Personality dimensions in patients with sleep-apnea syndrome: comparison with narcolepsy

Personality measures of Anxiety-Neuroticism, Extraversion and Socialization obtained from self-report questionnaires were studied in a group of sleep-apnea patients (15 males, 5 females), and compared with results from a normal control group (63 males, 21 females) and a group of narcoleptic patients (17 males, 32 females). Sleep-apnea patients were significantly higher in Anxiety-Neuroticism and slightly higher in Extraversion than controls. Although the main symptom, i.e. excessive daytime sleepiness, of sleep-apnea and narcoleptic patients is similar, there were distinct differences in pattern of personality measures. Sleep-apnea patients were lower in Anxiety-Neuroticism and higher in Extraversion. Thus, increased sleepiness alone did not induce uniform changes in personality traits in the two patient groups. It is suggested that the particular personality profile of the sleep-apnea patients is secondary to increased psychosocial strain and coping strategies to keep awake. In contrast, the high Somatic Anxiety scores and low Socialization scores in the narcoleptic group are assumed to reflect a constitutional lability which also involves autonomic and sleep functions.     

SCALES OF UNPLEASANTNESS OF ELECTRICAL STIMULATION

The subjective unpleasantness elicited by an A.C. current of 50 c/sec. applied to two fingers was scaled by 14 subjects using the methods of magnitude and of category estimation. Nine current intensities, ranging between 2 and 10 times the individual sensation thresholds, were used as stimuli. A power function yielded a good fit to the magnitude-estimation data; the exponent was 1.81. The difference between this value and a considerably higher exponent reported by previous investigators was interpreted in terms of the wider stimulus range used in the present study. The relation between the category scale and the magnitude scale had the same general form as that found in several previous investigations.     

“Shepherd My Sheep”: Clerical Readiness to Meet Psychological and Existential Needs from Victims of Sexual Abuse

Consequences of sexual abuse are highly associated with psychological suffering. The minister can be the first person a victim, belonging to a Christian congregation, turns to for support. This study investigated the reported readiness among ministers of the Church of Sweden to disclose ongoing sexual abuse and meet psychological as well as existential needs of victims. Questionnaires were administered to ministers in all dioceses. A majority, 77%, reported that they as professionals had met victims of sexual abuse and they estimated their readiness for this task as high. However, there is still a need to promote further an accepting attitude and to establish cooperation with social authorities and non-confessional professionals.     

Aggravation of DSS-induced colitis after chronic subordinate colony (CSC) housing is partially mediated by adrenal mechanisms

Chronic subordinate colony housing (CSC) is a relevant chronic psycho-social stressor for male mice. Here, we investigated effects of CSC on the severity of dextran sulphate sodium (DSS)-induced colitis and the involvement of adrenal mechanisms. After 19 days of CSC, male C57BL/6 mice were treated with 1% DSS (8 days). After 8 days, inflammatory shortening of the colon and the histological inflammation score were increased in CSC mice. Additionally, the increased secretion of pro-inflammatory cytokines by mesenteric lymph node cells found on day 2 and 4 of DSS treatment was down-regulated in CSC mice on day 8 of DSS treatment, paralleled by an increase in plasma corticosterone. In contrast, in unstressed controls, elevation of cytokine secretion was delayed and only found on day 8 of DSS treatment, associated with a prompt rise in plasma corticosterone. To reveal adrenal mechanisms in CSC-induced effects on colitis, mice were adrenalectomized, exposed to CSC and treated with DSS (8 days). In adrenalectomized CSC mice, the severity of DSS-induced colitis was reduced, as body weight loss, shortening of colon, histological damage score, and cytokine secretion from mesenteric lymph node cells were diminished compared with sham-operated CSC mice. In conclusion, exposure to chronic psycho-social stress increases the severity of acute DSS colitis, an effect which is, at least partly, mediated by adrenal mechanisms.     

Leave or remain? European identification,legitimacy of European integration,and political attitudes towards the EU

In this paper, we look at the relationship between European identification and political support for (or opposition to) EU membership. First, we argue that conceptualizing political attitudes towards the EU as a direct product of European identification (a) neglects the distinction between the social reality of Europe and the political reality of the EU and (b) leads to psychological reductionism. We propose that the relationship should instead be conceptualized as mediated by legitimacy perceptions and as moderated by social‐level variables. Second, we look at three spheres of European integration and propose that their perceived legitimacy is appraised through the following principles: (a) normative solidarity for wealth sharing, (b) political authority for sharing political decisions, and (c) collective self‐realization for the sharing of practices. We illustrate the key mediating role of those principles by drawing on data from a survey ran across five European countries. Third, we argue that these meditational relationships are in turn moderated by social, political, and ideological realities and illustrate this point by looking at the case of United Kingdom in the context of the EU membership referendum. We point to an ideological assumption in the U.K. political landscape about the illegitimacy of EU supranational decision making and argue that this contributed to shape both the debate of the referendum campaign and its result.     

Improving outgroup attitudes in schools: First steps toward a teacher‐led vicarious contact intervention

Despite the urgent need for promoting positive intergroup relations in schools, research on intergroup relations is not systematically translated into prejudice‐reduction interventions. Although prejudice‐reduction interventions in schools based on indirect contact have been conducted for decades, they have all been carried out by researchers themselves. In a field experiment in Finland in autumn 2015, we tested for the first time a vicarious contact prejudice‐reduction intervention for its effectiveness among adolescents (N = 639) when implemented independently by school teachers instead of researchers. In addition, we tested the extent to which the intervention's effect depends on initial outgroup attitudes, previous direct outgroup contact experiences, and gender, hypothesizing that the intervention improves outgroup attitudes particularly among adolescents with more negative prior attitudes and less positive prior direct contact, and more among girls than among boys. We found an unanticipated overall deterioration in the outgroup attitudes during intervention in both the experimental and control groups. However, attitudes seemed to deteriorate somewhat less in the experimental than in the control group, and the intervention had a significant positive effect on outgroup attitudes in one experimental subgroup that needed it most: girls who had negative rather than positive outgroup attitudes at the outset. We discuss our results in light of previous research and contextual particularities.     

Extracellular amino acid levels in the paraventricular nucleus and the central amygdala in high- and low-anxiety dams rats during maternal aggression: regulation by oxytocin

Brain oxytocin (OT) regulates aspects of emotionality and stress coping including maternal behavior and maternal aggression. Maternal aggression correlates with the amount of OT released within the paraventricular nucleus (PVN) and the central amygdala (CeA). OT, a key neurotransmitter or neuromodulator, is likely to modulate other neurotransmitter systems. Here, we investigated the dynamic changes in extracellular concentrations of the amino acids aspartate, glutamate, gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA), serine, histidine, arginine and taurine in the PVN and CeA in lactating rats bred for high (HAB) and low (LAB) anxiety-related behavior under basal conditions and during maternal aggression. Further, to determine whether local OT is involved in the regulation of amino acid release we infused a selective OT receptor antagonist (OTA) via local retrodialysis. Within the CeA, HAB and LAB dams differed in the basal release of glutamate and arginine. Infusion of a selective OTA increased the concentrations of glutamate and aspartate in LAB dams and GABA in HAB dams. In OTA-treated HAB and LAB dams taurine levels increased during maternal aggression. Within the PVN, the highly-aggressive HAB dams showed a more pronounced increase in aspartate and serine levels; the latter being attenuated by local OTA administration. However, OTA did not affect the level of any amino acid in the LAB dams. Thus, the extracellular concentrations of selected amino acids differed between lactating HAB and LAB dams under both basal conditions and following maternal aggression. The effects of OT within the CeA and PVN on maternal aggressive behavior might be related to its regulation of local amino acid release.     

Where and how does grammatically geared processing take place-and why is Broca's area often involved. A coordinated fMRI/ERBP study of language processing

We address the possibility of combining the results from hemodynamic and electrophysiological methods for the study of cognitive processing of language. The hemodynamic method we use is Event-Related fMRI, and the electrophysiological method measures Event-Related Band Power (ERBP) of the EEG signal. The experimental technique allows us to approach the relation between cortical structure and cognitive function in a sophisticated way. In particular, we can formulate original working hypotheses about the language-induced changes in the ongoing brain dynamics. We show, on the basis of electrophysiological data collected in an experiment on language production, that synchronized cortical networks code cognitive processes induced by language in form of power modulations of specific frequency bands. The hemodynamic (fMRI) data collected in the same task point to the existence of a central processor for the phrase structure assignment. We conceptualize such a central processor as a frequency scanner, a cortical device designed to pick up synchronized brain activity over a specific range of frequencies. We discuss the experimental designs which result from this set of hypotheses and show their relevance for the models of language processing.     

Lactation and stress: protective effects of breast-feeding in humans

Whilst most research on breast-feeding has been designed to assess its importance for infant health or to find a human nutrient replacement for infant formula, the effects of breast-feeding on maternal health have received little scientific attention. In several animal studies lactation has been shown to be associated with a marked blunting of physiological and behavioral responses to physical and psychological stress. However, the literature on the effects of lactation on stress in humans remains limited. This review focuses primarily on recent findings on the effects of breast-feeding on neuroendocrine and behavioral responses to acute stress exposure in lactating women. The available data suggest that breast-feeding suppresses the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis response to physical and psychosocial stress. However, lactation in women, in contrast to lactating rats, does not seem to result in a general restraint of the endocrine stress response during the whole period of lactation. Recent data strongly suggest that the blunted HPA axis response to stress in women seems to be counterbalanced if the acute stressor, at least when of a psychosocial nature, occurs later than 1 h after suckling. Further elucidation of the underlying psychobiological mechanisms involved in suppressed stress responses during lactation will no doubt lead to new insights into improved health sequelae of breast-feeding in women and to a better understanding of the psychobiology of human stress protection in general.     

Met expectations and the wellbeing of diaspora immigrants: A longitudinal study

Previous research has pointed to the importance of expectations for the adaptation of immigrants. However, most studies have been methodologically retrospective with only limited possibilities to show the optimal relationship between migrants’ expectations and actual acculturation experiences for their wellbeing and other aspects of psychological adaptation. Moreover, previous research has been conducted mostly among sojourners and students. This longitudinal study focused on the relationship between premigration expectations and postmigration experiences of diaspora immigrants from Russia to Finland (N = 153). We examined how the fulfillment of premigration expectations in social (i.e., family relations, friendships, and free time) and economic (i.e., occupational position, working conditions, and economic and career situation) domains affects immigrants’ wellbeing (i.e., satisfaction with life and general mood) after migration. Three alternative models of expectation confirmation (i.e., disconfirmation model, ideal point model, and the importance of experiences only) derived from previous organizational psychological research were tested with polynomial regression and response surface analysis. In the economic domain, immigrants’ expectations, experiences, and their interrelationship did not affect wellbeing in the postmigration stage. However, in the social domain, the more expectations were exceeded by actual experiences, the better were life satisfaction and the general mood of immigrants. The results underline the importance of social relationships and the context‐dependent nature of immigrants’ wellbeing. Interventions in the preacculturation stage should create positive but realistic expectations for diaspora immigrants and other groups of voluntary (re)migrants. Furthermore, policies concerning the postmigration stage should facilitate the fulfillment of these expectations and support the social adaptation of immigrants.