Epinephrine facilitation of appetitive learning: attenuation with adrenergic receptor antagonists

Previous studies using aversive training tasks have reported that retention is enhanced by post-training administration of epinephrine. This study investigated the effects of post-training administration of epinephrine on retention of an appetitive task. The results indicate that epinephrine can enhance retention performance in an appetitive task of both rats and mice. Pretraining injections of propranolol and phenoxybenzamine, alpha- and beta-adrenergic receptor antagonists, attenuate the memory-enhancing effects of epinephrine. These results are consistent with the view that release of peripheral epinephrine may regulate storage of new information and may mediate memory modulation produced by a variety of treatments.     

Brain catecholamines and memory modulation: effects of footshock, amygdala implantation, and stimulation

The results of previous studies indicate that the extent of a transient decline in brain norepinephrine (NE) levels shortly after training and administration of any of several memory modulating treatments is correlated with later retention performance. The present experiment assessed such changes after one-trial inhibitory (passive) avoidance training and, in addition, measured concentration changes in 3-methoxy-4-hydroxyphenylglycol (MHPG), the major metabolite of brain NE, as well as dopamine (DA) and epinephrine (EPI) levels. The results indicate that the decreases in brain NE after footshock are accompanied by an increase in MHPG, thus providing additional evidence that brain NE is released after training. DA levels were unchanged after training; brainstem EPI levels increased after the training footshock, but forebrain EPI levels were unchanged. A second experiment examined brain catecholamine levels in animals which received post-training electrical stimulation of the amygdala. The findings of this experiment indicate that the amygdala damage which accompanies electrode implantation apparently results in a chronic change in whole brain NE levels and metabolism. After amygdala, NE concentrations in both brainstem and forebrain samples were reduced by 20% and MHPG was increased by 22-34%. Furthermore, NE levels were not responsive to training in implanted animals. Thus, brain NE levels after training were not predictive of retention performance in amygdala-implanted or -stimulated animals. However, the significance of such findings for understanding the possible role of central NE in memory storage is complicated by the severe modification of the dynamics of brain aminergic systems in animals bearing amygdala electrodes.     

Do Envy and Compassion Pave the Way to Unhappiness? Social Preferences and Life Satisfaction in a Spanish City

Mounting evidence shows that people’s self-reported life satisfaction (LS) is negatively related to income inequality. Under the interpretation that the relationship between macro-level variables and LS reflects individuals’ social preferences, this finding indicates that most people display inequality-averse preferences. We explore the relationship between self-reports on inequality aversion and LS in a citywide representative survey/experiment conducted in Spain. If self-reported well-being can be used to infer people’s social preferences, LS should correlate negatively with both “envy” and “compassion” scores (i.e., how much one suffers from disadvantageous and advantageous inequality, respectively). We find that LS relates negatively to envy but positively to compassion, which would imply that suffering from observing poorer others, paradoxically, increases well-being. Using an incentivized Dictator Game as a measure of generous behavior, we reject the hypothesis that the positive link between compassion and LS is actually driven by generosity. We discuss how these findings could indicate that the way LS is used to assess social preferences in the population should be revised.     

Motivational deficits in schizophrenia relate to abnormalities in cortical learning rate signals

Individuals from across the psychosis spectrum display impairments in reinforcement learning. In some individuals, these deficits may result from aberrations in reward prediction error (RPE) signaling, conveyed by dopaminergic projections to the ventral striatum (VS). However, there is mounting evidence that VS RPE signals are relatively intact in medicated people with schizophrenia (PSZ). We hypothesized that, in PSZ, reinforcement learning deficits often are not related to RPE signaling per se but rather their impact on learning and behavior (i.e., learning rate modulation), due to dysfunction in anterior cingulate and dorsomedial prefrontal cortex (dmPFC). Twenty-six PSZ and 23 healthy volunteers completed a probabilistic reinforcement learning paradigm with occasional, sudden, shifts in contingencies. Using computational modeling, we found evidence of an impairment in trial-wise learning rate modulation (α) in PSZ before and after a reinforcement contingency shift, expressed most in PSZ with more severe motivational deficits. In a subsample of 22 PSZ and 22 healthy volunteers, we found little evidence for between-group differences in VS RPE and dmPFC learning rate signals, as measured with fMRI. However, a follow-up psychophysiological interaction analysis revealed decreased dmPFC-VS connectivity concurrent with learning rate modulation, most prominently in individuals with the most severe motivational deficits. These findings point to an impairment in learning rate modulation in PSZ, leading to a reduced ability to adjust task behavior in response to unexpected outcomes. At the level of the brain, learning rate modulation deficits may be associated with decreased involvement of the dmPFC within a greater RL network.     

Anticipated emotions and personal experience for predicting behavioral intentions and behavioral expectations

We tested how anticipated emotions interact with personal experience in risk behavior to improve predictions from TPB on behavioral intention (BI) and behavioral expectation (BE) for sex without condom (Study 1) and excessive drinking (Study 2). In the moderate-high experience group, anticipated emotional profiles (AEPs) improve TPB prediction from 28% to 45% in the case of BI and from 19% to 40% in that of BE in relation to sexual risk behavior (Study 1), and from 23% to 36% in the case of BI and from 17% to 31% in that of BE in relation to binge drinking (Study 2). However, in the low-experience group (Study 2) AEPs improve TPB predictions for BI (12% to 34%) but not for BE, showing that in less experienced people BI and BE are not equivalent: anticipated emotions have different relevance in their prediction. These results were replicated using a general negative anticipated emotion index (averaging emotional categories).     

Seeking Social Support in Old Age as Reasoned Action: Structural and Volitional Determinants in a Middle-Aged Sample of Argentinean Women1

Given that the availability of social support influences physical and psychological well-being, the provision of positive contacts is often crucial for older women. The purpose of the present study was to test the utility of both structural and volitional factors as determinants of support-seeking intentions. Two intentions to seek social support were studied in a group of 106 middle-aged women: (a) the intention to go to a doctor at least once a year after 55; and (b) the intention to visit a family member at least once a week after 55. The structural variables of interest were age, educational level, presence of partner, number of children, and number of grandchildren. The volitional factors assessed were intentions, beliefs, attitudes, and norms. There was little evidence that structural factors influenced support seeking. In contrast, as predicted from the theory of reasoned action (Ajzen & Fishbein, 1980; Fishbein & Ajzen. 1975), intentions to go to the doctor and to visit a family member could be successfully predicted from attitudes and norms.     

Desensibilización sistemática,inoculación de estrés y terapia inespecífica en el tratamiento de la ansiedad a las matemáticas

RESUMEN

Las autoras comienzan ofreciendo una panorámica general de las investigaciones sobre el síndrome de fobia a las matemáticas y la ansiedad ante los exámenes, explicando a continuación que el objetivo general de su estudio es desarrollar procedimientos de modificación de conducta que ayuden a estudiantes de Psicología, con una historia previa de conductas de evitación a los exámenes, a enfrentarse a las pruebas de psicología matemática. Más específicamente, se quiere comparar la eficacia de la Desensibilización Sistemática tradicional con un paquete cognitivo complejo desarrollada por ellas siguiendo el modelo de Inoculación de Estrés, y el valor de estas dos intervenciones específicas se compara, a su vez, con un grupo de terapia no orientado al problema. Tras describir el método y resultados, las autoras destacan en la discusión la eficacia de las tres intervenciones y el hecho de que se lograse afectar al rendimiento y no sólo a la ansiedad en matemáticas. Finalmente afirman que sus resultados apoyan la actualidad de la obra de Frank (1973, 1982), quien señala que una parte muy importante de los efectos psicoterapéuticos se debe a factores comunes a todas las terapias, en los que habitualmente no recae el peso explicativo.