The expression of c-Fos and colocalisation of c-Fos and glucocorticoid receptors in brain structures of low and high anxiety rats subjected to extinction trials and re-learning of a conditioned fear response

We designed an animal model to examine the mechanisms of differences in individual responses to aversive stimuli. We used the rat freezing response in the context fear test as a discriminating variable: low responders (LR) were defined as rats with a duration of freezing response one standard error or more below the mean value, and high responders (HR) were defined as rats with a duration of freezing response one standard error or more above the mean value. We sought to determine the colocalisation of c-Fos and glucocorticoid receptors-immunoreactivity (GR-ir) in HR and LR rats subjected to conditioned fear training, two extinction sessions and re-learning of a conditioned fear. We found that HR animals showed a marked decrease in conditioned fear in the course of two extinction sessions (16 days) in comparison with the control and LR groups. The LR group exhibited higher activity in the cortical M2 and prelimbic areas (c-Fos) and had an increased number of cells co-expressing c-Fos and GR-ir in the M2 and medial orbital cortex after re-learning a contextual fear. HR rats showed increased expression of c-Fos, GR-ir and c-Fos/GR-ir colocalised neurons in the basolateral amygdala and enhanced c-Fos and GR-ir in the dentate gyrus (DG) in comparison with LR animals. Our data indicate that recovery of a context-related behaviour upon re-learning of contextual fear is accompanied in HR animals by a selective increase in c-Fos expression and GRs-ir in the DG area of the hippocampus.     

Spirituality and Mental Health Care in a Religiously Homogeneous Country: Definitions,Opinions, and Practices Among Polish Mental Health Professionals

Journal of Religion and Health - This qualitative study involved a sample of 121 Polish mental health professionals who were interviewed about their definitions of spirituality and their opinions...     

Behavioural characteristics of adolescence in young captive european rabbits,oryctolagus cuniculus

The territoriality of young, wild-type European rabbits, Oryctolagus cuniculus was studied in the laboratory. The experimental procedure was to introduce a strange animal into the pen (“home”) of another rabbit and to record the occurrence of the following forms of behaviour: approach, sniffing, following and chasing, aggression. Altogether 290 rabbits of the following age classes were used - 16 to 30, 31 to 60, 61 to 90, and 91 to 120 days old, and adult females and males The young rabbits were members of 62 separate litters Thirty tests were carried out for each of 21 age-class combinations giving a total of 630 separate tests each lasting 10 minutes. The data collected were subjected to statistical analysis using a multivariate parametric approach to paired comparisons The multiple discriminant analysis was used. The results indicated the preparedness of even the youngest rabbits to defend their own territory and the inhibiting effect of strange territory on all rabbits, except the 61–90-day-old subjects referred to as adolescents. The adolescents displayed aggression to younger as well as older rabbits. Within their own age group even a few days seniority of the introduced individual levelled the intensity of aggression of contestants. This behavioural characteristic was not present in the oldest age class (91–120 days old). The results are discussed in relation to information on the behaviour of free-living rabbits. The innate nature of territoriality of the species is emphasised.     

Neoplatonic tendencies in Russian philosophy

The Absolute is a basic and fundamental issue for philosophy as such. I present different concepts of the Absolute (substantialism, energetism, escapism, methodologism). We can say that contemporary European philosophy “orphaned” the neo-Platonic tradition. Thereafter Russian philosophy developed in an intensive and turbulent as well as relatively uniform fashion, in view of the well-established Neo-Platonist context. This makes Russian philosophy not only part of a lasting universally acknowledged tradition; not only has Russian philosophy continued to develop currents of thought abandoned by modern European philosophiers, but it is also heir to a philosophical tradition of particular quality and value in the universal history of thought.     

Berdjaev: authentic existence or a negative sociology

This paper is a contribution to the constantly increasing Polish interest in Russian thought, especially in Nicolas Berdjaev’s philosophy. The differences between Western philosophy and Russian religious thinking are mentioned in passing. Berdjaev’s existential personalism, which from the sociological point of view can be described as a freedom from the world, is dealt with. The thinker contrasts persons and their activities with the objectified world and emphasizes the existential strangeness of the person in the world of culture bound by different determining factors.