<Emphasis Type="Italic">Jeong-han</Emphasis> as a Korean Culture-Bound Narcissism: Dealing with <Emphasis Type="Italic">Jeong-han</Emphasis> Through <Emphasis Type="Italic">Jeong</Emphasis>-Dynamics

This article explores a Korean culture-bound emotion called jeong-han, which shares similarities with narcissism and depression in terms of causes, formation processes, emotions, cognitions, and neurotic sufferings. This article has three main goals: 1) to report and describe the presence and experience of jeong-han among contemporary Koreans; 2) to compare jeong-han with narcissism and depression; and 3) to suggest an effective way of dealing with jeong-han through jeong-dynamics. In order to effectively help people with jeong-han both in counseling and ministry settings, providing jeong and facilitating jeong-dynamics in a small group or community setting can be helpful.     

Operant conditioning of an in vitro CNS-pneumostome preparation of Lymnaea

Operant conditioning of aerial respiratory behaviour and its consolidation into long-term memory in Lymnaea has been previously studied in both intact, freely moving snails and in in vitro preparations made from previously trained snails. Here, we show in previously untrained semi-intact in vitro Lymnaea preparations that aerial respiratory behaviour can also be operantly conditioned. Neither yoked control nor 'run-down' control procedures in these in vitro preparations result in an alteration of aerial respiratory behaviour. Memory in the operantly trained semi-intact preparations persists for at least 1h after training. Intracellular recordings made from RPeD1, one of the 3-CPG neurons and the neuron that initiates CPG activity; show that there are specific changes in central excitatory input to this neuron concurrent with learning and its consolidation into memory. In addition following the acquisition of learning and its consolidation into memory the ability of RPeD1 and VI/J neurons when depolarized to cause a pneumostome opening is significantly decreased. Thus, previously untrained in vitro semi-intact preparations can be used to study changes in neuronal activity in a neuron known to be both necessary for the behaviour and for memory formation.     

Use of nature in a multi-family therapy for Chinese families of adolescents with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder: A photo-elicitation study

This article reports the therapeutic resources in the natural outdoors that were conducive to the therapeutic process in a multi-family therapy (MFT) for enhancing the self-efficacy and collective family efficacy of Chinese families of adolescents with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in Hong Kong. Photo-elicited interviews with adolescents with ADHD and parent focus groups were employed to explore the participatory experiences of the families. A total of thirteen Chinese families of adolescents (aged 11–15 years) with ADHD participated in this study (fourteen adolescents with ADHD, eight fathers and ten mothers). The present study explored the potential therapeutic resources in the natural outdoors, namely a change in the group environment, spaciousness and darkness. The use of the natural outdoors in MFT proved to be a strategy useful for creating a naturalistic group setting within which family participants can more easily enact changes.     

华人人际关系的概念化——针对中国香港大学生的实证研究

以杨中芳所构建的华人人际关系概念化理论模型为蓝本,并用以往的实证研究方法为基础,揭示了当代华人对人际关系如何进行概念化及其潜在的认知维度。杨氏模型认为华人人际关系主要由既定成分、情感成分和工具成分组成。该研究以中国香港大学生为被试进行调查,首先采用访谈的形式,分家族、学校及日常生活情境建立人际关系清单。然后采用多维量法（Multi-dimensional scaling）处理被试对关系进行分类的数据。结果发现,在不同的生活情境中,被试均依据情感程度对关系进行分类。在等级差异明显的家族和学校情境中,被试依据辈份和等级差异的突显性进行区分;而在等级差异小的生活情境中,则采用功利程度为标准。本文对被试在不同情境中所采用的不同维度进行了讨论,并提出华人人际关系的义务具有工具性质的实证结果     

Can Executive Functions Explain the Relationship Between Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder and Social Adjustment?

This study examined the ability of executive functions (EF) to account for the relationship between Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) status and social adjustment as indexed by parent and teacher report and by performance on a standardized observational “chat room” task. Children with the Combined subtype (ADHD-C; n = 23), the Primarily Inattentive Subtype (ADHD-I; n = 33), and non-ADHD controls (n = 36) participated. EF did not mediate the relationship between ADHD status and parent or teacher report of social adjustment. EF accounted for about 40–50% of the variance between ADHD status and the ability of children to detect subtle verbal cues as well as memory for the conversation in the chat room task, but did not mediate the relationship between ADHD and the number of prosocial, hostile, or on-topic statements that were made. Results are consistent with other recent reports, and suggest that the role of EF deficits in the production of social skill deficits in ADHD may not be as prominent as is typically assumed. The implications for the development of intervention programs designed to target core cognitive etiologic factors are discussed.     

Molecular and behavioral changes associated with adult hippocampus-specific SynGAP1 knockout

The synaptic Ras/Rap-GTPase-activating protein (SynGAP1) plays a unique role in regulating specific downstream intracellular events in response to N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor (NMDAR) activation. Constitutive heterozygous loss of SynGAP1 disrupts NMDAR-mediated physiological and behavioral processes, but the disruptions might be of developmental origin. Therefore, the precise role of SynGAP1 in the adult brain, including its relative functional significance within specific brain regions, remains unexplored. The present study constitutes the first attempt in achieving adult hippocampal-specific SynGAP1 knockout using the Cre/loxP approach. Here, we report that this manipulation led to a significant numerical increase in both small and large GluA1 and NR1 immunoreactive clusters, many of which were non-opposed to presynaptic terminals. In parallel, the observed marked decline in the amplitude of spontaneous excitatory currents (sEPSCs) and inter-event intervals supported the impression that SynGAP1 loss might facilitate the accumulation of extrasynaptic glutamatergic receptors. In addition, SynGAP1-mediated signaling appears to be critical for the proper integration and survival of newborn neurons. The manipulation impaired reversal learning in the probe test of the water maze and induced a delay-dependent impairment in spatial recognition memory. It did not significantly affect anxiety or reference memory acquisition but induced a substantial elevation in spontaneous locomotor activity in the open field test. Thus, the present study demonstrates the functional significance of SynGAP1 signaling in the adult brain by capturing several changes that are dependent on NMDAR and hippocampal integrity.     

Environmental enrichment eliminates the anxiety phenotypes in a triple transgenic mouse model of Alzheimer’s disease

Although the impacts of environmental enrichment (EE) in several genetic models of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) have been documented, the focus has remained predominantly on cognition. Few have investigated the expression of emotional phenotypes that mimic the notable affective features in AD. Here, we studied the interaction between EE and the coexpression of three genetic risk factors (mutations) for AD. In a longitudinal design, 3×Tg-AD mutants and wild type controls were compared at 6–7 months and subsequently at 12–13 months of age. Under standard housing, phenotypes of heightened anxiety levels were identified in the 3×Tg-AD mice in the elevated plus maze and open-field tests. Such trait differences between genotypes were substantially diminished under EE housing, which was attributable to the anxiolytic impact of EE on the mutant mice as much as the anxiogenic impact of EE on the wild type mice. In contrast, the phenotypes in learned fear were not significantly modified by EE in the tests of Pavlovian freezing and conditioned active avoidance conducted at either age. Rearing under EE thus has uncovered a novel distinction between innate and acquired expressions of fear response in the 3×Tg-AD mouse model that might be relevant to the mental health management of AD.     

Positive Emotion Differentiation: A Functional Approach

While positive emotion can be conceptualized broadly as a response to the potential for reward, the environment offers different kinds of rewards, and these are best approached in somewhat different ways. A functional approach to positive emotion differentiation distinguishes among several different types of rewards with strong implications for adaptive fitness and posits the existence of “discrete” positive emotions that promote an adaptive response to each reward. A taxonomy of eight positive emotions, dubbed the “PANACEAS” taxonomy based on an acronym of the first letter of each of the eight constructs, is presented as an example of this approach. Positive emotion constructs defined through functional analyses are useful for guiding empirical research, especially for identifying prototypical eliciting stimuli, and generating hypotheses about the implications of different positive emotions for a variety of outcomes. Research findings are reviewed that support the importance of positive emotion differentiation in understanding the effects of positive emotions on cognition, physiology, and behavior. Advantages of the functional approach are discussed, as well as implications of the approach for evaluating major theories of the structure of emotion.