Emotional intelligence and health‐related quality of life in institutionalised Spanish older adults

This study explores the relationship between emotional intelligence (EI) and health‐related quality of life (HRQoL) in a sample of Spanish older adults who are institutionalised in long‐term care (LTC) facilities. One hundred fifteen institutionalised individuals (47.82% women; 88.3 ± 7.9 years) from southern Spain completed a set of questionnaires that included measures of EI, health and personality. Data were analysed via hierarchical regression. After controlling for personality and sociodemographic variables, the EI dimensions, emotional comprehension and emotional facilitation, accounted for part of the variance in several HRQoL facets. These dimensions could have an important role in the HRQoL of residents in LTC. Moreover, the use of a performance measure addresses the limitations of previous studies that have relied on self‐report measures. These aspects underscore the importance of the results of this study.     

State test‐anxiety,selective attention and concentration in university students

The principal aim of this study was to assess the level of selective attention and mental concentration before exams in a sample of university students and to determine a possible relationship between anxiety and reduction of levels of attention in this circumstance. A total of 403 university students, 176 men and 227 women, aged from 18 to 46 years, participated in the study. Of them, 169 were first‐year undergraduates, 118 were second to fourth‐year undergraduates and 116 were postgraduate Master's degree students. All of them completed the Spanish version of the Spielberger State‐Anxiety Inventory and the D2 Attention Test just before taking an exam. Our results showed that participants with lower levels of anxiety had higher levels of selective attention and mental concentration before the exam. These results specifically indicate that when anxiety levels are very high, this could over‐activate the orientating and alerting functions and to reduce the capacity of attentional control. These processes could have a negative impact on specific attentional processes and become a negative influence on performance in exams.     

Longitudinal trajectories of bicultural identity integration in recently immigrated Hispanic adolescents: Links with mental health and family functioning

This study examined, in a sample of recently immigrated Hispanic adolescents in Miami and Los Angeles, the extent to which bicultural identity integration (BII; involving the ability to synthesise one's heritage and receiving cultural streams and to identify as a member of both cultures) is best understood as a developmental construct that changes over time or as an individual‐difference construct that is largely stable over time. We were also interested in the extent to which these trajectories predicted mental health and family functioning. Recent‐immigrant 9th graders (N = 302) were assessed 6 times from 9th to 12th grade. Latent class growth analyses using the first 5 timepoints identified 2 trajectory classes—one with lower BII scores over time and another with higher BII scores over time. Higher heritage and US identity at baseline predicted membership in the higher BII class. At the 6th study timepoint, lower BII adolescents reported significantly poorer self‐esteem, optimism, prosocial behaviour and family relationships compared with their higher BII counterparts. These findings are discussed in terms of further research on the over‐time trajectory of biculturalism, and on the need to develop interventions to promote BII as a way of facilitating well‐being and positive family functioning.     

NMDA and muscarinic receptors of the nucleus accumbens have differential effects on taste memory formation

Animals recognize a taste cue as aversive when it has been associated with post-ingestive malaise; this associative learning is known as conditioned taste aversion (CTA). When an animal consumes a new taste and no negative consequences follow, it becomes recognized as a safe signal, leading to an increase in its consumption in subsequent presentations (attenuation of neophobia, AN). It has been shown that the nucleus accumbens (NAcc) has an important role in taste learning. To elucidate the involvement of N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) and muscarinic receptors in the NAcc during safe and aversive taste memory formation, we administrated bilateral infusions of DL-2-amino-5-phosphonopentanoic acid (APV) or scopolamine in the NAcc shell or core respectively. Our results showed that pre-training injections of APV in the NAcc core and shell disrupted aversive but not safe taste memory formation, whereas pre-training injections of scopolamine in the NAcc shell, but not core, disrupted both CTA and AN. These results suggest that muscarinic receptors seem to be necessary for processing taste stimuli for either safe or aversive taste memory, whereas NMDA receptors are only involved in the aversive taste memory trace formation.     

Microstimulation reveals opposing influences of prelimbic and infralimbic cortex on the expression of conditioned fear

Recent studies using lesion, infusion, and unit-recording techniques suggest that the infralimbic (IL) subregion of medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) is necessary for the inhibition of conditioned fear following extinction. Brief microstimulation of IL paired with conditioned tones, designed to mimic neuronal tone responses, reduces the expression of conditioned fear to the tone. In the present study we used microstimulation to investigate the role of additional mPFC subregions: the prelimbic (PL), dorsal anterior cingulate (ACd), and medial precentral (PrCm) cortices in the expression and extinction of conditioned fear. These are tone-responsive areas that have been implicated in both acquisition and extinction of conditioned fear. In contrast to IL, microstimulation of PL increased the expression of conditioned fear and prevented extinction. Microstimulation of ACd and PrCm had no effect. Under low-footshock conditions (to avoid ceiling levels of freezing), microstimulation of PL and IL had opposite effects, respectively increasing and decreasing freezing to the conditioned tone. We suggest that PL excites amygdala output and IL inhibits amygdala output, providing a mechanism for bidirectional modulation of fear expression.     

Amygdala or hippocampus inactivation after retrieval induces temporary memory deficit

The hypothesis that memory is stored through a single stage of consolidation that results in a stable and lasting long-term memory has been challenged by the proposition that reactivation of a memory induces reconsolidation of the memory. The reconsolidation hypothesis is supported by evidence that, under some conditions, post-retrieval treatments affecting amygdala and hippocampus functioning impair subsequent retention performance. We now report that repeated retention testing attenuates the performance impairment induced by post-retrieval reversible inactivation of the amygdala and hippocampus of rats induced by tetrodotoxin. These findings challenge the reconsolidation hypothesis and suggest that the post-retrieval retention performance impairment is best explained as due to temporary retrieval failure.     

Capsaicin-sensitive afferent vagal fibers are involved in concurrent taste aversion learning

Taste aversion learning (TAL) is a type of learning characterized by rejection of a gustatory/flavor stimulus as a consequence of its pairing with visceral discomfort and malaise. TAL can be established in the laboratory by two different behavioral procedures, concurrent or sequential. Neural mechanisms of these learning modalities remain to be elucidated, but several studies have discussed the implication of various anatomical structures, including the vagus nerve. The aim of this study was to examine the role of capsaicin-sensitive vagal afferent fibers in concurrent (Experiment 1) and sequential (Experiment 2) TAL in Wistar rats. Results showed that perivagal administration of capsaicin (1mg of capsaicin dissolved in 1ml of vehicle (10% Tween 80 in oil)) blocked acquisition of concurrent but not sequential TAL. These data support the hypothesis of two different modalities of TAL mediated by distinct neurobiological systems, with vagal nerve participation only being essential in concurrent TAL.     

Histamine enhances inhibitory avoidance memory consolidation through a H2 receptor-dependent mechanism

Several evidences suggest that brain histamine is involved in memory consolidation but the actual contribution of the hippocampal histaminergic system to this process remains controversial. Here, we show that when infused into the CA1 region of the dorsal hippocampus immediately after training in an inhibitory avoidance task, but not later, histamine induced a dose-dependent promnesic effect without altering locomotor activity, exploratory behavior, anxiety state or retrieval of the avoidance response. The facilitatory effect of intra-CA1 histamine was mimicked by the histamine N-methyltransferase inhibitor SKF-91844 as well as by the H2 receptor agonist dimaprit and it was blocked completely by the H2 receptor antagonist ranitidine. Conversely, the promnesic action of histamine was unaffected by the H1 receptor antagonist pyrilamine, the H3 receptor antagonist, thioperamide, and the NMDAr polyamine-binding site antagonist ifenprodil. By themselves, ranitidine, pyrilamine, thioperamide, and ifenprodil did not affect IA memory consolidation. Our data indicate that, when given into CA1, histamine enhances memory consolidation through a mechanism that involves activation of H2 receptors; however, endogenous CA1 histamine does not seem to participate in the consolidation of IA memory at least at the post-training times analyzed.