Risky Decision Making in Substance Dependent Adolescents with a Disruptive Behavior Disorder

Of all psychiatric disorders, the disruptive behavior disorders (DBDs) are the most likely to predispose to substance dependence (SD). One possible underlying mechanism for this increased vulnerability is risky decision making. The aim of this study was to examine decision making in DBD adolescents with and without SD. Twenty-five DBD adolescents (19 males) with SD (DBD+SD), 28 DBD adolescents (23 males) without SD (DBD-SD) and 99 healthy controls (72 males) were included in the study. DBD adolescents with co-morbid attention deficit/ hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) were excluded. Risky decision making was investigated by assessing the number of disadvantageous choices in the Iowa gambling task. DBD+SD made significantly more risky choices than healthy controls and DBD-SD. Healthy controls and DBD-SD did not differ on risky decision making. These results suggest that risky decision making is a vulnerability factor for the development of SD in a subgroup of adolescents with DBD without ADHD.     

Visible homonyms are ambiguous, subliminal homonyms are not: a close look at priming

Homonyms, i.e. ambiguous words like ‘score’, have different meanings in different contexts. Previous research indicates that all potential meanings of a homonym are first accessed in parallel before one of the meanings is selected in a competitive race. If these processes are automatic, these processes of selection should even be observed when homonyms are shown subliminally. This study measured the time course of subliminal and supraliminal priming by homonyms with a frequent (dominant) and a rare (subordinate) meaning in a neutral context, using a lexical decision task. In the subliminal condition, priming across prime-target asynchronies ranging from 100 ms to 1.5 s indicated that the dominant meaning of homonyms was facilitated and the subordinate meaning was inhibited. This indicates that selection of meaning was much faster with subliminal presentation than with supraliminal presentation. Awareness of a prime might decelerate an otherwise rapid selection process.     

Impact of instruction on the acquisition of sequence knowledge in a sensorimotor task

We examined whether and to what extent a sequence of finger movements can be learned and transferred to the untrained hand according to the muscle homology depending on the relative salience of response locations and effectors. Participants performed a discrete sequence production task, in which they were asked to learn a sequence of either key locations or of finger movements. Each training block was followed by a transfer block in which responding with the opposite hand was required. Before the last transfer block participants received an unexpected instruction. They had to reproduce the sequence of key locations instead of the sequence of finger movements and conversely, the sequence of finger movements instead of the sequence of key locations. The results do not support the existence of a sequence representation for the order of finger movements irrespective of the hand used.     

Harming high performers: a social comparison perspective on interpersonal harming in work teams

This study developed a multilevel model of the interpersonal harming behavior associated with social comparison processes in work teams. We tested this model using temporally lagged data from a sample of student teams (Study 1) and cross-sectional data from a sample of work teams in a telecommunication services company (Study 2). In both studies, social relations analyses revealed that in teams with less cooperative goals, comparison to a higher performing team member was positively associated with interpersonal harming behavior, but only when expectations of future performance similarity to that member were low. The interactive relationship of social comparison and expected future performance similarity with interpersonal harming was buffered, however, in teams with more cooperative goals.     

A hierarchical latent stochastic differential equation model for affective dynamics

In this article a continuous-time stochastic model (the Ornstein-Uhlenbeck process) is presented to model the perpetually altering states of the core affect, which is a 2-dimensional concept underlying all our affective experiences. The process model that we propose can account for the temporal changes in core affect on the latent level. The key parameters of the model are the average position (also called home base), the variances and covariances of the process, and the regulatory mechanisms that keep the process in the vicinity of the average position. To account for individual differences, the model is extended hierarchically. A particularly novel contribution is that in principle all parameters of the stochastic process (not only the mean but also its variance and the regulatory parameters) are allowed to differ between individuals. In this way, the aim is to understand the affective dynamics of single individuals and at the same time investigate how these individuals differ from one another. The final model is a continuous-time state-space model for repeated measurement data taken at possibly irregular time points. Both time-invariant and time-varying covariates can be included to investigate sources of individual differences. As an illustration, the model is applied to a diary study measuring core affect repeatedly for several individuals (thereby generating intensive longitudinal data).     

Ethnic Minorities in the Mass Media: How Migrants Perceive Their Representation in Swiss Public Television

Communication research highlights deficiencies in the media’s representation of migrants. The study at hand analyzes these deficiencies from the perspective of the migrants concerned: How do they perceive their representation in the media, especially on television? And how do they assess the perceived situation with regard to immigrant integration? This topic has been examined in a qualitative pilot study based on six group discussions amongst migrants and Swiss citizens with an immigration background in the German-, French-, and Italian-speaking parts of Switzerland. The results show a high discrepancy between the desire for more presence and participation on the one hand, and the wish to stand in the spotlight less often, on the other hand.     

The scope and precision of specific temporal expectancy: evidence from a variable foreperiod paradigm

Recent evidence from choice response time experiments with variable foreperiods (FPs) has shown that temporal expectancy can be event specific. When a certain target appears particularly frequent after one certain FP, participants tend to expect that target after that FP. This typically results in best performance for that target when it appears after that FP. In the present study, we investigated how temporally precise event-specific temporal expectancy is, and in which range of FPs it can be found. Two target stimuli were asymmetrically distributed over two "peak-FPs" and were equally distributed over 13 additional FPs. Event-specific expectancies were found for peak-FP pairs of 500/1,100?ms and 300/500?ms. Furthermore, the event expectancies generalized to a wide range of nonpeak FPs surrounding the peak FPs.     

Bypassing shame and conversion disorder

We report a case of conversion disorder (partial aphonia) that was successfully treated with speech therapy. During the one year duration of this illness, the patient regained transiently (minutes) her normal speech on a few occasions, independently of concomitant pharmacological interventions. One year after recovery she developed aphonia for the second time, which responded again to speech therapy, although the response rate was slower. Several mechanisms of conversion disorder are reviewed as specifically applied to this case. The possible role of pertinent shame mechanisms in the conversion pathology is discussed.     

Human frontal midline theta and its synchronization to gamma during a verbal delayed match to sample task

The involvement of oscillatory activity, especially at theta and gamma frequency, in human working memory has been reported frequently. A salient pattern during working memory is electroencephalographic frontal midline theta activity which has been suggested to reflect monitoring functions in order to deal with a task. In general, theta activity has been credited with integrative functions of distributed activity. In the present study, we focused on electroencephalographic power analyses and cross-frequency phase synchronization in order to test whether frontal midline theta activity is linked to more locally generated gamma oscillations during the performance of a verbal delayed match to sample task. The task consisted of two different conditions where subjects either had to reorganize three consonant letters in alphabetical order (manipulation condition) or where they merely had to retain the three consonant letters (retention condition). Results revealed higher frontal midline theta activity for the manipulation of maintained stimulus material compared to pure retention of stimulus material. Interestingly, power differences between conditions were most pronounced during the second half of the delay period. Cross-frequency phase synchronization between frontal midline theta activity and distributed gamma activity, on the other hand, was predominant during the first half of the delay period and was stronger for manipulation compared to retention. We suggest that coupling of frontal midline theta to gamma activity reflects monitoring functions on the temporal segregation of memory items, whereas higher frontal midline theta power in the second half of the delay period might be associated with rehearsal processes. Rehearsal processes in the manipulation condition are likely more pronounced, because rehearsal of a new letter string in a limited time window requires higher mental effort compared to pure retention where rehearsal processes may already start at the beginning of the delay period.     

Psychiatrische Versorgung im europäischen Strafvollzug

Objective and methods:

We analysed administrative national data regarding mental health care and psychiatric prevalence in the penitentiary systems of 24 European countries. Data was provided by national experts via questionnaire.

Results:

There is a mixed approach for prison mental health care in European countries that either rely on separated psychiatric prison services or collaborate with specialized forensic or general mental health care services. Care provision in general is assessed as deficient. At all decisive points of detention, adequate screening or diagnostic routines are lacking. As a consequence, nothing is known about the prevalence of mental disorders in European prisons. At the moment, only a very limited number of secondary indicators are available for describing the problem.

Conclusion:

There is an urgent need for improving the reporting routines on mental disorders in prison inmates as a first step for improving substantially the mental health care provision for prisoners in European countries.