Behavioral training and predisposed coping strategies interact to influence resilience in male Long-Evans rats: implications for depression

Effective coping strategies and adaptive behavioral training build resilience against stress-induced pathology. Both predisposed and acquired coping strategies were investigated in rats to determine their impact on stress responsiveness and emotional resilience. Male Long-Evans rats were assigned to one of the three coping groups: passive, active, or variable copers. Rats were then randomly assigned to either an effort-based reward (EBR) contingent training group or a non-contingent training group. Following EBR training, rats were tested in appetitive and stressful challenge tasks. Physiological responses included changes in fecal corticosterone and dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) metabolites as well as neuropeptide Y (NPY)-immunoreactivity in the hippocampus and amygdala. Regardless of a rat's predisposed coping strategy, EBR rats persisted longer than non-contingent rats in the appetitive problem-solving task. Furthermore, training and coping styles interacted to yield the seemingly most adaptive DHEA/corticosterone ratios in the EBR-trained variable copers. Regardless of training group, variable copers exhibited increased NPY-immunoreactivity in the CA1 region.     

Reading with a filtered fovea: The influence of visual quality at the point of fixation during reading

Reading relies critically on processing text in foveal vision during brief fixational pauses, and high-quality visual input from foveal text is fundamental to theories of reading. However, the quality of visual input from foveal text that is actually functional for reading and the effects of this input on reading performance are unclear. To investigate these issues, a moving, gaze-contingent foveal filtering technique was developed to display areas of text within foveal vision that provided only coarse, medium, or fine scale visual input during each fixational pause during reading. Normal reading times were unaffected when foveal text up to three characters wide at the point of fixation provided any one visual input (coarse, medium, or fine). Wider areas of coarse visual input lengthened reading times, but reading still occurred, and normal reading times were completely unaffected when only medium or fine visual input extended across the entire fovea. Further analyses revealed that each visual input had no effect on the number of fixations made when normal text was read, that adjusting fixation durations helped preserve reading efficiency for different visual inputs, and that each visual input had virtually no effect on normal saccades. These findings indicate that, despite the resolving power of foveal vision and the emphasis placed on high-quality foveal visual input by theories of reading, normal reading functions with similar success using a range of restricted visual inputs from foveal text, even at the point of fixation. Some implications of these findings for theories of reading are discussed.     

Acceptance-Enhanced Behavior Therapy for Trichotillomania in Adolescents

Although several studies have examined the efficacy of Acceptance Enhanced Behavior Therapy (AEBT) for the treatment of trichotillomania (TTM) in adults, data are limited with respect to the treatment of adolescents. Our case series illustrates the use of AEBT for TTM in the treatment of two adolescents. The AEBT protocol (Woods & Twohig, 2008) is a structured treatment manual that was adapted to the individual clients’ needs and clinical progress. Both clients reported clinically significant gains in treatment as determined by at least 2 weeks of abstinence from pulling, and subjective reports of decreased distress and impairment, although one required a booster session due to relapse. AEBT is worth further exploration as a treatment for adolescents with TTM.     

Organizational Citizenship Behavior,Job Attitudes,and the Psychological Contract

Previous research has shown a positive relationship between job satisfaction and various dimensions of organizational citizenship behavior. These studies, however, have focused almost exclusively on civilian sector organizations. While insight gained from these studies is instructive, it remains to be seen if these relationships also exist in the context of military organizations. The relationships between job satisfaction as well as cynicism (as moderated by psychological contracts) with organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) are explored. Data were collected from military officers (n = 151) attending a 10-month professional military education school. As an improvement over other similar studies, control measures were incorporated to address potential confounds associated with self-reported attitudes. Results showed job satisfaction was a strong predictor of OCB, cynicism was negatively related to the altruism dimension of OCB, and the relationship between cynicism and the altruism dimension of organizational citizenship behavior was moderated such that the relationship was stronger when there were high levels of perceived psychological contract support than when there were low levels of support.     

Coping with disturbances

Motion systems must cope with internal and external disturbances affecting the envisioned movement program. In science responses to disturbances are used to characterize system properties. Recently, evidence has been collected that self-stability due to the mechanical response of a system can greatly contribute to safe guarding proper operation of the system and to follow up an envisioned task. Here we review research in our laboratory on the kinematic response of standing subjects to sudden pulls inflicted by a motor, and the kinetics of runners crossing a track with a bump. We find that in both cases the first responses are dominated by system compliance. Thereby damage is avoided and the tasks are secured. Preparation to the observed disturbance does not seem to have the goal to compensate quickly but to enhance the scope of the reaction and its economy.     

Switching binding states

Recently, we introduced two illusions: Feature inheritance and shine-through (Herzog & Koch, 2001). In both cases, a vernier precedes a grating for a short time. In feature inheritance the grating comprises a small number of elements to which properties of the foregoing vernier are bound. The vernier itself remains invisible. In shine-through, a grating comprising a larger number of elements follows the foregoing vernier. Surprisingly, the vernier becomes visible as an entity in its own right and does not bequeath its features to the grating. Two “objects” are perceived each preserving its properties. Therefore, each of the two illusions represents a different state of feature binding. Our results suggest that feature binding is based on an antecedent segmentation process that might be viewed as a binding process itself.