Lactation deficit in OFA hr/hr rats may be caused by differential sensitivity to stress compared with Wistar and Sprague Dawley rats

OFA hr/hr (OFA) rats present a major lactation deficit that impairs offspring survival. To explore whether abnormal stress responsiveness causes this deficit, we compared their hormonal (prolactin, progesterone, and corticosterone) responses to stress (room change and 2-min ether exposure) with those of Wistar and Sprague Dawley (SD) rats. We tested responses during the estrous cycle, pregnancy, lactation, after ovariectomy, and ovarian steroid hormone priming, and responses to suckling. We evaluated hypothalamic expression of receptors for prolactin (PRLRlong) and the isoforms of receptors for progesterone (PRA and B) and estrogen (ERα and β) in late pregnancy. We tested whether administration of an anxiolytic (diazepam) improved lactation. Ether exposure increased circulating levels of the three hormones in the three strains of rats, cycling and ovariectomized, but was less effective in pregnancy and lactation. Elevated estrogen level (estrus and estradiol-treated ovariectomized rats) potentiated the prolactin response more in SD and OFA rats than in Wistar rats. Elevated progesterone level (late pregnancy, lactation, progesterone-treated ovariectomized rats) inhibited the prolactin response less in OFA than in SD or Wistar rats. Ether exposure inhibited the prolactin and oxytocin responses to suckling only in OFA rats. Diazepam treatment increased pup survival rate and the prolactin response to suckling. Hypothalamic total PR mRNA content, assayed by RT-PCR, was higher in pregnant OFA rats compared with SD and Wistar rats, but the PRB/PRA protein ratio determined by Western blot was lowest in Wistar rats, intermediate in OFA rats, and highest in SD rats. The heightened sensitivity to stress of lactating OFA rats may contribute to their lactational deficit and be caused by a combination of hypoprolactinemia and reduced inhibitory capacity of progesterone.     

A novel argument for the Universality of Parsing principles

Previous work on Relative Clause attachment has overlooked a crucial grammatical distinction across both the languages and structures tested: the selective availability of Pseudo Relatives. We reconsider the literature in light of this observation and argue that, all else being equal, local attachment is found with genuine Relative Clauses and that non-local attachment emerges when their surface identical imposters, Pseudo Relatives, are available. Hence, apparent cross-linguistic variation in parsing preferences is reducible to grammatical factors. The results from two novel experiments in Italian are presented in support of these conclusions.     

Legitimating the legitimate: A grounded theory study of legitimacy work among Ethics and Compliance Officers

Organizations have responded to ethical scandals in part by creating the Ethics and Compliance Officer (ECO) role to help insure employee ethical and legal behavior. Because ECO work is so fundamental to behavioral ethics in organizations and we know very little about it, we conducted a grounded theory study to learn more. We learned that, although most ECOs were hired to help their organizations respond to external legitimacy challenges, ECOs face major legitimacy challenges inside their organizations. Facilitating conditions may reduce these challenges and help ECOs reach internal legitimacy. But, we also found that ECOs engage in what we term legitimacy work that relies on a number of tactics to help them gain legitimacy in the eyes of their constituents. We tie our findings to the broader legitimacy literature and draw implications for the behavioral ethics literature.     

Grasping with the eyes: The role of elongation in visual recognition of manipulable objects

Processing within the dorsal visual stream subserves object-directed action, whereas visual object recognition is mediated by the ventral visual stream. Recent findings suggest that the computations performed by the dorsal stream can nevertheless influence object recognition. Little is known, however, about the type of dorsal stream information that is available to assist in object recognition. Here, we present a series of experiments that explored different psychophysical manipulations known to bias the processing of a stimulus toward the dorsal visual stream in order to isolate its contribution to object recognition. We show that elongated-shaped stimuli, regardless of their semantic category and familiarity, when processed by the dorsal stream, elicit visuomotor grasp-related information that affects how we categorize manipulable objects. Elongated stimuli may reduce ambiguity during grasp preparation by providing a coarse cue to hand shaping and orientation that is sufficient to support action planning. We propose that this dorsal-stream-based analysis of elongation along a principal axis is the basis for how the dorsal visual object processing stream can affect categorization of manipulable objects.     

Recognizing emotions in spoken language: A validated set of Portuguese sentences and pseudosentences for research on emotional prosody

A set of semantically neutral sentences and derived pseudosentences was produced by two native European Portuguese speakers varying emotional prosody in order to portray anger, disgust, fear, happiness, sadness, surprise, and neutrality. Accuracy rates and reaction times in a forced-choice identification of these emotions as well as intensity judgments were collected from 80 participants, and a database was constructed with the utterances reaching satisfactory accuracy (190 sentences and 178 pseudosentences). High accuracy (mean correct of 75% for sentences and 71% for pseudosentences), rapid recognition, and high-intensity judgments were obtained for all the portrayed emotional qualities. Sentences and pseudosentences elicited similar accuracy and intensity rates, but participants responded to pseudosentences faster than they did to sentences. This database is a useful tool for research on emotional prosody, including cross-language studies and studies involving Portuguese-speaking participants, and it may be useful for clinical purposes in the assessment of brain-damaged patients. The database is available for download from http://brm.psychonomic-journals.org/content/supplemental.     

Cross-cultural invariance of the basic psychological needs in exercise scale and need satisfaction latent mean differences among Greek,Spanish, Portuguese and Turkish samples

ObjectivesThe present study examined the extent to which scores from the Basic Psychological Needs in Exercise Scale are measurement invariant across Greek, Spanish, Portuguese, and Turkish samples of exercise participants.DesignA cross-sectional design wherein responses were analyzed from 504 Greek participants, 518 Spanish participants, 989 Portuguese participants, and 686 Turkish participants.MethodsData on exercise participants' need satisfaction were collected using the Basic Psychological Needs in Exercise Scale (Vlachopoulos & Michailidou, 2006) after back translation for the languages involved in the study.ResultsMulti-sample confirmatory factor analyses showed that BPNES scores were largely invariant at the configural, metric, and strong invariance levels, but not at the strict invariance level for Spanish, Portuguese, and Turkish samples compared to the Greek sample. Portuguese participants reported higher levels of satisfaction for all three needs compared to Greek participants, while for Spanish participants this was the case only for competence and relatedness. Turkish participants did not differ from Greek participants.ConclusionsThe present findings support valid cross-cultural comparisons at the latent variance/covariance level and the latent/observed mean level of the constructs of autonomy, competence, and relatedness using the BPNES.     

Influencia de la imitación y la comprensión en la adquisición del lenguaje en niños deficientes: dos experimentos basados en un diseño de líneas de base múltiple y control concurrente

RESUMEN

En este trabajo se exponen dos experimentos relacionados con algunos aspectos de la adquisición y desarrollo del pre-lenguaje y primeras etapas del lenguaje funcional, tanto comprensivo como expresivo, con niños deficientes no-verbales. Las autoras parten del programa de Kent “Language Acquisition Program for the Retarded or Multiply Impaired”, y utilizan un diseño experimental de líneas de base múltiples y control concurrente. Los resultados confirman en gran parte la hipótesis según la cual la imitación vocal y el lenguaje comprensivo son dos repertorios básicos para el lenguaje expresivo, concluyendo que el programa adaptado de Kent es un instrumento válido para la enseñanza de diversos aspectos del lenguaje y que la técnica de control concurrente parece ser una buena alternativa en aquellos casos en que el diseño experimental intrasujeto no permite la reversión de las condiciones experimentales.     

Dependencia-Independencia de Campo y Diferenciación Hemisférica en tareas de escucha dicótica

Resumen

En una muestra de 60 estudiantes voluntarios, se ha examinado la relación existente entre el estilo perceptivo «dependencia-independencia de campo» medido a través del R FT, EFT y GEFT y el grado de diferenciación hemisférica auditiva operativizado mediante dos tareas de escucha dicótica, una verbal y otra musical. Los resultados revelan un procesamiento claramente lateralizado en los sujetos independientes de campo frente a una bilateralización en los dependientes de campo.     

Psychoanalysis and Epistemology: The Interrelation Between Clinical Work,Culture and Metapsychology

The paradigmatic theory of modern epistemology holds psychoanalysis in its scientific statute. Even if there is no explicit epistemology in the Freudian writings, it is undeniable that the genesis of psychoanalysis has a rigorous dialetic between theorization and clinical observation. Metapsychology is an organized and consistent set of concepts, capable of explaining and coordinating the analytical experience. It is through metapsychology that clinical work encounters the possibility of universalization, while metapsychology finds the possibility of fulfillment in clinical work. Clinical experience also confirms the interrelation between psychopathology and culture. Modern times have brought about new versions for psychopathological symptoms, which, in turn, have special effects on the narcisistic personalities and the manifestations of anxiety, giving place to different neurotic configurations.