Prefrontal cortex and hippocampus subserve different components of working memory in rats

Both the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) and hippocampus are implicated in working memory tasks in rodents. Specifically, it has been hypothesized that the mPFC is primarily engaged in the temporary storage and processing of information lasting from a subsecond to several seconds, while the hippocampal function becomes more critical as the working memory demand extends into longer temporal scales. Although these structures may be engaged in a temporally separable manner, the extent of their contributions in the "informational content" of working memory remains unclear. To investigate this issue, the mPFC and dorsal hippocampus (dHPC) were temporarily inactivated via targeted infusions of the GABA(A) receptor agonist muscimol in rats prior to their performance on a delayed alternation task (DAT), employing an automated figure-eight maze that required the animals to make alternating arm choice responses after 3-, 30-, and 60-sec delays for water reward. We report that inactivation of either the mPFC or dHPC significantly reduced DAT at all delay intervals tested. However, there were key qualitative differences in the behavioral effects. Specifically, mPFC inactivation selectively impaired working memory (i.e., arm choice accuracy) without altering reference memory (i.e., the maze task rule) and arm choice response latencies. In contrast, dHPC inactivation increased both reference memory errors and arm choice response latencies. Moreover, dHPC, but not mPFC, inactivation increased the incidence of successive working memory errors. These results suggest that while both the mPFC and hippocampus are necessarily involved in DAT, they seem to process different informational components associated with the memory task.     

Filiality,Compassion, and Confucian Democracy

Ren, the Confucian virtue par excellence, is often explained on two different accounts: on the one hand, filiality, a uniquely Confucian social-relational virtue; on the other hand, commiseration innate in human nature. Accordingly there are two competing positions in interpreting ren: one that is utterly positive about the realization of universal love by the graduated extension of filial love, and the other that sees the inevitable tension between the particularism of filial love and the universalism of compassionate love and champions the latter in that filial love appears to create a serious obstacle to modernizing Confucianism. Nevertheless, both interpretations agree that compassion, given its universal and humanist implications, can be unquestionably conducive to the modern project of ‘Confucian democracy’. This paper counters this shared view by arguing that in order to make Confucian democracy culturally meaningful and politically viable, it must accommodate uniquely Confucian relational virtues, particularly filiality.     

Myopic social prediction and the solo comparison effect

Four experiments explored the psychological processes by which people make comparative social judgments. Each participant chose how much money to wager on beating an opponent on either a difficult or a simple trivia quiz. Quiz difficulty did not influence the average person's probability of winning, yet participants bet more on a simple quiz than on a difficult quiz in the first 3 experiments. The results suggest that this effect results from a tendency to attend more closely to a focal actor than to others. Experiment 4 directly manipulated focusing; when participants were led to focus on the opponent instead of themselves, the effect was reversed. The discussion relates the results to other literatures including overly optimistic self-evaluation, false consensus, overconfidence, and social comparison.     

Performance of Mental Health Counselors in Integrated Primary and Behavioral Health Care

Integrated primary and behavioral health care (IPBH) is becoming a preferred mode of service delivery in the United States. Integrated care includes the participation of medical and mental health professionals, such as mental health counselors. The clinical outcomes of these professionals need to be studied to determine their effectiveness in such settings. We examined the performance of 10 mental health counselors on the clinical outcome of 1,747 clients treated in an IPBH center. Analyses using growth curve modeling and pre‐post test design revealed that mental health counselors were effective overall, but they differed in client dropout rates and efficiency in reducing clients' initial symptoms. We used the analyses to rank order counselors based on their effectiveness. Counselors who were the most effective varied in their efficiency but demonstrated the lowest client dropout rates. Implications for future research and counseling practice were discussed.     

Korean dance performance influences on prospective tourist cultural products consumption and behaviour intention

We examined to what extent viewing the Korean dance performance by Beyond The Scene (BTS) at the 2018 Melon Music Awards influenced global viewers’ purchase of Korean cultural products and tourism behaviour intention. We surveyed 230 prospective tourists from the USA (black adult females = 50%; mean age = 34.9, SD = 1.116) in terms of their preference for Korean cultural products and intention to visit Korea. We conducted structural equation modelling to map the paths among cultural product preferences and tourism intentions. We found that viewing the Korean dance performance by BTS not only increased the purchase of Korean cultural products among participants, but also their tourism behaviour intention. We also found that the purchase of Korean cultural products by participants was associated with increased Korea tourism behaviour intention. We conclude from these data that viewing cultural performances by would-be tourists and their purchase preferences are important for promoting tourism through cultural industries.     

中国儿童和青少年肤色色度的测定

采用色差测色计对548名3—17岁的中国儿童和青少年进行了脸颊部肤色色度测定,分别测出X、Y、Z三刺激值及x、y色度坐标。结果表明:中国儿童和青少年的平均肤色色度值为x=0,3828,y=0.3454;反射率为26.02%;主波长为590.2nm;刺激纯度(Pe)为27.4%。女性的反射率略高于男性,反射率有随着年龄增长而逐步下降的趋势。男性的肤色刺激纯度则略高于女性,饱和度随着年龄增长而有逐步增大的趋势。中国儿童和青少年的结果和成年人的比较,反射率较之成年人高3%左右,饱和度则低4%左右,主波长则较长约0.9nm。     

Intraadministration associations: conditional hyperalgesia elicited by morphine onset cues

There is evidence that exteroceptive cues associated with drug administration elicit conditional compensatory responding (e.g., hyperalgesia in organisms with a history of morphine administration). Recently it has become apparent that, within each administration, interoceptive early-drug onset cues (DOCs) may become associated with the later, larger drug effect (intraadministration associations). The present experiments evaluated DOC-elicited conditional hyperalgesia in rats intravenously infused with morphine. The results indicated that DOC-elicited hyperalgesia contributes to tolerance to the analgesic effect of morphine, and such DOC-elicited hyperalgesia is an associative phenomenon, rather than a sensitized response to the opiate. The findings suggest that associative analyses of tolerance should acknowledge the conditional responding elicited by DOCs, and extinction-based addiction treatments should incorporate extinction of DOC-elicited conditional responding.     

Regularities of source recognition: ROC analysis

Source memory has become the focus of a growing number of investigations in a variety of fields. An appropriate model for source memory is, therefore, of increasing importance. A simple 2-dimensional signal-detection model of source recognition is presented. The receiver operating characteristics (ROCs) obtained from 3 experiments are then used to test the model. The data demonstrate 3 regularities: convex ROCs, z-ROCs with linear slopes of 1.00, and slightly concave z-ROCs. Two of these regularities support the model. The 3rd requires a revision of the model. This revised model is fitted to the data. The implications of these regularities for other theories are also discussed.     

Differential functioning of the Beck depression inventory in late-life patients: use of item response theory

The present analyses examined age-related measurement bias in responses to items on the revised Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) in depressed late-life patients versus midlife patients. Item response theory (IRT) models were used to equate the scale and to differentiate true-group differences from bias in measurement in the 2 samples. Baseline BDI data (218 late life and 613 midlife) were used for the present analysis. IRT results indicated that late-life patients tended to report fewer cognitive symptoms, especially at low to average levels of depression. Conversely, they tended to report more somatic symptoms, especially at higher levels of depression. Adjusted cutoff scores in the late-life group are provided, and possible reasons for age-related differences in the performance of the BDI are discussed.