The effects of context change on long-term habituation of the orienting response in humans

Four experiments examined the effects of context change (Experiments 1-3) and context extinction (Experiment 4) on long-term habituation of the skin conductance response. In all experiments, subjects received 15 presentations of a target stimulus in each of two sessions. In Experiment 1 (N=60) there was a 15-min interval between training and test sessions. This interval was extended to 24 hours in Experiments 2 (N=60) and 3 (N=60). The experimental treatment in each of these studies involved a change in context between the two training sessions. None of the experiments provided evidence of context dependency in measures of long-term habituation. In Experiment 4 (N=60) experimental subjects received a period of context extinction during which they remained in the laboratory environment between two series of habituation trials. Again, however, there was no evidence that long-term habituation was contextually mediated. Thus, the results fail uniformly to support theories that argue that long-term habituation is context-dependent.     

Facsimiles of Flesh

Ed Gein was a serial killer, grave robber, and body snatcher who made a lampshade from human skin. Now consider the detective who found that lampshade. Let's suppose that he would never want to own it; however, he does find that he wants a synthetic one just like it – a perfect replica. We assume that there is something morally problematic about the detective having such a replica. We then argue that, given as much, we can reach the surprising conclusion that it's morally problematic to consume realistic fake‐meat products. After explaining why we might the detective's replica lampshade morally problematic, we clarify the analogy between the replica and fake meat products. Then, we defend it against a number of objections, the most notable one being we can sever any association between fake meat and the real stuff without moral cost. We conclude by pointing out that our argument generalises: if it works, then there is something morally problematic about many fake animal products, including fake leather and fur.     

Strengthening the validity of population-based suicide rate comparisons: an illustration using U.S. military and civilian data

The objectives of this study were to generate precise estimates of suicide rates in the military while controlling for factors contributing to rate variability such as demographic differences and classification bias, and to develop a simple methodology for the determination of statistically derived thresholds for detecting significant rate changes. Suicide rate estimates were calculated for the military population and each service branch over 11 years, directly standardized to the 2000 U.S. population. Military rates were highly comparable across branches and were approximately 20% lower than the civilian rate. Direct adjustment essentially controlled for the demographic confounds in this sample. Applying the Poisson-based method, we demonstrate that suicide rate fluctuations as large as 20-40% in any year may be attributed to random error.     

Traumatic stress, dissociation, and limbic irritability in patients with unipolar depression being treated with SSRIs

Recent evidence suggests that stressful experiences may be related to deficits in inhibitory functions and temporo-limbic epileptic-like activity. The latter may produce psychosensory seizure-like symptoms that may also appear in nonepileptic conditions. This study assesses whether the increased presence of the seizure-like symptoms in 113 unipolar depressive patients treated with SSRIs is associated with significantly more severe symptoms of depression, traumatic stress, and dissociation in comparison with 86 healthy controls. Results indicate that seizure-like symptoms in depressive patients have significant association with depression, symptoms of dissociation, and traumatic stress. This association suggests that processess generating seizure-like symptoms may be related to symptoms of depression, traumatic stress, and dissociation.     

The emotional feeling as a combination of two qualia: A neurophilosophical-based emotion theory

It is argued that the emotional feeling comprises the following two emotional qualia. (1) A nucleus feeling or primary emotional quale, which is the phenomenological counterpart of the end product of appraisal by the central nervous system. (2) The experience of being urged to emotion-related reflection or secondary emotional quale, which is the phenomenological counterpart of the brain's decision to inhibit pre-programmed emotional behaviour, and to initiate emotion-related reflections. Different brain modules regulate these two qualia, and thus each can be experienced independently of the other. The primary emotional quale is related to activation of the amygdala, it is emotion specific, and neutral with respect to affect. The secondary emotional quale is related to activation of the orbito-prefrontal cortex (O-PFC), and includes affective aspects.

It is argued that emotional behaviour is regulated by the following three neural mechanisms, two of which two are directly related to the two qualia. (1) An evolutionary ancient system (amygdala-system), which comprises the amygdalae and subcortical nuclei, and which activates pre-programmed emotional behaviour. (2) An evolutionary recent system (PFC-system), comprising the prefrontal cortex, which inhibits pre-programmed emotional behaviour, activates emotional reflection, generates and evaluates behavioural alternatives. In contrast to the pre-programmed behaviour, the behavioural alternatives are more likely to serve long-term goals. (3) A default mechanism, which gives rise to default (i.e., “just do something”) behaviour. The first two systems are mutually competitive, while the third mechanism takes over if either the competition between the first two mechanisms, or the decision process of the PFC-system, takes too long. This default mechanism involves the function of the medial-prefrontal cortex (M-PFC).     

A Comparison of Academic Dishonesty Among Business Students in a Public and Private Catholic University

A questionnaire on academic dishonesty was administered to junior and senior business administration majors at a public and a private Catholic university. Students were asked their extent of participation in 16 dishonest academic practices; their ratings of the ethical levels of the practices; their ratings of the likelihood of reasons for participation in the practices; and their sex, grade point average (GPA), and class rank. Though the catalog of the Catholic university indicated a greater emphasis on ethics and values education than did the catalog of the public school, the two groups of students reported very similar levels of academic dishonesty. Possible reasons for the disconnect between the emphasis on values and morals at the Catholic university and the students' academic behavior are discussed.