Progressive catatonia

We present the case of a young man with a diagnosis of a childhood-onset pervasive developmental disorder who developed a progressive neurologic deterioration with persistent catatonia and right hemiparesis. On his initial evaluation approximately three years after the onset of mutism, he manifested right hemiparesis and catalepsy. Two years later, although catalepsy had subsided, motor function had deteriorated so that he could not use his hands to feed or dress himself. Oral-facialbuccal dyskinesia manifested by blepharospasm and grimacing were present constantly during waking hours. Quantitative electroencephalography demonstrated markedly decreased amplitude, a finding associated with catatonia. Left sural nerve biopsy indicated large axon cylinder degeneration. Left deltoid biopsy demonstrated perimysial fibrosis and type II fiber predominance. Although magnetic resonance imaging of the head without contrast was normal, positron emission tomography indicated hypometabolism of the right cerebral and the right cerebellar hemispheres. The patient continues to deteriorate despite a course of 25 electroconvulsive treatments. He continues to manifest criteria for catatonia including motoric immobility, mutism, and peculiarities of voluntary movement such as prominent grimacing. We suspect an inherited neurodegenerative disorder. Since catatonia is a treatable condition frequently associated with medical and neurological diseases, examination for the features of catatonia must be included in the assessment of patients with progressive brain degeneration. This report is an attempt to clarify the traits of a serious variant of progressive brain degeneration.     

Priest Attended Death in Medieval and Early Modern Period: Translation and Commentary on an Old Croatian Text Circa 1600

Theoretical Medicine and Bioethics -     

Why good thoughts block better ones: the mechanism of the pernicious Einstellung (set) effect

The Einstellung (set) effect occurs when the first idea that comes to mind, triggered by familiar features of a problem, prevents a better solution being found. It has been shown to affect both people facing novel problems and experts within their field of expertise. We show that it works by influencing mechanisms that determine what information is attended to. Having found one solution, expert chess players reported that they were looking for a better one. But their eye movements showed that they continued to look at features of the problem related to the solution they had already thought of. The mechanism which allows the first schema activated by familiar aspects of a problem to control the subsequent direction of attention may contribute to a wide range of biases both in everyday and expert thought - from confirmation bias in hypothesis testing to the tendency of scientists to ignore results that do not fit their favoured theories.     

Children's understanding of the war in Iraq: views from Britain and Bosnia

Sixty‐one children (aged 9–17) from the United Kingdom (31) and Bosnia (30) were interviewed about the war in Iraq. Significant differences emerged in their views of the war. The Bosnian children were more affected by the Iraq War, more aware of who is involved in it, had different views about its causes, viewed the consequences of the war with greater gravity, and expressed a greater desire to end war and have peace. Two factors which might account for these differences – recent Bosnian history and the nature of media representations of the war in the two countries – are discussed.     

Early childhood experiences and current emotional distress: what do they tell us about aspiring psychologists?

Motivation underlying the career choice of mental health professionals may include a desire to resolve personal psychological distress from childhood or the need to continue the caretaking role held in the family (A. DiCaccavo, 2002; J. D. Guy, 1987). The authors examined whether psychology students whose future vocational aspirations lie in the clinical domain (N = 40) differed from psychology students with no clinical aspirations (N = 35) and from business students (N = 91) in reported childhood experiences and current psychological functioning. Psychology students who wanted to work in the clinical domain reported higher rates of perceived childhood sexual abuse and neglect as compared with both psychology students with no clinical aspirations and business students. They also reported more parentification experiences between the ages of 14 years and 16 years as compared with business students. There were no significant differences between groups in reported levels of current negative emotions.     

Exposure to acute physical and psychological stress alters the response of rat macrophages to corticosterone, neuropeptide Y and beta-endorphin

The objective of the present study was to investigate the effect of acute exposure to electric tail shock stress (ES) and a stress witnessing procedure (SW), as models for physical and psychological stress paradigms, respectively on adherence, phagocytosis and hydrogen peroxide (H(2)O(2)) release from rat peritoneal macrophages. In addition, we studied the in vitro effects of corticosterone (CORT), neuropeptide Y (NPY) and beta-endorphin (BE) on adherence, phagocytosis and H(2)O(2) release from macrophages isolated from control rats and from rats that had been exposed to ES or SW procedures 24 h earlier. ES and SW comparably diminished phagocytosis and H(2)O(2) release, but did not influence macrophage adherence. In vitro treatment with CORT and NPY notably suppressed phagocytosis and potentiated H(2)O(2) release from macrophages. BE suppressed both phagocytosis and H(2)O(2) release from macrophages. Previous exposure to ES and SW altered the responsiveness of the isolated macrophages to their in vitro treatment with mediators of stress, making the cells less sensitive to the influence of CORT and NPY and to a lesser extent to BE. It could be concluded that changes in the local macrophage milieu induced by ES and SW 24 h earlier modify macrophage responses to subsequent in vitro exposure to the stress mimics, CORT, NPY and BE.     

Grandiose and Vulnerable Narcissism,Materialism, Money Attitudes,and Consumption Preferences

Narcissism is increasingly being investigated in the context of consumer attitudes and behavior. Previous research showed that narcissism is reflected in materialistic tendencies and money-related attitudes. However, almost all of these studies concerned the grandiose type of narcissism. We examined relationships of both grandiose and vulnerable narcissism with materialism, money attitudes, and consumption preferences in a nonstudent sample. The results showed that the two types of narcissism are equally associated with materialism and a tendency to conspicuous (public) consumption. Differences between grandiose and vulnerable narcissism with regard to money attitudes were observed. Materialism mediated most of the relationships between narcissism, money attitudes, and consumption preferences, but the patterns of mediation were different for grandiose and vulnerable subtypes. Mutual suppression occurred when grandiose narcissism and materialism predicted anxiety associated with money and when vulnerable narcissism and materialism predicted money perceived as a source of evil. The results suggested that not only grandiose, but also vulnerable narcissists may be prone to excessive consumption and that this can be explained by their materialistic tendencies.     

Objective Consequentialism and the Rationales of ‘ “Ought” Implies “Can” ’

This paper argues that objective consequentialism is incompatible with the rationales of ‘ “ought” implies “can” ’ – with the considerations, that is, that explain or justify this principle. Objective consequentialism is the moral doctrine that an act is right if and only if there is no alternative with a better outcome, and wrong otherwise. An act is obligatory if and only if it is wrong not to perform it. According to ‘ “ought” implies “can” ’, a person is morally obligated to φ only if the person can φ. The rationales of ‘ “ought” implies “can” ’ include considerations related to intuitive plausibility, action‐guidance, blameworthiness and fairness, and the nature of practical reasons. 1     

Facilitating empathy through virtual reality

This research experimentally investigated whether virtual reality experience can prompt greater empathy and whether greater engagement with a virtual reality connects this virtual reality experience to empathy. Randomly assigned participants viewed a documentary featuring a young girl living in a refugee camp either in a virtual reality format or in a control two-dimensional format. Results indicated that the virtual reality experience resulted in greater engagement and a higher level of empathy for the refugee girl compared to the control condition. Greater engagement was a process connecting the virtual reality experience to empathy. Virtual reality has the potential to influence interpersonal emotions such as empathy.