Neural functions of calcineurin in synaptic plasticity and memory

Major brain functions depend on neuronal processes that favor the plasticity of neuronal circuits while at the same time maintaining their stability. The mechanisms that regulate brain plasticity are complex and engage multiple cascades of molecular components that modulate synaptic efficacy. Protein kinases (PKs) and phosphatases (PPs) are among the most important of these components that act as positive and negative regulators of neuronal signaling and plasticity, respectively. In these cascades, the PP protein phosphatase 2B or calcineurin (CaN) is of particular interest because it is the only Ca(2+)-activated PP in the brain and a major regulator of key proteins essential for synaptic transmission and neuronal excitability. This review describes the primary properties of CaN and illustrates its functions and modes of action by focusing on several representative targets, in particular glutamate receptors, striatal enriched protein phosphatase (STEP), and neuromodulin (GAP43), and their functional significance for synaptic plasticity and memory.     

Learning strategy is influenced by trait anxiety and early rearing conditions in prepubertal male, but not prepubertal female rats

Rodents solve dual-solution tasks that require navigation to a goal by adopting either a hippocampus-dependent place strategy or a striatum-dependent stimulus-response strategy. A variety of factors, including biological sex and emotional status, influence the choice of learning strategy. In these experiments, we investigated the relationship between learning strategy and anxiety level in male and female rats prior to the onset of puberty, before the activational effects of gonadal hormones influence these processes. In the first experiment, prepubertal male rats categorized as high in trait anxiety at 26days of age exhibited a bias toward stimulus-response strategy at 28days of age, whereas age-matched females exhibited no preference in strategy regardless of anxiety level. In the second experiment, male and female rats were separated from their dams for either 15 or 180min per day during the first 2weeks of life and tested on a battery of anxiety and cognitive tasks between 25 and 29days of age. Prolonged maternal separations for 180min were associated with impaired spatial memory on a Y-maze task in both prepubertal males and females. Furthermore, prolonged maternal separations were linked to elevated anxiety and a bias for stimulus-response strategy in prepubertal males but not females. Alternatively, brief separations from dams for 15min were associated with intact spatial memory, lower levels of anxiety, and no preference for either learning strategy in both sexes. These results provide evidence of sex-specific effects of trait anxiety and early maternal separation on the choice of learning strategy used by prepubertal rodents.     

Collaborative partner or social tool? New evidence for young children’s understanding of joint intentions in collaborative activities

Some children’s social activities are structured by joint goals. In previous research, the criterion used to determine this was relatively weak: if the partner stopped interacting, did the child attempt to re‐engage her? But re‐engagement attempts could easily result from the child simply realizing that she needs the partner to reach her own goal in the activity (social tool explanation). In two experiments, 21‐ and 27‐month‐old children interacted with an adult in games in which they either did or did not physically need the partner to reach a concrete goal. Moreover, when the partner stopped interacting, she did so because she was either unwilling to continue (breaking off from the joint goal) or unable to continue (presumably still maintaining the joint goal). Children of both age groups encouraged the recalcitrant partner equally often whether she was or was not physically needed for goal attainment. In addition, they did so more often when the partner was unable to continue than when she was unwilling to continue. These findings suggest that young children do not just view their collaborative partners as mindless social tools, but rather as intentional, cooperative agents with whom they must coordinate intentional states.     

The functions of music and their relationship to music preference in India and Germany

Is the use of music in everyday life a culturally universal phenomenon? And do the functions served by music contribute to the development of music preferences regardless of the listener's cultural background? The present study explored similarities and dissimilarities in the functions of music listening and their relationship to music preferences in two countries with different cultural backgrounds: India as an example of a collectivistic society and Germany as an example of an individualistic society. Respondents were asked to what degree their favorite music serves several functions in their life. The functions were summarized in seven main groups: background entertainment, prompt for memories, diversion, emotion regulation, self‐regulation, self‐reflection, and social bonding. Results indicate a strong similarity of the functions of people's favorite music for Indian and German listeners. Among the Indians, all of the seven functions were rated as meaningful; among the Germans, this was the case for all functions except emotion regulation. However, a pronounced dissimilarity was found in the predictive power of the functions of music for the strength of music preference, which was much stronger for Germans than for Indians. In India, the functions of music most predictive for music preference were diversion, self‐reflection, and social bonding. In Germany, the most predictive functions were emotion regulation, diversion, self‐reflection, prompt for memories, and social bonding. It is concluded that potential cultural differences hardly apply to the functional use of music in everyday life, but they do so with respect to the impact of the functions on the development of music preference. The present results are consistent with the assumption that members of a collectivistic society tend to set a higher value on their social and societal integration and their connectedness to each other than do members of individualistic societies.     

Refusing intergroup help from the morally superior: How one group's moral superiority leads to another group's reluctance to seek their help

We examine how group members paradoxically refuse intergroup help where they might need it most: in the moral status domain. Based on the Sacred Value Protection Model (Tetlock, 2002), we predicted and found that group members felt stronger group-based anger and a stronger motivation to reaffirm their group's moral status when an outgroup was morally superior to them. Despite this moral motivation, however, we also predicted and found that group members more strongly refused intergroup help to improve their moral status vis-à-vis the morally superior outgroup (compared to an uninvolved outgroup). Consistent with the Social Identity model of Deindividuation Effects (Reicher, Spears, & Postmes, 1995), group members thus strategically refused intergroup help to defend their group identity. Supporting this interpretation, particularly highly identified group members were most likely to refuse intergroup help when they needed it most. We discuss theoretical and practical implications of our findings.     

Individual differences in ideological attitudes and prejudice: evidence from peer-report data

Our knowledge on the personality basis of ideological attitudes and prejudice, while based on a substantial body of research, suffers from a potentially serious methodological limitation: an overreliance on the method of self-reports. Across 2 studies (Ns = 193, 424), we examined associations between the Big Five personality dimensions, Right-Wing Authoritarianism (RWA), Social Dominance Orientation (SDO), and generalized prejudice, using both self-report and peer-report data stemming from 1 (Study 1) or 2 (Study 2) peer rater/s. Correlational and regression analyses as well as structural equation modeling showed that (a) the associations between personality dimensions, ideological attitudes, and prejudice were largely similar to previous research for both data sources; (b) RWA and prejudice showed a similar level of self-peer agreement to personality dimensions; (c) most of the known associations between personality, ideological attitudes, and prejudice were replicated also when measured by independent methods; (d) peer reports had some incremental validity in predicting ideological attitudes and prejudice; and (e) there was evidence that Openness to Experience and Agreeableness predicted prejudice directly and not only indirectly via RWA and SDO, respectively. Implications for the status of RWA, SDO, and prejudice as individual-difference constructs and for their bases in personality dimensions are discussed.     

Is there evidence for the use of art therapy in treatment of psychosomatic disorders,eating disorders and crisis? A comparative study of two different systems for evaluation

A comparative study of two different systems for evaluation. Scandinavian Journal of Psychology 53, 47-53. As with any type of treatment the requirement for evidence based practice (EBP) has also affected art therapy (AT) when used as an intervention. This review evaluates the available evidence for using AT for psychosomatic disorders, eating disorders and crisis. The search in Cochrane, Best Practice, AMED, CINAHL, PION, PsycINFO and PubMed from 1987 until now resulted in a huge number of articles but only 32 articles met our criteria for evaluations. The articles were assessed with two evaluation systems, the GRADE system used by the Swedish Council on Health Technology Assessment (SBU) and the US Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF/Task Force). When comparing the results we found that the GRADE evaluation system rejected the quality in 84% of the 32 studies and the USPSTF/Task Force 41% of these studies. An evidence base for AT was found only according to the criteria of USPSTF/Task Force. Hence, the evidence concept is not explicit, which means that effective treatments run a risk of not being implemented in health care. We suggest a broader view of what constitutes evidence in order to make it possible to include different types of research designs and methods.     

Using individual differences to predict job performance: correcting for direct and indirect restriction of range

The present study investigates the relationship between individual differences, indicated by personality (FFM) and general mental ability (GMA), and job performance applying two different methods of correction for range restriction. The results, derived by analyzing meta-analytic correlations, show that the more accurate method of correcting for indirect range restriction increased the operational validity of individual differences in predicting job performance and that this increase primarily was due to general mental ability being a stronger predictor than any of the personality traits. The estimates for single traits can be applied in practice to maximize prediction of job performance. Further, differences in the relative importance of general mental ability in relation to overall personality assessment methods was substantive and the estimates provided enables practitioners to perform a correct utility analysis of their overall selection procedure.     

The dynamics of ethnic discrimination,identities and outgroup attitudes: A pre–post longitudinal study of ethnic migrants

This longitudinal study among ethnic migrants from Russia to Finland (N = 127) examined the relationships between anticipated and perceived discrimination, ethnic and national identities, and outgroup attitudes towards the national majority group. The study included one pre‐migration and two post‐migration assessments. First, associations between the variables studied were tested using a conventional autoregressive sample‐level modelling approach. Second, individual trajectories and the associations between the individual‐level changes in the variables included in the models were tested. Although there were no sample‐level effects over time, there were significant relationships between changes in discrimination and changes in identification and outgroup attitudes at the individual level. The results indicated that changes in perceived discrimination were not reflected in increased ethnic identification. However, participants who perceived higher levels of discrimination after migration than they anticipated before migration were, in the post‐migration stage, more likely to disidentify from and to increasingly show negative attitudes towards the national majority group. The study complements previous research by examining the identity and attitudinal reactions to perceived ethnic discrimination starting from the pre‐migration stage and highlights the value of incorporating both group and individual perspectives to the research on perceived discrimination. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Development of the Social Behavior of Two Mice Species With Contrasting Social Systems

The house mouse (Mus musculus) and the mound‐building mouse (M. spicilegus) differ in their mating and social systems. The M. musculus is polygynous and females tend to breed cooperatively while M. spicilegus is known to be monogamous and famous for its unique cooperative behavior; the communal overwintering. Mus spicilegus is considered as a highly aggressive species in the genus Mus. In the present study, we attempted to analyze the development of aggressive and sociable behavior in these species and to discover how familiarity with the target moderates the development of sociable and aggressive behaviors and moderates the differences between the species. Dyadic social interaction tests in neutral cages were performed on 21‐, 60‐, and 120‐day‐old mice of both genders and both species. Each individual was tested against a sibling and an unfamiliar individual at all three ages. Our results showed that the development of aggressive and sociable behavior with age differed between the species and sexes; however, familiarity with the other mouse moderated the effect of species on aggression. At 21 days, both genders of M. spicilegus were more aggressive against strangers than siblings. This became true of both species at 60 days. When facing a stranger, both sexes of M. spicilegus were more aggressive than M. musculus at 120 days. However, when facing a sibling, neither gender of M. spicilegus was more agonistic than M. musculus, indicating that either kinship or early social experiences elicit tolerance. Aggr. Behav. 38:288‐297, 2012. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.