Effects of chronic administration with high doses of testosterone propionate on behavioral and physiological parameters in mice with differing basal aggressiveness

The effects of testosterone propionate, an anabolic‐androgenic steroid, on the behavior displayed during a social encounter by gonadally intact male mice were investigated. Animals were distributed into three groups according to their attack latency in a pre‐screening test (high‐, moderate‐, and low‐ attacking mice) and each group received weekly injections of 60 or 120 mg/kg of testosterone or sesame oil for 10 weeks. Behavioral tests were then carried out. Afterwards, organs were weighed and blood samples collected in order to obtain hormonal data. Treatment had a differential impact on attack in the three groups of animals. Only the high‐attacking testosterone‐treated mice showed lower total duration of attack than their controls. Those that received 60 mg/kg spent more time exhibiting exploratory behaviors. As an index of the anabolic activity of the drug, all testosterone‐treated mice had heavier kidneys and, as an index of the androgenic activity of testosterone propionate, they had heavier seminal vesicles, lighter testes, and showed higher testosterone levels in a dose‐dependent way than their controls. Hence, the effect of treatment on peripheral physiological parameters was similar in all three groups whereas behavioral effects differed depending on basal aggressiveness, considered a characteristic of coping style. Aggr. Behav. 29:173–189, 2003. © 2003 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.     

Electric source localization adds evidence for task-specific CNVs

This study was an attempt to replicate recent magnetoencephalographic (MEG) findings on human task-specific CNV sources (Basile et al., Electroencephalography and Clinical Neurophysiology 90, 1994, 157-165) by means of a spatio-temporal electric source localization method (Scherg and von Cramon, Electroencephalography and Clinical Neurophysiology 62, 1985, 32-44; Scherg and von Cramon, Electroencephalography and Clinical Neurophysiology 65, 1986, 344-360; Scherg and Berg, Brain Electric Source Analysis Handbook, Version 2). The previous MEG results showed CNV sources in the prefrontal cortex of the two hemispheres for two tasks used, namely visual pattern recognition and visual spatial recognition tasks. In the right hemisphere, the sources were more anterior and inferior for the spatial recognition task than for the pattern recognition task. In the present study we obtained CNVs in five subjects during two tasks identical to the MEG study. The elicited electric potentials were modeled with four spatio-temporal dipoles for each task, three of which accounted for the visual evoked response and one that accounted for the CNV. For all subjects the dipole explaining the CNV was always localized in the frontal region of the head, however, the dipole obtained during the visual spatial recognition task was more anterior than the one obtained during the pattern recognition task. Thus, task-specific CNV sources were again observed, although the stable model consisted of only one dipole located close to the midline instead of one dipole in each hemisphere. This was a major difference in the CNV sources between the previous MEG and the present electric source analysis results. We discuss the possible basis for the difference between the two methods used to study slow brain activity that is believed to originate from extended cortical patches.     

Comparison of output order in free recall

Two measures of output order in free recall were examined and shown to vary with characteristics of recall unrelated to output order. The output location of a subset of items in recall, using the standard recall rank measure and the “observed minus expected” score, varied both with number of items in the subset and total number of items recalled. A new measure of output order (the relative index of priority or RIP score) was proposed that is invariant with these characteristics of recall, providing an uncontaminated empirical index of the output location of a subset of items in the recall sequence.     

Reflections on trauma,symbolization and psychic pain in a case of neurosis and a case of psychosis

This paper seeks to advance some considerations on trauma, historical reality, its symbolization and the psychic pain generated by the investigation of unconscious processes in psychoanalytic treatment. These themes will be explored by demonstrating the differences arising between traumatic experiences and their expression in phantasy, as they occurred in a case of neurosis and another of psychosis. In each case, the differences in the features of the symbolization and the processes of working through shall also be taken into consideration. Particular attention shall be paid to the specific difficulties encountered by the analyst in the interpretative treatment of the trauma resulting from the amount of psychic pain induced in the patient, which at times proves to be an insurmountable barrier and a destructive distortion of the process.     

The Role of Parental Depressive Symptoms in Predicting Dysfunctional Discipline Among Parents at High-Risk for Child Maltreatment

Parental depressive symptoms are an important public health concern because they have been linked, in numerous previous studies, to negative parenting behaviors including dysfunctional discipline and child abuse and neglect. Taking this into consideration, parental depressive symptoms warrant particular attention among families with child maltreatment allegations—a group at high risk of dysfunctional discipline and future physical abuse. The current study sought to examine relations between parental depressive symptoms and dysfunctional discipline in an ethnically diverse sample of 234 families who were referred for psychological services due to concerns of child maltreatment. Referrals were made by school, medical, or child welfare personnel. 59.8 % of children were male and the average age was 7.05 years. Results indicated that parental depressive symptoms were significantly correlated with dysfunctional discipline including laxness, over-reactivity, and hostility. However, all three relations lost statistical significance after controlling for parental stress. The findings of this study suggest that well-documented relations between parental depression and negative parenting behavior may be driven by elevated parental stress rather than reflecting risks uniquely associated with depressive pathology.     

Algorithmic complexity for psychology: a user-friendly implementation of the coding theorem method

Kolmogorov-Chaitin complexity has long been believed to be impossible to approximate when it comes to short sequences (e.g. of length 5-50). However, with the newly developed coding theorem method the complexity of strings of length 2-11 can now be numerically estimated. We present the theoretical basis of algorithmic complexity for short strings (ACSS) and describe an R-package providing functions based on ACSS that will cover psychologists’ needs and improve upon previous methods in three ways: (1) ACSS is now available not only for binary strings, but for strings based on up to 9 different symbols, (2) ACSS no longer requires time-consuming computing, and (3) a new approach based on ACSS gives access to an estimation of the complexity of strings of any length. Finally, three illustrative examples show how these tools can be applied to psychology.