Napping promotes inter-session habituation to emotional stimuli

The effects of a daytime nap on inter-session habituation to aversive visual stimuli were investigated. Healthy young adult volunteers viewed repeated presentations of highly negative and emotionally neutral (but equally arousing) International Affective Picture System (IAPS) photographs during two afternoon sessions separated by 2.5h. Half of the photographs were shown at both sessions (Repeated Sets) and half differed between sessions (Novel Sets). For each stimulus presentation, evoked skin conductance response (SCR), heart-rate deceleration (HRD) and corrugator supercilii EMG response (EMG), were computed and range corrected using respective maximum session-1 responses. Following each presentation, subjects rated each photograph on dimensions of pleasantness and arousability. During the inter-session interval, Nap subjects had a 120-min polysomnographically monitored sleep opportunity, whereas Wake subjects watched a non-stimulating video. Nap and Wake subjects did not differ in their subjective ratings of photographs. However, for Repeated-Set photographs, Nap subjects demonstrated greater inter-session habituation in SCR and EMG but a trend toward lesser inter-session habituation in HRD. These group differences were absent for Novel-Set photographs. Group differences across all measures were greater for negative stimuli. Occurrence of SWS during the nap was associated with greater inter-session habituation of EMG whereas occurrence of REM was associated with lesser inter-session habituation of SCR to negative stimuli. Sleep may therefore promote emotional adjustment at the level of somatic responses. Physiological but not subjective inter-session habituation to aversive images was enhanced by a daytime nap.     

Predictive Testing of Eighteen Year Olds: Counseling Challenges

Genetic counseling of teenagers is challenging and complex. The ability to think abstractly, a sense of self and independence from family all develop during adolescence. Predictive genetic testing counseling protocols presuppose that these qualities exist, requiring the at-risk individual to consider the short and long term consequences of testing as well as their motivations. Eighteen year olds are in transition from adolescence to adulthood; eligible for predictive genetic testing, they may not yet be independent of their family or able to articulate their feelings. This paper presents case studies from the authors' clinical practice to illustrate some of the difficulties faced by genetic counselors when 18 year olds request predictive testing for Hereditary Non-Polyposis Colorectal Cancer. By reflecting upon their experiences with these young adults and their families, the authors' intention is to generate discussion about genetic counseling strategies, particularly for predictive genetic testing, that are both age-appropriate and family-sensitive.     

Touch communicates distinct emotions

The study of emotional signaling has focused almost exclusively on the face and voice. In 2 studies, the authors investigated whether people can identify emotions from the experience of being touched by a stranger on the arm (without seeing the touch). In the 3rd study, they investigated whether observers can identify emotions from watching someone being touched on the arm. Two kinds of evidence suggest that humans can communicate numerous emotions with touch. First, participants in the United States (Study 1) and Spain (Study 2) could decode anger, fear, disgust, love, gratitude, and sympathy via touch at much-better-than-chance levels. Second, fine-grained coding documented specific touch behaviors associated with different emotions. In Study 3, the authors provide evidence that participants can accurately decode distinct emotions by merely watching others communicate via touch. The findings are discussed in terms of their contributions to affective science and the evolution of altruism and cooperation.     

Establishing a causal chain: why experiments are often more effective than mediational analyses in examining psychological processes

The authors propose that experiments that utilize mediational analyses as suggested by R. M. Baron and D. A. Kenny (1986) are overused and sometimes improperly held up as necessary for a good social psychological paper. The authors argue that when it is easy to manipulate and measure a proposed psychological process that a series of experiments that demonstrates the proposed causal chain is superior. They further argue that when it is easy to manipulate a proposed psychological process but difficult to measure it that designs that examine underlying process by utilizing moderation can be effective. It is only when measurement of a proposed psychological process is easy and manipulation of it is difficult that designs that rely on mediational analyses should be preferred, and even in these situations careful consideration should be given to the limiting factors of such designs.     

An evaluation of the minimal constraining information during observation for movement reproduction

An important question in the field of imitation is what information is used for movement reproduction. While it is argued that relative motion information is perceived and minimised, direct evidence is lacking. In this experiment relative motion was manipulated to convey a novel kicking action. Twenty-four adults were assigned to one of the three impoverished relative motion display groups showing only the TOE, FOOT or LEG. After practise with partial information, participants watched a full-body display and in a final condition performed the action with an additional context constraint (i.e., a ball). Movement kinematics were collected and difference scores between participants and the model were analysed. The groups did not differ in terms of knee-ankle coordination. For hip-knee, the TOE group performed more like the model than the FOOT and LEG group. When transferred to the full-body display, there were no significant improvements. End-point trajectory information can provide sufficient information to reproduce key characteristics of the movement form.     

Learning and memory deficits upon TAU accumulation in Drosophila mushroom body neurons

Mutations in the neuronal-specific microtubule-binding protein TAU are associated with several dementias and neurodegenerative diseases. However, the effects of elevated TAU accumulation on behavioral plasticity are unknown. We report that directed expression of wild-type vertebrate and Drosophila TAU in adult mushroom body neurons, centers for olfactory learning and memory in Drosophila, strongly compromised associative olfactory learning and memory, but olfactory conditioning-relevant osmotactic and mechanosensory responses remained intact. In addition, TAU accumulation in mushroom body neurons did not result in detectable neurodegeneration or premature death. Therefore, TAU-mediated structural or functional perturbation of the microtubular cytoskeleton in mushroom body neurons is likely causal of the behavioral deficit. These results indicate that behavioral plasticity decrements may be the earliest detectable manifestations of tauopathies.     

Clients' treatment expectations at a community mental health center

Clients' expectations about mental health care, particularly differences in these expectations as a function of social class, and the relationship of discrepancies between expectations and perceptions to treatment outcome, is examined in this study with 317 Caucasian clients. In contrast to the majority of studies, no differences in treatment expectations relating to clients' social class, sex, or marital status were found. Nor were discrepancies related to course or outcome of therapy. Discussion focuses around explanation and interpretation of these findings. Particularly relevant is the need to determine the extent to which nonusers in the community share the attitudes and expectations of clients.     

A randomized clinical trial of inpatient family intervention: VI. Mediating variables and outcome

In a randomized clinical trial of Inpatient Family Intervention (IFI) for 169 inpatients with schizophrenia, affective disorder, and a residual group of other diagnoses, results suggested significant effects favoring IFI for patients and their families. The treatment effects were limited to females and to two diagnostic groups: chronic schizophrenia patients and the bipolar subgroup of affective disorders.     

A comparison of stimulus set size on tact training for children with autism spectrum disorder

Previous studies on skill acquisition have taught targets in stimulus sets composed of different numbers of stimuli. Although the rationale for selection of a stimulus set size is not clear, the number of target stimuli trained within a set is a treatment decision for which there is limited empirical support. The current investigation compared the efficiency of tact training in 4 stimulus set sizes, each of which included 12 stimuli grouped into (a) 4 sets of 3 stimuli, (b) 3 sets of 4 stimuli, (c) 2 sets of 6 stimuli, and (d) 1 set of 12 stimuli. Results of all 4 participants with autism spectrum disorder show tact training with larger (i.e., 6 and 12) stimulus set sizes was more efficient than training with smaller (i.e., 3 and 4) stimulus set sizes.