Amygdala and periaqueductal gray lesions only partially attenuate unconditional defensive responses in rats exposed to a cat

Defensive responses to a cat were observed in rats given excitotoxic lesions of the central nucleus of the amygdala (ACe), dorsolateral periaqueductal gray (dlPAG), ventral periaqueductal gray (vPAG), or sham lesions. Rats were placed adjacent to a compartment containing a cat. Sham-lesioned rats avoided the area nearest the cat and preferred the area furthest away from the cat. They also exhibited numerous defensive responses including, climbing, escape from the apparatus, and freezing. Rats with lesions of the ACe reacted like the sham lesioned rats by preferring the area of the apparatus furthest from the cat, however they climbed and escaped significantly less than sham lesioned rats. Avoidance of the area adjacent to the cat was attenuated in rats with lesions of the vPAG. Climbing along the walls of the apparatus was also attenuated in rats with lesions of the vPAG. Escapes from the apparatus were not significantly reduced by lesions of the vPAG and dlPAG. Thus, ACe lesions attenuated climbing and eliminated escapes, but did not impair locomotion of the rat away from the cat.     

The Physical Appearance Ambiguous Feedback Scale (PAAFS): a measure for indexing body image related cognitive bias

Recent conceptualizations of body image disturbance have included an information processing model that includes a focus on an interpretive information processing bias. Study 1 involved the development and validation of a measure of appearance-based cognitive bias, the Physical Appearance Ambiguous Feedback Scale (PAAFS). In Studies 2 and 3, two samples of college females (n=313) were tested and the psychometric characteristics of the PAAFS were evaluated. Reliability was acceptable and convergence with measures of body image and eating disturbance was moderate. In Study 4, 313 college females completed the PAAFS in the laboratory based on an instructional content designed to induce processing bias. Preliminary evidence indicates that the PAAFS appears to be sensitive to instructional set manipulations and dispositional level of body dissatisfaction.     

Six-year-olds' difficulties handling intensional contexts

Previous research shows that children have difficulties handling intensional contexts even when they can pass a test of false belief (e.g. Cognition 67 (1998) 287; Cognition 25 (1987) 289). Some authors (Perner, J. (1991). Understanding the representational mind. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press; Cognition 25 (1987) 289) place these difficulties in the linguistic and not the mental representational domain. The experiments reported here examined whether 6-year-old children could answer questions in an intensional context that did not require the explicit verbal characterization of a belief. We replicated previous findings and found that children answered according to their own knowledge in an intensional context. This occurred even though they responded by choosing a picture to insert into a protagonist's thought bubble rather than report the belief verbally. Children could correctly answer questions about the knowledge state of the protagonist and pass a test of false belief. Further experiments ruled out methodological explanations. Experiment 2 showed that the difference in answering according to own knowledge between the false belief and intensional stories is not accounted for by procedural factors in the two types of test. Experiment 3 revealed that children did not answer according to their own knowledge by default. Experiment 4 suggested that answering according to own knowledge was not a result of pictorial salience. Results are discussed in relation to the simulation-theory debate.     

Personality and the predisposition to engage in risky or problem behaviors during adolescence

Longitudinal data from a representative sample of 1,978 Black and White adolescents were used to examine the role of personality in multiple risk or problem behaviors. Results indicate that covariation among diverse behaviors (educational underachievement, delinquent behavior, substance use, sexual behavior) can be adequately modeled by a single higher order factor, and that impulsivity and avoidance coping serve as generalized risk factors for involvement in these behaviors. Whereas none of the personality variables examined explained change in problem behaviors once established, avoidance coping prospectively predicted involvement among a subgroup of adolescents with little or no prior involvement. Results suggest that dysfunctional styles of regulating emotions and emotionally driven behaviors are core features of risky or problem behaviors during adolescence.     

Face processing in adolescents with autistic disorder: the inversion and composite effects

Two experiments with upright and inverted face and object images were carried out to investigate whether face processing in autism is more feature-based than in individuals with typical development. Participants were 17 high-ability adolescents with autistic disorder (16-24 years), 24 typically developing children (9-10 years) and 16 adults (18-33 years). In Experiment 1, a normal inversion effect was found for the adolescents with autism in a standard face recognition paradigm with reduced memory demands, except for a subgroup with low social intelligence who were not better in recognizing upright relative to inverted photographs of faces. In Experiment 2, the group with autism did not show the composite effect like the adult group did: they recognized face halves as well in aligned composite faces as in non-aligned composite faces. The results on the inversion task suggest that most adolescents with autism form a normal configuration-based face representation, but the absence of the composite effect indicates that they are less prone to use the contextual information of the face in a visual-search task.     

The gap effect in newborns

In four experiments we investigated the gap effect in infants within the first 3 days of life. Reaction times (RTs) to make a saccade to a peripheral target were measured on gap trials, in which the central fixation stimulus went off 500 ms before target presentation, and on overlap trials, in which the central fixation stimulus remained on. In every experiment the fixation stimulus was a flashing light. The target stimulus was a schematic face in Experiment 1, a flashing light shown at 20° eccentricity in Experiment 2, a flashing light shown at 30° eccentricity in Experiment 3, and an upside-down schematic face in Experiment 4. In Experiments 1–3 a gap effect was found. That is, RT was faster on gap than on overlap trials. In contrast, the gap effect was absent in Experiment 4. These findings are consistent with the view that the superior colliculus plays a major role in producing the gap effect at birth.     

The dialogical principle and the mystery of being

International Journal for Philosophy of Religion -     

Provider Perspectives on Barriers and Strategies for Achieving Culturally Sensitive Mental Health Services for Immigrants: A Hamilton, Ontario Case Study

As research reveals that the healthy immigrant effect, whereby the health of immigrants at the time of arrival is high but subsequently declines and converges toward that of the native-born population, also extends to mental well-being, this paper aims to examine the barriers to mental health care for immigrants in Hamilton, Ontario. Through the use of face-to-face interviews with eight service providers, barriers to care were revealed to include cultural insensitivity, stigma and shame, and limited resources. Suggestions for improvements to mental health care are also discussed.