Role of the hippocampus and orbitofrontal cortex during the disambiguation of social cues in working memory

Human social interactions are complex behaviors requiring the concerted effort of multiple neural systems to track and monitor the individuals around us. Cognitively, adjusting our behavior on the basis of changing social cues such as facial expressions relies on working memory and the ability to disambiguate, or separate, the representations of overlapping stimuli resulting from viewing the same individual with different facial expressions. We conducted an fMRI experiment examining the brain regions contributing to the encoding, maintenance, and retrieval of overlapping identity information during working memory using a delayed match-to-sample task. In the overlapping condition, two faces from the same individual with different facial expressions were presented at sample. In the nonoverlapping condition, the two sample faces were from two different individuals with different expressions. fMRI activity was assessed by contrasting the overlapping and nonoverlapping conditions at sample, delay, and test. The lateral orbitofrontal cortex showed increased fMRI signal in the overlapping condition in all three phases of the delayed match-to-sample task and increased functional connectivity with the hippocampus when encoding overlapping stimuli. The hippocampus showed increased fMRI signal at test. These data suggest that lateral orbitofrontal cortex helps encode and maintain representations of overlapping stimuli in working memory, whereas the orbitofrontal cortex and hippocampus contribute to the successful retrieval of overlapping stimuli. We suggest that the lateral orbitofrontal cortex and hippocampus play a role in encoding, maintaining, and retrieving social cues, especially when multiple interactions with an individual need to be disambiguated in a rapidly changing social context in order to make appropriate social responses.     

Faces elicit different scanning patterns depending on task demands

Eye movements were recorded while participants discriminated upright and inverted faces that differed with respect to either configural or featural information. Two hypotheses were examined: (1) whether featural and configural information processing elicit different scanning patterns; (2) whether fixations on a specific region of the face dominate scanning patterns. Results from two experiments were compared to examine whether participants’ prior knowledge of the kind of information that would be relevant for the task (i.e., configural vs featural) influences eye movements. In Experiment 1, featural and configural discrimination trials were presented in random order such that participants were unaware of the information that would be relevant on any given trial. In Experiment 2, featural and configural discrimination trials were blocked and participants were informed of the nature of the discriminations. The results of both experiments suggest that faces elicit different scanning patterns depending on task demands. When participants were unaware of the nature of the information relevant for the task at hand, face processing was dominated by attention to the eyes. When participants were aware that relational information was relevant, scanning was dominated by fixations to the center of the face. We conclude that faces elicit scanning strategies that are driven by task demands.     

Cognitive adaptation and mental health: A motivational analysis

The present study tested a motivational model where the beneficial impact that processes of cognitive adaptation have on mental health takes place through self‐determined motivation. The model proposes that the components of cognitive adaptation theory (positive self‐perceptions, perceptions of control, and optimism) foster a self‐determined motivation. In turn, self‐determined motivation predicts positive indices of mental health. In addition, the model posits that the beneficial role of cognitive adaptation on mental health is mediated by motivational processes. The model was tested using a 1‐year prospective design with a random sample from the general population. Results from structural equation modelling analysis provided empirical support for the proposed model. Results are discussed with regards to Taylor's ( 1983 ) cognitive adaptation theory, self‐determination theory (Deci & Ryan, 1991 ), and the Hierarchical Model of Intrinsic and Extrinsic Motivation (Vallerand, 1997 ). Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Working harder to obtain more snack foods when wanting to eat less

This study investigates individual differences in the reinforcing value of snack food. More specifically, it was investigated whether differences in restraint status are associated with differences in working for high-caloric snack food. Thirty-six unrestrained non-dieters, twenty restrained non-dieters and fifteen current dieters performed a concurrent schedules task in which they had the option to work for points for either snack food or fruit and vegetables. By progressively increasing the “price” of the snack foods (i.e., the amount of work required to obtain extra snack points) the relative reinforcing value of snack food was determined. As hypothesized, restrained non-dieters worked harder and current dieters worked less hard to obtain snack food as compared to unrestrained non-dieters.     

Negotiating Identity: Three Events that Weaken the Maternal Identity of Addicted Law-Breaking Women

This qualitative study aimed to comprehend how mothers experienced and built their maternal identity throughout their lives. Thirty-eight semi-structured interviews were conducted with drug-using and law-breaking mothers. Results showed that three events were significant for participants: pregnancies, loss of custody, and incarceration. As each event challenged their maternal identity, they questioned their substance use and their criminal involvement. Our results suggest that these events represent key moments to encourage their growing awareness and to foster changes in their deviant lifestyle. We conclude this article by discussing interventions possible for each of these important moments in these mothers’ lives.     

SNRIs: their pharmacology, clinical efficacy, and tolerability in comparison with other classes of antidepressants

The class of serotonin and norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors (SNRIs) now comprises three medications: venlafaxine, milnacipran, and duloxetine. These drugs block the reuptake of both serotonin (5-HT) and norepinephrine with differing selectivity. Whereas milnacipran blocks 5-HT and norepinephrine reuptake with equal affinity, duloxetine has a 10-fold selectivity for 5-HT and venlafaxine a 30-fold selectivity for 5-HT. All three SNRIs are efficacious in treating a variety of anxiety disorders. There is no evidence for major differences between SNRIs and SSRIs in their efficacy in treating anxiety disorders. In contrast to SSRIs, which are generally ineffective in treating chronic pain, all three SNRIs seem to be helpful in relieving chronic pain associated with and independent of depression. Tolerability of an SNRI at therapeutic doses varies within the class. Although no direct comparative data are available, venlafaxine seems to be the least well-tolerated, combining serotonergic adverse effects (nausea, sexual dysfunction, withdrawal problems) with a dose-dependent cardiovascular phenomenon, principally hypertension. Duloxetine and milnacipran appear better tolerated and essentially devoid of cardiovascular toxicity.     

Sharing is caring for developmental psychology

Many of us, especially in the more experimental tradition, are used to doing it all ourselves: we don't know better than to collect our own data for every new study. We invest considerable amounts of time and resources in designing experiments, ethical review applications, participant recruitment, finding and training measuring assistants, and writing data management plans. And after all the hard work we end up with a sample size that hardly ever meets current standards. What if we could skip, or outsource some of these study aspects, allowing us to devote more of our time, energy, expertise, and experience to data analysis, reading, writing, and theory development? We argue that sharing data, expertise, and infrastructure could contribute to improving the credibility of research results, and to practicing more sustainable developmental science. In addition, we discuss several reasons that we believe may (currently) dissuade researchers from considering such sharing.     

The Causes and Courses of Nonviolent and Violent Delinquency among South Korean Adolescents

ABSTRACT

This study combines and compares data from the Korean Youth Panel Survey and the Korean Children and Youth Panel Survey to examine the effects parenting, peers, school, social structure, and personality exert on nonviolent and violent delinquency among 5,462 male and 5,103 female adolescents in South Korea. Overall, parental effects were found to be more important than peer effects, but their influence diminishes relative to that of peer effects with age. The semiparametric group-based modeling approach identifies distinct groups of stable nondelinquents, stable moderates, moderate escalators, de-escalators, and desistors (but not chronic offenders). Lastly, this study does not provide support for a public discourse that infers juvenile delinquency has increased in frequency and severity.     

Politics,democratic action,and solidarity

I agree with the critique of rationalism proposed by Spinosa, Flores, and Dreyfus in ‘Disclosing New Worlds’. Today the defence of democracy requires us to understand that allegiance to democratic institutions can only rest on identification with the practices, the language‐games, and the discourses which are constitutive of the democratic ‘form of life’, and that it is not a question of providing them with a rational justification. My comments are developed in two directions. First, as a development of their thesis concerning the centrality of practices, I suggest that in order to grasp the present crisis of democratic forms of individuality we can learn a lot from Nietzsche's analysis of ‘nihilism’. Second, I point to a dimension which I consider to be missing in the perspective put forward in the article. It fails to take account of the fact that the constitution of a ‘we’ always requires the determination of a ‘them’. This, in my view, has important consequences for the relation between solidarity and politics. I conclude by arguing for the need to introduce an agonistic element in the view of solidarity, and for the crucial role of the category of the adversary in a pluralist democracy whose aim is to transform antagonism into agonism.