those scholars who assert that Hooker was in fact an orthodoxReformed theologian. Although Hooker placed a distinctivelyhigh value on the role of reason in authenticating Holy Scripture,it is claimed that this is fully compatible with the Protestantprinciple of sola Scriptura, and reflects wider developmentsin the Reformed tradition on the role of reason in proving thatScripture is divine revelation. This article seeks to refutethese claims by examining Reformed thought on the religiousauthority of Scripture and reason in matters of Christian doctrine,looking at representatives from the Reformers, early orthodoxy,and high orthodoxy. This is then compared with Hooker's work,where, it is argued, the Reformed doctrine that Scripture isthe principium cognoscendi theologiae, with reason merely anancillary ‘handmaid’, is replaced by the radicalposition that Scripture and demonstrative reasoning are bothprincipial authorities in matters of Christian doctrine. Inpropounding his triple-source theory of religious authority,therefore, Hooker is concluded to have broken fundamentallywith the principle of sola Scriptura.     

Gender perspective in the context of Spanish academic psychology

The purpose of this study is to analyse the evolution of gender perspective in the context of the Spanish academic Psychology. The last three decades were analysed. In each decade, the study describes the groups and individuals who have contributed to the analysis of gender perspective in Psychology, the sponsoring institutions, and the most frequently used research strategies. Likewise, the study analyses the development of topics and areas in these three decades. The general trend shows that the interpretation of sex/gender has moved away from being considered an individual and internal factor to a more dynamic approach that analyses sex/gender through behavioural practices.     

Fact learning: how information accuracy, delay, and repeated testing change retention and retrieval experience

Previous classroom studies have shown that the phenomenology of studied facts changes over time. However, pedagogical needs preclude both the study of errors and the separation of the effects that delay and repeated testing have on retention and retrieval experience. We addressed these issues together in an experiment where participants read stories containing correct and misleading information and provided Remember, Just Know, and Familiar judgements on immediate and delayed general knowledge tests. After 2 days, information learned from the stories shifted from Remembered to Just Known, but repeated testing attenuated this shift. Interestingly, similar patterns of retrieval and phenomenology were observed for correct and misleading information with one important difference--the shift over time to Just Knowing was significantly greater for correct than for misleading information. Together, these findings show the roles of information accuracy, delay, and testing in determining both retention and the subjective experience of retrieval.