Emotion affects action: Midcingulate cortex as a pivotal node of interaction between negative emotion and motor signals

Affective pictures drive the activity of brain networks and impact behavior. We showed previously that viewing unpleasant pictures interfered in the performance of a basic nonemotional visual detection task. In the present study, we employed functional magnetic resonance imaging to test the hypothesis that behavioral interference may result from the interaction between negatively valenced and motor-related signals in the brain. As in our previous study (Pereira et al., 2006), participants performed a simple target detection task that followed the presentation of unpleasant or neutral pictures. Our results revealed that an unpleasant emotional context modulated evoked responses in several regions engaged by the simple target detection task. In particular, the midcingulate cortex was recruited when participants performed target detection trials during the unpleasant context, and signal responses in this region closely mirrored the pattern of behavioral interference (as revealed via reaction time). Our findings suggest that the midcingulate cortex may be an important site for the interaction between negatively valenced signals and motor signals in the brain and that it may be involved in the implementation of defensive responses, such as freezing.     

Religiosity and Economic Development in Singapore

This paper examines religiosity in modern and industrialized Singapore. Several theories argue that economic development brings about secularization and the general decline of personal religiosity in modern and industrialized societies. Using data gathered from the World Values Survey-Singapore (2002) as well as data from other sources, this article finds that Singaporeans are not very secularized; they are religious (religion is important in people's lives); they have a high level of belief in (metaphysical) religious aspects; and they fulfill their religious obligations and activities. The main reasons for this apparent lack of secularization are, firstly, that religion is deeply embedded in Singapore society; secondly, that the state has both directly and indirectly promoted religion; and thirdly, that a process of religious rationalization has taken place.     

Varying Levels and Types of Engagement in an Online Relationship Enhancement Program for Couples Following Breast Cancer

Engagement in online interventions, defined as the extent to which participants are involved in and attentive to the contents of the intervention, has been shown to predict treatment outcome. However, participant engagement and program completion are often quite low. Aiming to provide insights that could help improve engagement, this study explores engagement in an online intervention for young couples with breast cancer, Couplelinks, by describing the development of a method to assess engagement, presenting a framework for understanding varying engagement levels, and discussing strategies used by Couplelinks facilitators to work with participants of differing engagement levels. The measure of engagement developed for this study was a composite consisting of indices of average completion time, accountability, and attitude. Utilizing this composite measure, the following distinct “couple types,” with varying levels of engagement, were discerned: (a) “keen” couples, (b) “compliant” couples, (c) “apologetic” couples, and (d) “straggling” couples. Facilitators’ approaches to working with each type of couple and suggestions for potential therapeutic applications are discussed. The finding that couples vary in terms of engagement level, and not solely based on facilitator skill and/or involvement, supports the need to better understand the concept of engagement in order to make online interventions more effective.     

A new defense of trope content view of experience

The idea that what we perceive are tropes (abstract particulars) is anything but new. In fact, it was one of the reasons why the ontology of tropes was postulated in the first place. Still, the claim that we perceive tropes is invariably and purely based on pre-philosophical intuitions or, indirectly, either as a supporting argument for the advantages of content view when compared to the relational view of experience, or as a supporting argument in favor of the irreducible subjective character of experience. In this paper, I take the content view for granted and argue in favor of what is herein referred to as the trope-content view of experience. My defense is a case of inference to the best explanation. The trope-content view can meet all reasonable desiderata on the experience and its content without assuming gaps or making the ad hoc assumption that there are different layers of content, or so shall I argue.

     

Dangerous liaisons

In this paper I take side on externalist incompatibilism. However, I intend to radicalize the position. First, based on my criticism of Burge's anaphoric proposal, I argue that there is no reasoning‐transparency: the reasoner is blind to the reasoning he is performing. Second, assuming a global form of content‐externalism, I argue that “in the head” are only logical and formal abilities. That is what I call “bite the bullet and swallow it too.”     

Influence of social models on alcohol use among adolescents

The aim of this study was to analyze the relationship between the consumption of alcohol among adolescents and that of their close model figures. The sample was made up of 536 secondary students from rural areas. Predictive models of alcohol consumption were established by means of logistic regression analysis and the criterion used was the consumption by parents, siblings, and the adolescent's best friend. It was observed that alcohol use of these models conditioned the adolescents' consumption; their attitude towards the drug, their intention to consume, their normative perception and perception of risk. The analysis revealed that the main predictor of alcohol use is the consumption by the best friend (OR = 13.04, IC 95% = 8.14-20.91), followed by the consumption by siblings (OR = 1.85, IC 95% = 1.12-3.04). The intention of consumption increases when the father is an alcohol user (OR = 2.70, IC 95% = 1.68-4.36), sibling (OR = 2.83, IC 95% = 1.56-5.15), and mainly best friend (OR = 4.33, IC 95% = 2.55-7.36).     

Development of eye-movement control

Cognitive control of behavior continues to improve through adolescence in parallel with important brain maturational processes including synaptic pruning and myelination, which allow for efficient neuronal computations and the functional integration of widely distributed circuitries supporting top-down control of behavior. This is also a time when psychiatric disorders, such as schizophrenia and mood disorders, emerge reflecting a particularly vulnerability to impairments in development during adolescence. Oculomotor studies provide a unique neuroscientific approach to make precise associations between cognitive control and brain circuitry during development that can inform us of impaired systems in psychopathology. In this review, we first describe the development of pursuit, fixation, and visually-guided saccadic eye movements, which collectively indicate early maturation of basic sensorimotor processes supporting reflexive, exogenously-driven eye movements. We then describe the literature on the development of the cognitive control of eye movements as reflected in the ability to inhibit a prepotent eye movement in the antisaccade task, as well as making an eye movement guided by on-line spatial information in working memory in the oculomotor delayed response task. Results indicate that the ability to make eye movements in a voluntary fashion driven by endogenous plans shows a protracted development into adolescence. Characterizing the transition through adolescence to adult-level cognitive control of behavior can inform models aimed at understanding the neurodevelopmental basis of psychiatric disorders.     

Differential sensitivity of recent vs. remote memory traces to extinction in a water-maze task in rats

Extinction has mostly been studied in conditioning paradigms, more sparsely in spatial tasks, and never as a function of the age of a spatial memory. Using rats, we compared the time-course of extinction of a recent (5 days) vs. remote (25 days) spatial memory in a water maze, over three probe trials. When the trials were set 24h apart, performance in the remote memory group was significantly worse on the first probe trial and significantly better on the third probe trial, as compared to the recent memory group, thereby showing differences between cognitive operations underlying recent vs. remote memory extinction. In contrast, when trials were given consecutively, both groups showed a similar profile of extinction. Furthermore, in a room with overly-salient cues providing a strong remote memory trace, no difference between groups was observed when the spaced extinction paradigm was used. These results might be related to a balance between reconsolidation and extinction processes occurring after a first retrieval experience, of which the outcome may depend on the extinction protocol, and on the age and strength of a memory.     

Perceptions of early relationships during the transition to motherhood: The mediating role of social support

Perceptions of the availability of social support were assumed to mediate the association between the future mother's perceptions of early relationships and positive postpartum outcomes. We explored the idea that pregnant women's perceptions of early caretaking relationships as optimal associate with the perceived availability of, and satisfaction with, social support, which in turn, were assumed to affect postpartum depressive symptomatology, the APGAR (i.e., rates of Appearance [color]; Pulse [heartbeat]; Grimace [reflex]; Activity [muscle tone]; and Respiration [breathing], Nelson, 1987) scores of the newborn, and the mother's perceptions of the infant. Using a longitudinal design, we enrolled 120 first‐time pregnant participants, who were assessed during the third trimester of pregnancy and eight weeks postpartum. Newborns were assessed immediately after birth. Findings confirmed the expected model, controlling for levels of depressive symptomatology during pregnancy. This model is discussed in the context of system and transactional models of mother–infant interactions. ©2002 Michigan Association for Infant Mental Health.