Sistemas neurales de relevancia en el contexto de la psicobiología de la ansiedad: una revisión

Resumen

La ansiedad es un estado emocional central de características muy complejas que, al menos en términos de respuesta, se asemeja en gran medida al miedo. En las ültimas décadas, estudios neurobiológicos y psicobiológicos han identificado numerosas estructuras y circuitos cerebrales estrechamente relacionados con este tipo de respuestas, así como con el estado central característico. Destacan, por su especial relevancia, el sistema límbico (incluyendo el sistema septohipocampal, la amígdala y el hipotálamo posterior) y los sistemas monoaminérgicos ascendentes (principalmente de serotonina y norepinefrina), lugares donde, además, las sustancias ansiolíticas podrían ejercer su efecto terapéutico. El principal objetivo del presente trabajo es revisar la precisa implicación de estos sistemas neurales en la modulación de ese estado emocional definido como ansiedad.     

Do as you’re told! Facets of agreeableness and early adult outcomes for inner-city boys

With data from the middle cohort of the Pittsburgh Youth Study, a prospective longitudinal study of inner-city boys, we examined whether Big Five agreeableness facets could be reliably recovered in this sample, and whether facets predicted educational, occupational, social, and antisocial life outcomes assessed a decade later. Caregivers described their adolescent boys’ personalities using the Common California Q-Set; twelve years later, participants were interviewed and court records were obtained. Factor analyses recovered two facets: compliance and compassion. Compliance predicted more schooling and lower risk of unemployment, teenage fatherhood, and crime; compassion related to longer committed relationships. Findings highlight the value of studying personality at the facet level.     

RICOEUR'S PHILOSOPHY AND ITS IMPLICATIONS FOR PSYCHOANALYSIS

In differentiation of early and mature shame, the phenomenological content of shame changes with the development of a stable self-state. In this hypothesis, early shame refers to a person's dependence upon mirroring himself and in being mirrored by an outer object, while mature shame refers to introspection and self-reflection. From a developmental psychological point of view, the connection between self-development and mirroring is expounded. Mirroring is defined as a psychic dialectic process between the inner psychic reality and the outer reality. Early shame is connected to dyadic mirroring, which refers to attachment and empathy. Mature shame is connected to triadic mirroring, which refers to separation and reflection. Early shame emerges from discrepancies between the infant's expectations of a complementary affective response and the mother's response, and is defined as an early marker of differences in the mother/infant unit. It is argued that early shame in smaller ‘doses’ has a regulating function on self-development by maintaining the psychic dialectic process, while in larger ‘doses’, it has a disturbing effect on the self-development, resulting in pathological shame. In the therapeutic process, early shame appears as shame scenarios illustrated in the text by a clinical vignette.     

Can the eyes reveal a person’s emotions? Biasing role of the mouth expression

In this study we investigated how perception of the eye expression in a face is influenced by the mouth expression, even when only the eyes are directly looked at. The same eyes appeared in a face with either an incongruent smiling, angry, or sad mouth, a congruent mouth, or no mouth. Attention was directed to the eyes by means of cueing and there were no fixations on the mouth. Participants evaluated whether the eyes were happy (or angry, or sad) or not. Results indicated that the smile biased the evaluation of the eyes towards happiness to a greater extent than an angry or a sad mouth did towards anger or sadness. The smiling mouth was also more visually salient than the angry and the sad mouths. We conclude that the role of the eyes as a “window” to a person’s emotional and motivational state is constrained and distorted by the configural projection of an expressive mouth, and that this effect is enhanced by the high visual saliency of the smile.     

Facilitation and interference of behavioral responses by task-irrelevant affect-laden stimuli

Emotional interference on behavior is commonly observed when task-irrelevant negative stimuli appear before behavioral targets. One explanation postulates that affect-laden stimuli readily capture attention, interfering with the processing of the upcoming target. Emotional stimuli might also preactivate motor programs incompatible with the demanded response. Using a cued go/no-go procedure we showed that task-irrelevant unpleasant stimuli cause interference or facilitation depending on their onset asynchrony relative to the target. We observed interference with short (200 ms) stimulus-target asynchronies and facilitation for longer ones (600 ms), both for key press (Experiment 1) and key release (Experiment 2) responses. The interference effect is compatible with an attentional explanation, but the behavioral facilitation is hard to accommodate within either attentional or motor accounts. This interference-facilitation pattern can be explained assuming that once the attentional effect subsides, emotional processing may enhance the perceptual processing of the stimuli, or lower the decision threshold, thereby facilitating the response selection process.     

The brunhilde fantasy freud's countertransference in the analysis of elma

Abstract

The authors start from the hypothesis that there existed a “blind-spot” in Freud's countertransference in his analysis of Elma, an ex-patient of Sandor Ferenczi. In their search for support for this idea, they review the correspondence between Freud and Ferenczi contemporary to Elma's treatment in addition to works by Freud on theory and technique. They believe to have found therein several facts which support the above idea: for instance, the diagnosis of “dementia praecox” that Freud formulated in his first interview with the patient; and some of the vicissitudes of the treatment, in particular, the circumstances which determined its termination. The Brunhilde fantasy, which Freud attributes to Elma in a letter to Ferenczi, enables them to penetrate further the possible relationship between this “blind-spot” and details of Freud's life and childhood as revealed in his self-analysis.     

Social cognitions measured in 4 to 6 year olds are predictive of objectively measured physical activity

Objective: This study tested whether social cognitions from the reasoned action approach (RAA) can be reliably measured in a sample of primary school children (aged 4–6 years) and whether these RAA measures are predictive of physical activity.

Design: Longitudinal observational study with repeated measures over six months.

Measures: RAA variables were measured using a novel choice paradigm between physically active and sedentary pastimes. Relative reinforcing value, covariates (sex, age, deprivation and BMI) and physical activity by accelerometry (primary outcome) were also measured.

Results: RAA cognitions could be measured with acceptable retest reliability and discriminant validity and social norms regarding parents and teachers (but not friends) were correlated with physical activity and change in physical activity when relative reinforcing value and other covariates were controlled for.

Conclusions: RAA cognitions can be reliably measured in primary school children aged 4–6 and RRA measures appear useful in understanding children’s activity choices and may potentially inform future interventions.     

Nanoscale inclusions in the phonon glass thermoelectric material Zn4Sb3

We have investigated the thermoelectric material Zn₄Sb₃ using transmission electron microscopy (TEM). Nanoscale inclusions with a diameter of about 10 nm were observed, constituting on the order of 1% by volume of the material. Studies using energy filtered imaging, electron diffraction, and high-angle annular dark-field STEM indicate that the inclusions consist of Zn. These inclusions are expected to scatter the medium and long-wavelength phonons effectively, thus contributing to phonon glass behavior which results in the exceptionally low thermal conductivity for this thermoelectric material.     

Predictors of quality of life enjoyment and satisfaction in individuals living with HIV and AIDS in a resource-constrained setting in South Africa

The burden of HIV disease is concentrated in sub-Saharan Africa, particularly in South Africa (SA). Whilst there have been many studies conducted on the biomedical and socio-psychological aspects of HIV and AIDS, insufficient attention has been paid to the quality of life of those infected with the virus. The primary purpose of the study was to determine the predictors of quality of life enjoyment and satisfaction (Q-LES) among individuals infected with HIV. A battery of questionnaires, which included the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) and the Quality of Life Enjoyment and Satisfaction Questionnaire (Q-LES-Q), were administered to 121 participants. Data was analysed using SPSS. Of the total sample (n = 121), 74% were females. The study found that a large proportion (49.5%) of the sample within the age group 25–49 years old experienced psychological distress. Those who were not on antiretroviral treatment (ART) were significantly affected (66%). Psychological distress was significantly prevalent among HIV positive individuals and also the strongest predictor of Q-LES among these individuals.