Anticipatory attention during the sleep onset period

To examine whether anticipatory attention or expectancy is a cognitive process that is automatic or requires conscious control, we employed a paired-stimulus event-related potential (ERP) paradigm during the transition to sleep. The slow negative ERP wave observed between two successive stimuli, the Contingent Negative Variation (CNV), reflects attention and expectancy to the second stimulus. Thirteen good sleepers were instructed to respond to the second stimulus in a pair during waking sessions. In a non-response paradigm modified for sleep, participants then fell asleep while tones played. As expected, N1 decreased and P2 increased in amplitude systematically with the loss of consciousness at sleep onset; the CNV was increasingly more positive. Sleep onset latency was correlated with the amplitude of the CNV. The systematic attenuation of the CNV waveform at sleep onset and its absence in sleep indicates that anticipatory attention requires endogenous conscious control.     

Main and interaction effects of metallic toxins on classroom behavior

This study investigated the relationships of metal levels and metal combinations to children's classroom behavior. Hair-metal concentrations of lead, arsenic, mercury, cadmium, and aluminum were determined in 80 randomly selected elementary-age children, who were also rated by their classroom teacher on the Walker Problem Behavior Identification Checklist (WPBIC). Parents were interviewed to control for confounding variables that may have affected behavioral development. Regression analysis indicated that the set of metals was significantly related to increased scores on four of the five WPBIC subscales and on the total scale, with lead being a major contributor to four of the six dependent measures. Metal combinations were significantly related to increased scores on the WPBIC subscales measuring acting-out, disturbed peer relations, and immaturity, and on the total scale. A continuing reexamination of metal poisoning concentrations is needed because metal levels and metal combinations previously thought harmless may be associated with nonadaptive classroom behavior.     

BOHM AND WHITEHEAD ON WHOLENESS, FREEDOM, CAUSALITY, AND TIME

Abstract. David Bohm's developing postmodern thought (combining precision and wholeness) is seen to contain two tendencies. One is a vision of "underlying wholeness," in which all causation is vertical, and the implicate-explicate relation is ubiquitous. This provides a possible solution to certain problems, but creates many others involving freedom, causation, and time. Second, many of Bohm's statements suggest that his deepest intuitions could be formulated without those problems in terms of the distinctions developed in Alfred North Whitehead's philosophy of "prehensive wholeness," in which the ubiquity of creativity would require a more restricted use of the implicate-explicate relation.     

Detecting true lies: police officers' ability to detect suspects' lies

Ninety-nine police officers, not identified in previous research as belonging to groups that are superior in lie detection, attempted to detect truths and lies told by suspects during their videotaped police interviews. Accuracy rates were higher than those typically found in deception research and reached levels similar to those obtained by specialized lie detectors in previous research. Accuracy was positively correlated with perceived experience in interviewing suspects and with mentioning cues to detecting deceit that relate to a suspect's story. Accuracy was negatively correlated with popular stereotypical cues such as gaze aversion and fidgeting. As in previous research, accuracy and confidence were not significantly correlated, but the level of confidence was dependent on whether officers judged actual truths or actual lies and on the method by which confidence was measured.     

The Meaning and Impact of Head and Neck Cancer: An Interpretative Phenomenological and Repertory Grid Analysis

This study explores the personal meaning of head and neck cancer for individuals, with particular reference to the impact on the self. It employs interpretative phenomenological and repertory grid analysis with 10 people, all of whom have undergone surgical treatment for head and ceck cancer. Four themes emerged: namely, destruction of self, altered relations with the body, disenfranchised self, and conservation of self. Repertory grid analysis validated and enriched understanding of these findings. Participants described how head and neck cancer inflicted a fundamental attack on their sense of self. Nonetheless, participants were dynamic in their self-management and detailed an active process to retain a positive sense of self.     

Psychopathy,anxiety and malingering

Psychopathy is commonly measured as a low score on an Anxiety scale or as a high score on the MMPI Pd scale. The Pd scale, the Spielberger et al. Trait Anxiety scale and a short Achievement Motivation scale were administered to a random postal sample of 115 Australians. It was found that there was a high positive correlation between the Pd and Anxiety scales. This strongly supports Eysenck's theory that psychopaths are neurotic extraverts. A possible alternative explanation of the findings, however, is that the Pd scale may measure not psychopathy but malingering.     

Decoupling neural networks from reality: dissociative experiences in torture victims are reflected in abnormal brain waves in left frontal cortex

From a neuroscience perspective, little is known about the long-term effect of torture. Dissociative experiences and posttraumatic stress disorder are often the results of this experience. We examined psychological dissociation within a group of 23 torture victims and report its manifestations within neural networks in the human brain. In particular, we observed that dissociative experiences are associated with slow abnormal brain waves generated in left ventrolateral frontal cortex. Given that focal slow waves often result from depriving neural networks of major input, the present results may indicate decoupling of frontal affective processors from left cortical language areas. This interpretation is consistent with the fact that disturbed access to structured verbal memory concerning traumatic events is a core feature of the dissociative experience.     

Exploration in outbred mice covaries with general learning abilities irrespective of stress reactivity, emotionality, and physical attributes

Across multiple learning tasks (that place different sensory, motor, and information processing demands on the animals), we have found that the performance of mice is commonly regulated by a single factor ("general learning") that accounts for 30-40% of the variance across individuals and tasks. Furthermore, individuals' general learning abilities were highly correlated with their propensity to engage in exploration in an open field, a behavior that is potentially stress-inducing. This relationship between exploration in the open field and general learning abilities suggests the possibility that variations in stress sensitivity/responsivity or related emotional responses might directly influence individuals' general learning abilities. Here, the relationship of sensory/motor skills and stress sensitivity/emotionality to animals' general learning abilities were assessed. Outbred (CD-1) mice were tested in a battery of six learning tasks as well as 21 tests of exploratory behavior, sensory/motor function and fitness, emotionality, and stress reactivity. The performances of individual mice were correlated across six learning tasks, and the performance measures of all learning tasks loaded heavily on a single factor (principal component analysis), accounting for 32% of the variability between animals and tasks. Open field exploration and seven additional exploratory behaviors (including those exhibited in an elevated plus maze) also loaded heavily on this same factor, although general activity, sensory/motor responses, physical characteristics, and direct measures of fear did not. In a separate experiment, serum corticosterone levels of mice were elevated in response to a mild environmental stressor (confinement on an elevated platform). Stress-induced corticosterone levels were correlated with behavioral fear responses, but were unsystematically related to individuals' propensity for exploration. In total, these results suggest that although general learning abilities are strongly related to individuals' propensity for exploration, this relationship is not attributable to variations in sensory/motor function or the individuals' physiological or behavioral sensitivity to conditions that promote stress or fear.