Children of Prenatally Depressed Mothers: Externalizing and Internalizing Symptoms are Accompanied by Reductions in Specific Social-Emotional Competencies

Studies have shown that child development is negatively affected by prenatal depression. A dysregulated hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis in the pregnant woman, passed to the fetus, is one discussed key mechanism. Studies, investigating primary-school age children, have found effects on antisocial behavior. Effects on internalizing symptoms were not found, but the analysis did not distinguish between anxiety and depression symptoms. Additionally, until now, no objective test data operationalizing social-emotional competencies have been included. The present study examined: 1.Whether the effects on child externalizing symptoms could be replicated; 2. If there are specific effects on child internalizing symptoms, separated for anxiety and depression; and 3. Are child clinical symptoms reflected in reductions in social-emotional competencies. A sample of 61 prenatally depressed and 143 prenatally not-depressed women and their 6–9 year old children were compared, controlling for key confounders in both the perinatal period and in middle childhood. Children of prenatally depressed mothers had more antisocial behavior and depression symptoms reported by their mothers. The prediction of antisocial behavior scores tended to be more significant for boys than for girls. Child anxiety symptoms were primarily explained by current maternal depressive symptoms. Children of prenatally depressed mothers also showed a reduction in social-emotional competencies, specifically regarding the ability to interpret complex social situations. This study showed that, even in a non-clinical sample, there are distinct effects of prenatal depression on child externalizing and internalizing symptoms which are accompanied by reductions in specific social-emotional competencies. These results emphasize that treatment for depressed pregnant women and/or early support for affected families is worthwhile. Additional work is required to identify the underlying biological mechanisms.     

Domestic dogs comprehend human communication with iconic signs

A key skill in early human development is the ability to comprehend communicative intentions as expressed in both nonlinguistic gestures and language. In the current studies, we confronted domestic dogs (some of whom knew many human ‘words’) with a task in which they had to infer the intended referent of a human's communicative act via iconic signs – specifically, replicas and photographs. Both trained and untrained dogs successfully used iconic replicas to fetch the desired item, with many doing so from the first trial. Dogs’ ability to use photographs in this same situation was less consistent. Because simple matching to sample in experimental contexts typically takes hundreds of trials (and because similarity between iconic sign and target item did not predict success), we propose that dogs’ skillful performance in the current task reflects important aspects of the comprehension of human communicative intentions.     

Hat die Seele in der Gegenwart noch einen Platz?

„Die Zeit“ zitierte 2008 einen Ausspruch des Neurowissenschaftlers Gerhard Roth: „... die meisten meiner neurowissenschaftlichen Kollegen (w?ren) schockiert, wenn ich sie fragte, ob man in der Hirnforschung noch etwas mit dem Begriff der Seele anfangen k?nne oder wo im Gehirn die Seele sitze.“ Gerhard Roth fragt dennoch in seiner Abhandlung: „Hat die Seele in der Hirnforschung noch einen Platz?“ und antwortet: „Das Seelische ist ein physikalischer Zustand eigener Art, d. h. ein Zustand, der den Naturgesetzen nicht widerspricht und aufs Engste mit bekannten physikalischen (chemischen, physiologischen) Zust?nden interagiert, ohne dass seine spezifischen Gesetze bereits hinreichend bekannt sein müssen.“ Diese Aussage ist besonders deshalb so bemerkenswert, da Gerhard Roth auch zu den Proponenten des „Manifestes der Neurowissenschaftler“ z?hlte, dessen Aussagen in einem Neurodeterminismus gipfelten. Zu diesem Thema wurde auch am 26. J?nner 2008 am Symposium „Psychiatrie und Philosophie: Homo Neurobiologicus? – Menschenbilder der modernen Psychiatrie“ in München diskutiert.     

Ambulante Psychotherapie bei Kindern und Jugendlichen

This paper presents the results of a study of the state of outpatient psychotherapy of children and juveniles in Germany after the PTG came into force. A total of 180 psychotherapists were questioned on certain issues. One result was that patients have to wait 4.5 months for psychotherapy and that every second patient asking for a diagnostic interview and possible treatment was refused.Of those who were given a diagnostic interview 43% were not taken into treatment, although disturbances were diagnosed such as addiction, bodily disabilities with psychic complications, enuresis/encopresis, anorexia nervosa, psychosomatic illnesses, developmental arrests which would normally demand psychotherapeutic treatment. Furthermore only 25% of those children and juveniles who Löcherbach et al. (2000, S.59 f.) considered needing and wanting psychotherapeutic treatment were actually in a G IV psychotherapy.Apart from this the possibility of getting psychotherapy as well as the kind of psychotherapy proved to be dependent on the kind of medical insurance. Differing payments by the insurance companies caused longer waiting times for patients and determined the choice of psychotherapy by the psychotherapists.     

Wissenschaftliche Prüfung und wissenschaftliche Anerkennung psychotherapeutischer Verfahren

The authors focus on the following questions: firstly, what anthropological preconceptions lie behind the nomological scientific viewpoints adopted by the scientific advisory board “psychotherapy”, secondly, to what extend a general efficacy of psychotherapy can be verified using the criteria it proposes. The authors demonstrate that in the proposed testing procedure humans are conceptualized as beings without consciousness and subjectivity. Furthermore, nomologically designed investigations cannot verify a general efficacy of new forms of psychotherapy, nor could they verify the general efficacy of those psychotherapeutic methods already approved by the insurance companies.     

Ein Plädoyer für die Menschenwürde

Dass wir heute einen so dringenden Ethikbedarf in der Medizin haben, hat – nach Elmar Waibl, Professor für Philosophie in Innsbruck – eine sonderbare, ja eine paradoxe Erkl?rung: Der Grund ist nicht ein Moralversagen der Medizin, sondern eine Moralüberforderung als Resultat des gro?en Erfolges der Heilkunst. überarbeitete Fassung eines am 20.9.2008 in Wien anl?sslich der 21. Jahrestagung der ?sterreichischen Alzheimer Gesellschaft gehaltenen Vortrages     

Chimpanzees really know what others can see in a competitive situation

Chimpanzee’s perspective-taking abilities are currently disputed. Here we show that in some food competition contexts, subordinate chimpanzees do take the visual perspective of dominant individuals, preferentially targeting a hidden piece of the food that the dominant cannot see over a piece that is visible to both individuals. However, the space where the animals compete is critical in determining whether subjects demonstrate this skill. We suggest that competition intensity, as mediated by these spatial factors, may play an important role in determining the strategy chimpanzees utilize in competitive contexts. Since some strategies may not require visual perspective taking in order to be successful, chimpanzees may not always demonstrate this skill. Differences in spatial arrangement may therefore account for the conflicting results of past studies.     

Verbesserung psychischer Allgemeinfunktionen durch Psychotherapie

Zusammenfassung  Im Rahmen einer bundesweiten Fragebogenuntersuchung, die eine systematische Replikation der 1994 in den USA durchgeführten Consumer-Reports-Study für Deutschland darstellte, wurden mit Hilfe des ins Deutsche übersetzten Originalfragebogens Psychotherapiepatienten, u. a. nach einer Verbesserung der Zielsymptomatik sowie nach Veränderungen unspezifischer psychischer Allgemeinfunktionen, wie Beziehungsfähigkeit, Arbeitsfähigkeit, Fähigkeit zur Stressbewältigung, körperliches Wohlbefinden, Lebensfreude, persönliche Entwicklung, Verständnis für andere, Selbstwertgefühl und Stimmungslage, durch die Behandlung befragt. Bei der Auswertung der Antworten zeigte sich, dass eine psychotherapeutische Behandlung nicht nur zu einer deutlichen Symptombesserung, sondern auch zu einer Besserung dieser unspezifischen psychischen Allgemeinfunktionen führt. Und je länger die Behandlung erfolgt war, desto größer fielen die Besserungsraten aus. Der Vergleich der unterschiedlichen psychotherapeutischen Verfahren offenbarte marginale Unterschiede zwischen Psychoanalyse, tiefenpsychologisch-fundierter Psychotherapie und Verhaltenstherapie.

The dynamics of operations in visual memory: a review and new evidence for oscillatory priming

Evidence from neurophysiological studies indicates that the synchronization of distributed neuronal assemblies in the gamma frequency range is responsible for the integration of discrete stimulus components into coherent wholes (e.g., see Singer, 1999 for review). Psychophysical support for this hypothesis has been reported in experiments that demonstrate that the presentation of a synchronous-premask frame within a 40-Hz flickering premask matrix primes the subsequent detection of a target Kanizsa-type square by generation of a 40-Hz prime (Elliott & Müller, 1998). Psychopharmacological and electrophysiological evidence suggests that this priming mechanism is related to activity in interneuronal networks and relies on the combined function of prefrontal and posterior circuits. In addition, psychophysical experiments demonstrate the existence of a prime-specific visual short-term memory that oscillates at 40 Hz and remains functional for up to 300 ms post-stimulus offset. These results are consistent with a view of the prime as a form of oscillatory mechanism, related to the persistence of visual information (Coltheart, 1980) and in the capacity guided by (prefrontal) top-down influences upon visual-cortical function.