Chronic corticosterone-induced deterioration in rat behaviour is not paralleled by changes in hippocampal NF-kappaB-activation

We investigated whether long-lasting stress induced by chronic glucocorticoid (GC) exposure affects activation of brain NF-kappaB and whether these changes are related to functional deterioration and structural changes in the rat hippocampus. Psychometric investigations were conducted using a holeboard test system in 28 one-year-old male Wistar rats. Thereafter, rats were divided into three groups for daily administration of 10 mg corticosterone (treatment) or sesame oil (placebo = sham control for effects of the vehicle) for 60 days. Additional control rats did not receive any treatment or handling until the end of the experiment. Behavioural and cognitive changes were tested again in the holeboard system. Rat body weights and corticosterone concentrations in plasma, hippocampus and urine were determined and adrenal glands were investigated histopathologically. Hippocampal concentrations of corticosterone, NF-kappaB and I-kappaBalpha were determined using RIA, EMSA and Western blotting techniques, respectively. Structural changes in rat hippocampus were measured using magnetic resonance imaging techniques. High peripheral corticosterone concentrations after chronic treatment led to significant reductions in rat body weight. Significant atrophy of both adrenal glands with marked histological deterioration was detected. Furthermore, an increase in hippocampal corticosterone concentrations was observed after chronic administration. Chronic corticosterone treatment also significantly altered behaviour and working and reference memory capacity without changing hippocampal structure. Daily injections of sesame oil in the placebo group, however, were also sufficient to reduce the pellet-finding time. However, neither in the corticosterone group nor in the placebo group were behavioural changes paralleled by significant changes in brain NF-kappaB activation and I-kappaBalpha expression. Thus, cognitive alterations in rats seen after chronic corticosterone exposure are not paralleled by hippocampal NF-kappaB modulation.     

"I find you to be very attractive..." Biases in compliance estimates to sexual offers

The classic experiments by Clark and Hatfield on sex differences in compliance to offers of dates, apartment visits, and casual sex, and the related informal project of Molzer served as the foundation for the present study. However, whereas individuals in these previous investigations directly approached opposite-sex participants, our research employed surveys to gauge compliance. A sample of 195 male and 179 female Austrian adults were provided with written forms of the Clark and Hatfield scenarios and asked to predict the rates of compliance on a thermometer scale ranging from 0% to 100%. Results indicated that compliance estimates are largely effected by the sex of the receiver to these offers, and to a lesser degree, participants' age and relationship status. The sex of the participant did not significantly effect the results. Relative to the previous work, the compliance rate of males was overestimated, while that of females was underestimated. We offer explanations for the differences in findings between the original investigations and our research, discuss the importance of contextual factors as well as the generality of the Clark-Hatfield findings, especially with respect to females' near-zero receptivity to explicit sexual offers, and point out the relevance of the current findings for health psychology.     

Spiritual But Not Religious? Evidence for Two Independent Dispositions

Some psychologists treat religious/spiritual beliefs as a unitary aspect of individual differences. But a distinction between mysticism and orthodox religion has been recognized by scholars as well as laypersons, and empirical studies of "ism" variables and of "spirituality" measures have yielded factors reflecting this distinction. Using a large sample of American adults, analyses demonstrate that subjective spirituality and tradition-oriented religiousness are empirically highly independent and have distinctly different correlates in the personality domain, suggesting that individuals with different dispositions tend toward different styles of religious/spiritual beliefs. These dimensions have low correlations with the lexical Big Five but high correlations with scales (e.g., Absorption, Traditionalism) on some omnibus personality inventories, indicating their relevance for studies of personality.     

Can relativism be reconciled with realism and causalism?

This paper deals with two fundamental assumptions of the Strong programme in the sociology of knowledge and the theoretical (im) possibility of their co‐existence with the general relativist tendency of this programme. The first assumption is the realist thesis introduced into the Strong programme through the materialist presupposition that sense experience is reliable and humans are able to learn about the regularities of the non‐social world in order to survive. The second assumption is the causal principle. Arguments developed in this paper lead to the conclusion that neither realism nor causalism can be reconciled with relativism. In both cases inconsistency is brought about by a tension between scientific perspective and relativism, between an external approach aiming at objective, universal, and causal explanation of what is studied, on the one hand, and the internal, relativist and reflexive, hermeneutical understanding of the human, on the other hand. The belief that the sociology of knowledge can be at the same time scientific, like the natural sciences, and relativist, like certain philosophies but not the natural sciences, is not sufficiently justified in the Strong programme.     

The influence of high and low cue–action association on prospective memory performance

Recent discoveries in the field of prospective memory (PM) show higher accuracy for remembering intentions in which prospective cue and action are strongly associated. In two experiments presented in this paper, participants encoded both high and low association cue–action pairs and were later tested on both prospective and retrospective PM components. Results of both studies show higher PM accuracy for the low association pairs, compared to high association ones, but only for the prospective component (across both Experiments) and only when a high association cue was presented first (Experiment 2). This finding was accompanied by longer study times for the low association pairs and study times were functionally related to later performance (across both Experiments). In the retrospective component, higher accuracy was observed for pairs with high level of association (but only in the first Experiment). Data are discussed in the context of metacognitive processes possibly related to the encoding of an intention as well as cue monitoring in case of PM tasks with high memory load and varying task difficulty.     

Sleep Problems and Separation Anxiety in Preschool-Aged Children: A Path Analysis

Sleep problems occur frequently in young children, possibly causing detrimental effects on their development. Parental marital difficulties are known to put a burden on children’s sleep and adjustment. However, research concerning the relation between the parental relationship quality and children’s sleep difficulties is rare for preschool-aged children. This study aims to fill in the gap. Initially, caregivers of 94 preschoolers (41 girls and 53 boys, aged 2–6 years) filled in questionnaires providing information on their children’s sleep and anxiety as well as on their own sleep and relationship quality. A path model approach was used to examine two competing theoretical models linking these factors. The conducted path analysis indicated that children’s separation anxiety, β = ?.134, p = .017, as well as their anxiety in general, β = ?.177, p = .024, partially mediated the relation between the parental relationship quality and children’s sleep problems. Parental sleep problems correlated with the relationship quality, r = ?.371, p = .030, but had no significant influence on children’s sleep. The results of our study suggest that children growing up with parents who state a low relationship quality might thus be concerned about the stability of their family system. As a result children’s sleep quality might be compromised due to irritation and feelings of insecurity. The study highlights the importance of the parental relationship as an influence factor in children’s sleep quality.