The Influence of the BDNF Val66Met Polymorphism on Mechanisms of Semantic Priming: Analyses with Drift-Diffusion Models of Masked and Unmasked Priming

Automatic and strategic processes in semantic priming can be investigated with masked and unmasked priming tasks. Unmasked priming is thought to enable strategic processes due to the conscious processing of primes, while masked priming exclusively depends on automatic processes due to the invisibility of the prime. Besides task properties, interindividual differences may alter priming effects. In a recent study, masked and unmasked priming based on mean response time (RT) and error rate (ER) differed as a function of the BDNF Val66Met polymorphism (Sanwald et al., 2020). The BDNF Val66Met polymorphism is related to the integrity of several cognitive executive functions and might thus influence the magnitude of priming. In the present study, we reanalyzed this data with drift-diffusion models. Drift-diffusion models conjointly analyze single trial RT and ER data and serve as a framework to elucidate cognitive processes underlying priming. Masked and unmasked priming effects were observed for the drift rates ν, presumably reflecting semantic preactivation. Priming effects on nondecision time t0 were especially pronounced in unmasked priming, suggesting additional conscious processes to be involved in the t0 modulation. Priming effects on the decision thresholds a may reflect a speed-accuracy tradeoff. Considering the BDNF Val66Met polymorphism, we found lowered drift rates and decision thresholds for Met allele carriers, possibly reflecting a superficial processing style in Met allele carriers. The present study shows that differences in cognitive tasks between genetic groups can be elucidated using drift-diffusion modeling.     

Alkoholabhängigkeit in der psychiatrischen Klinik

In Germany 2.4?% of the population suffer from alcohol dependency and 3.8?% of adults from alcohol abuse. Despite an extensive number of options available for addiction therapy only a minority of affected persons receive addiction-specific therapy. This results in a chronification of the disease and a reduction of approximately 15 years in life expectancy. Background knowledge of the foundations of alcohol addiction leads to a new understanding of the processual course of the disease as well as to new therapy interventions. Individualized treatment includes a combination of outpatient, partial inpatient or inpatient therapeutic measures and range from medical advice for reduction of alcohol consumption, to qualified withdrawal treatment up to pharmacological relapse prophylaxis and long-term weaning treatment. Under current therapeutic conditions abstinence quotas of 50-70?% over 1 year can be achieved. Treating physicians must have sufficient diagnostic certainty and furthermore must be in command of motivating discourse techniques, knowledge on the therapeutic options of outpatient and inpatient withdrawal treatment, pharmaceutical relapse prophylaxis and mediation in rehabilitation measures.     

Training Parents in Forgiving and Reconciling

Teaching parents how to forgive transgressions of parenting partners may reduce negative emotions, increase positive emotions, and, thus, decrease parenting stress. We implemented a waiting-list design to investigate the efficacy of a 9-hour psychoeducational group intervention, Forgiveness and Reconciliation through Experiencing Empathy (FREE), presented to 27 parents and caregivers of children 0–9 years old. Participants receiving FREE exhibited increased forgiveness of a target offense by the parenting partner and increased forgiveness of all parenting offenses. This study offers initial evidence that an intervention to promote forgiveness and reconciliation in parents could be beneficial and might improve parenting relations.     

Managing Retirement—Rethinking Links between Individual and Organization

Retirement represents an important life event in Western countries marking the transition from one life stage to another and the movement from being within to being outside the labour force. For employees, retirement might represent the border between organizational life and life outside the workplace. This border, though commonly thought of as fixed and distinct, is becoming more and more blurred. Organizations and organizational psychology have thus far largely ignored retirement as a relevant topic. However, the changing nature of retirement, as a consequence of demographic changes and developments in the labour market, means that we need to rethink our assumptions about retirement and to attempt to specify some of the missing links between individual and organizational perspectives on retirement. We will argue that retirement is not only an important event in the life of working individuals but has become an important issue for management. This article will discuss some individual retirement processes and possible impacts of retirement on the organization focusing, in particular, on the use of early retirement schemes as a management tool replacing traditional redundancies. It is suggested that these early retirement schemes neglect some basic aspects of individual and organizational retirement processes and are likely therefore in some cases to be less than effective. By describing a different model for managing retirement we aim to suggest how a better balance between individual and organizational needs can be achieved.     

Controlling the unconscious: attentional task sets modulate subliminal semantic and visuomotor processes differentially

Are unconscious processes susceptible to attentional influences? In two subliminal priming experiments, we investigated whether task sets differentially modulate the sensitivity of unconscious processing pathways. We developed a novel procedure for masked semantic priming of words (Experiment 1) and masked visuomotor priming of geometrical shapes (Experiment 2). Before presentation of the masked prime, participants performed an induction task in which they attended to either semantic or perceptual object features designed to activate a semantic or perceptual task set, respectively. Behavioral and electrophysiological effects showed that the induction tasks differentially modulated subliminal priming: Semantic priming, which involves access to conceptual meaning, was found after the semantic induction task but not after the perceptual induction task. Visuomotor priming was observed after the perceptual induction task but not after the semantic induction task. These results demonstrate that unconscious cognition is influenced by attentional control. Unconscious processes in perceptual and semantic processing streams are coordinated congruently with higher-level action goals.     

Dissociating the representation of action- and sound-related concepts in middle temporal cortex

Modality-specific models of conceptual memory propose close links between concepts and the sensory-motor systems. Neuroimaging studies found, in different subject groups, that action-related and sound-related concepts activated different parts of posterior middle temporal gyrus (pMTG), suggesting a modality-specific representation of conceptual features. However, as these different parts of pMTG are close to each other, it is possible that the observed anatomical difference is merely related to interindividual variability. In the present functional magnetic resonance imaging study, we now investigated within the same participant group a possible conceptual feature-specific organization in pMTG. Participants performed lexical decisions on sound-related (e.g., telephone) and action-related (hammer) words. Sound words elicited higher activity in anterior pMTG adjacent to auditory association cortex, but action-related words did so in posterior pMTG close to motion sensitive areas. These results confirm distinct conceptual representations of sound and action in pMTG, just adjacent to the respective modality-specific cortices.     

Attentional sensitization of unconscious visual processing: Top-down influences on masked priming

Classical theories of automaticity assume that automatic processes elicited by unconscious stimuli are autonomous and independent of higher-level cognitive influences. In contrast to these classical conceptions, we argue that automatic processing depends on attentional amplification of task-congruent processing pathways and propose an attentional sensitization model of unconscious visual processing: According to this model, unconscious visual processing is automatic in the sense that it is initiated without deliberate intention. However, unconscious visual processing is susceptible to attentional top-down control and is only elicited if the cognitive system is configured accordingly. In this article, we describe our attentional sensitization model and review recent evidence demonstrating attentional influences on subliminal priming, a prototypical example of an automatic process. We show that subliminal priming (a) depends on attentional resources, (b) is susceptible to stimulus expectations, (c) is influenced by action intentions, and (d) is modulated by task sets. These data suggest that attention enhances or attenuates unconscious visual processes in congruency with attentional task representations similar to conscious perception. We argue that seemingly paradoxical, hitherto unexplained findings regarding the automaticity of the underlying processes in many cognitive domains can be easily accommodated by our attentional sensitization model. We conclude this review with a discussion of future research questions regar-ding the nature of attentional control of unconscious visual processing.     

When appearance concerns make women look bad: Solo status and body image concerns diminish women’s academic performance

Women entering male-dominated fields often find themselves the only women present, i.e., they experience solo status. Solo status diminishes women’s performance when women are negatively stereotyped in the testing domain (Inzlicht & Ben-Zeev, 2000) or when the performance is public (Sekaquaptewa & Thompson, 2002). Because women experience greater body image concerns than men and underperform when these concerns are high (Fredrickson, Roberts, Noll, Quinn, & Twenge, 1998), body image concerns may also cause diminished performance in solo women. Women were given a stigmatized (i.e., heavy) or neutral appearance (via a manipulated photograph), then tested as either solos or non-solos. Results showed that women performed more poorly when given a stigmatized appearance and placed under solo status compared to when only one of these factors were present. Social identity threat concerns (Steele, Spencer, & Aronson, 2002) mediated the solo status effect on performance for women given a stigmatized appearance.     

Taste reactivity and consumption measures in the assessment of overshadowing: Modulation of aversive,but not ingestive,reactivity

Three dependent measures—a taste reactivity test, a two-bottle preference test, and a one-bottle extinction test—were used to investigate the conditioning effects of pairing a taste/taste compound with LiCl-induced illness in rats. Avoidance of saccharin consumption in the one-bottle test was attenuated if saccharin and denatonium were paired during illness training (overshadowing). Also, saccharin was found to be more palatable if paired with denatonium during training as reflected by aversive (but not ingestive) taste reactivity measures. It is argued that overshadowing was reflected mainly by a modulation of aversive taste reactivity behavior with little influence on ingestive taste reactivity. The results are discussed in terms of current palatability issues, and it is suggested that applying taste reactivity tests to phenomena associated with taste avoidance learning (e.g., overshadowing or potentiation) may further our understanding of the mechanisms that guide such learning.     

AIDS and pediatric HIV infection: the problem of the infected mother and her newborn

The number or pediatric AIDS cases in the US was around 2000 in 1990, and children under 13 accounted for about 2% of reported cases. Pediatric cases are increasing as the number of infected women increases. Such cases are concentrated in poor urban populations, aggravating the lack of resources of already overtaxed health services. Ethnic minorities are overrepresented among AIDS cases. In the US, 52% of AIDS cases in adult women are in blacks, 27% in non-Hispanic whites, and 20% in women of Hispanic origin. Among children under 13, 53% are in blacks, 25% in Hispanics, and 22% in whites. The majority of children with AIDS were 5 and were probably infected by vertical transmission. Over 80% were born to mothers with AIDS or at risk of HIV infection, 11% received transfusions of contaminated blood, and 5% received contaminated blood products. Through December 1989, 53% of white, 91% of black, and 85% of Hispanic children with AIDS were infected vertically by their mothers. In the US, over 1/2 of cases of vertical AIDS transmission are due to maternal IV drug abuse and 1/5 to mothers who have sexual relations with IV drug abusers. The rate of infection in children born to seropositive mothers has not been established. Estimates of rates of transmission range from 20% to 50%. The factors causing HIV transmission in 1/3 of infants and protecting the other 2/3 have not been identified. Transmission to the infant may occur during pregnancy or delivery or through breast feeding. There is no evidence that cesarean delivery can protect against infection. The risk of intrauterine infection is probably much greater than that of infection during delivery. Diagnosis of HIV infection in young infants is difficult. There are no physical characteristics distinguishing infected newborns, and laboratory diagnosis is unhelpful because maternal HIV antibodies cross the placental barrier to the fetus. There is as yet no vaccine or curative treatment for HIV infection. Prevention of pediatric HIV infection requires prevention of the infection and the disease in pregnant women. Primary prevention in women depends on their being adequately informed about risks and able to change risk behaviors. Secondary prevention is achieved through use of AZT, which slows the progression of the disease, and prevention or treatment of complications. There is no conclusive evidence as yet that pregnancy hastens the progression of maternal HIV infection. Seropositive mothers should avoid breast feeding if adequate substitute foods are available. The average age at appearance of symptoms in infected children is 8 months. Mortality is higher among children manifesting the disease in the 1st year, with a median survival of 38 months. Full information about HIV infection and voluntary and confidential screening should be available to all women contemplating pregnancy.