Impaired modulation of corticospinal excitability following subthreshold rTMS in focal hand dystonia

Previous studies have demonstrated that subthreshold 1 Hz repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) causes a decrease in corticospinal excitability in neurologically normal subjects. The effects of subthreshold 1 Hz rTMS upon corticospinal excitability and intracortical inhibition in subjects with focal hand dystonia (FHD) is not yet clear. The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of low intensity 1 Hz rTMS upon these variables in control and FHD subjects. We recorded electromyographic (EMG) from the first dorsal interosseous (FDI) muscle of the dominant hands of seven control subjects, and seven affected hands of five FHD subjects. We used single and paired pulse TMS to examine motor evoked potential (MEP) amplitude, short interval intracortical inhibition (ICI) and silent period duration before, during and after 20 min of low intensity 1 Hz rTMS. MEP amplitude decreased significantly over the course of the rTMS in control subjects, but did not change in FHD subjects. Silent period duration was significantly longer in control subjects after rTMS, but there was no change in FHD subjects. There was no significant change in ICI after rTMS in either subject group, despite the rTMS intensity being set to preferentially activate intracortical inhibitory networks. This suggests that low intensity 1 Hz rTMS may have limited application in the normalisation of inhibitory function in FHD.     

Recovery and predictors of language skills two years following pediatric traumatic brain injury

Subtle language processing difficulties may adversely affect scholastic performance, as well as communication and social skills. It is therefore crucial that language skills are monitored following traumatic brain injury (TBI) in childhood. The present study examined language skills in a group of 68 children who had sustained a mild, moderate or severe TBI. Results indicated that during the acute stage a dose-response relationship was evident, where severe TBI was associated with poorest performance and mild TBI with least deficits. By 24 months post-TBI, it was clear that for some language functions, the severe TBI group showed substantial recovery, and at times performed better than the moderate TBI group. Predictors of language and literacy skills at 24 months post TBI included pre-injury communication skills, socio-economic status, age at injury, and Vocabulary, as measured by the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (WISC-111).     

Gender-typical responses to sexual and emotional infidelity as a function of mortality salience induced self-esteem striving

The authors propose that gender-differentiated patterns of jealousy in response to sexual and emotional infidelity are engendered by the differential impact of each event on self-esteem for men and women. Study 1 demonstrated that men derive relatively more self-esteem from their sex lives, whereas women's self-esteem is more contingent on romantic commitment. Based on terror management theory, it is predicted that if gender-differentiated responses to infidelity are motivated by gender-specific contingencies for self-esteem, they should be intensified following reminders of mortality. In Study 2, mortality salience (MS) increased distress in response to sexual infidelity for men and emotional infidelity for women. Study 3 demonstrated that following MS, men who place high value on sex in romantic relationships exhibited greater distress in response to sexual infidelity, but low-ex-value men's distress was attenuated. The authors discuss the implications for evolutionary and self-esteem-based accounts of jealousy as well as possible integration of these perspectives.     

Spreading activation or spooky action at a distance?

How do preexisting connections among a word's associates facilitate its cued recall and recognition? A spreading-activation model assumes activation spreads to, among, and from a studied word's associates, and that its return is what strengthens its representation. An activation-at-a-distance model assumes strengthening is produced by the synchronous activation of the word's associates. The spread model predicts that connections among the studied word's associates will have a greater effect on memory when more of its associates return activation. The distance model predicts that total connections are important, not their direction. The results of cued recall experiments supported the distance model in showing that that connections among the associates facilitated recall regardless of the number of returning connections.     

Adult attachment,the transition to parenthood,and depressive symptoms

Testing a model suggested by J. Bowlby (1988), this study investigated how a personal vulnerability (attachment ambivalence) interacts with perceptions of deficient spousal support before and during a major life stressor (the transition to parenthood) to predict pre-to-postnatal increases in depressive symptoms. Highly ambivalent women who entered parenthood perceiving either less support or greater anger from their husbands experienced pre-to-postnatal increases in depressive symptoms at 6 months postpartum. The associations between these 2 prenatal interaction terms and pre-to-postnatal increases in depressive symptoms were mediated by perceptions of declining spousal support across the transition period. Moreover, for highly ambivalent women, the association between prenatal and postnatal depression scores was mediated by perceptions of the amount of support available from their husbands.     

Variations in mood state as a function of a football season

Scores on the Profile of Mood States were collected from football players at a small university each week prior to a Saturday football contest. The scores were analyzed to assess whether mood varied as a function of the outcome of the previous week's game. Although the subjects' overall mood state was not influenced by the outcome of the games, scores on Tension, Vigor, Fatigue, and Confusion varied. Fatigue and Confusion were related to the outcomes of the games and gave partial support to the hypothesis that the players' mood would vary according to the outcome of the games played.     

Information used in detecting upcoming collision

In four experiments we examined the nature of the information used in judging whether events would or would not give rise to a collision in the near future. Observers were tested in situations depicting approaches between two objects (lateral approaches) and approaches between an object and the point of observation (head-on approaches), with objects moving according to constant deceleration or sinusoidal deceleration patterns. Judgments were found to be based, to a large extent, on the (in)sufficiency of current deceleration to avoid upcoming collision, as specified optically by tau-dot (tau). However, the information specified by tau (tau), that is the current (first-order) time remaining until contact, was also found to play a significant role. We deduce that judgment of upcoming collision is based on the detection of tau and its evolution over time, suggesting that observers are sensitive to delta(tau) rather than to tau itself.     

Are implicitly activated associates selectively activated?

What constitutes a word’s associative past? Words differ in how many associates they activate in memory and, following a brief encounter, those with fewer associates are more likely to be recalled in the presence of related cues. The issue addressed in the present article is whether associative set size effects are produced through the selective activation of strong associates or through the activation of both strong and weak associates. The set size of the strongest associates was varied factorially with the set size of the associates of these associates. We assume that associate set size indexes a word’s weaker associates. Experiments 1 and 2 showed that recall varied inversely with both target and associate set sizes. Such results held over variations in study time and participant age. Experiment 3 showed that weak associates of the target had a greater effect on recall when there were more connections among the strongest associates in the set. The findings suggest that activation is not strength selective but includes both weak and strong associates.     

Estimating the Organizational Costs of Sexual Harassment: The Case of the U.S. Army

A general model for estimating the organizational costs of sexual harassment in the workplace is proposed along with model-specific costing formulas. A partial implementation of the model is applied to sexual harassment incidence data for the Army gathered as part of a large-scale survey of the U.S. military services. Results indicate that the total annual cost of sexual harassment in the U.S. Army in 1988 was over $250,000,000. Organizational implications are discussed.