Behavioral analysis of NR2C knockout mouse reveals deficit in acquisition of conditioned fear and working memory

N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptors play an important role in excitatory neurotransmission and mediate synaptic plasticity associated with learning and memory. NMDA receptors are composed of two NR1 and two NR2 subunits and the identity of the NR2 subunit confers unique electrophysiologic and pharmacologic properties to the receptor. The precise role of NR2C-containing receptors in vivo is poorly understood. We have performed a battery of behavioral tests on NR2C knockout/nβ-galactosidase knock-in mice and found no difference in spontaneous activity, basal anxiety, forced-swim immobility, novel object recognition, pain sensitivity and reference memory in comparison to wildtype counterparts. However, NR2C knockout mice were found to exhibit deficits in fear acquisition and working memory compared to wildtype mice. Deficit in fear acquisition correlated with lack of fear conditioning-induced plasticity at the thalamo-amygdala synapse. These findings suggest a unique role of NR2C-containing receptors in associative and executive learning representing a novel therapeutic target for deficits in cognition.     

Aktuelle Entwicklungslinien in der Pers?nlichkeitsforschung im Jugendalter

Personality disorders in juveniles are still a controversially discussed topic. The aim of this paper is to describe the recent trend in personality research in adolescence and to outline perspectives in research and assessment. Recent study results have pointed out that personality disorders in juveniles can be reliably assessed with diagnostic instruments that have been developed for adults. At the same time there is a lack of specific instruments that can represent the characteristics during adolescence and that can differentiate personality disorders from youth crises. As some personality disorder dimensions also describe unstable developmental criteria we will focus separately on this differential diagnosis and meaning of stable versus transient personality characteristics in youth. The prevalence of personality disorders seems to be higher in adolescence than in adulthood. The stability, however, is comparable in adolescence and adulthood. Psychopathy as a subtype of the antisocial personality disorder ?C that can also be assessed in juveniles ?C will be discussed regarding its core and behavioral dimensions as well as primary and secondary subtypes. Furthermore, we discuss forensic issues when assessing personality disorders with respect to criminal responsibility. Overall we can show that more diagnostic longitudinal studies are essential in order to clarify under which conditions personality disorders develop, which factors influence its course and which interventions can change them.     

Tempting fate or inviting happiness?: unrealistic idealization prevents the decline of marital satisfaction

This article examines whether unrealistically viewing a romantic partner as resembling one's ideal partner accelerates or slows declines in marital satisfaction among newlyweds. A longitudinal study linked unrealistic idealization at the time of marriage to changes in satisfaction over the first 3 years of marriage. Overall, satisfaction declined markedly, a finding that is consistent with past research. However, seeing a less-than-ideal partner as a reflection of one's ideals predicted a certain level of protection against the corrosive effects of time: People who initially idealized their partner the most experienced no decline in satisfaction. The benefits of idealization remained in analyses that controlled separately for the positivity of partner perceptions and the possibility that better adjusted people might be in better relationships.     

Lay Perceptions of Selection Decision Aids in US and Non‐US Samples

Understanding why decision makers resist using standardized approaches to employee selection requires understanding basic feelings and beliefs about different approaches for collecting and combining assessment information. This study examines lay perceptions of selection decision aids, using a sample of 418 working adults. Holding constant the attributes measured, participants from the United States perceive holistic integration to be superior to mechanical integration for combining interview scores, as well as for combining test scores. Participants from outside of the United States prefer holistic integration of interview scores, but slightly prefer mechanical integration of test scores.     

Are we puppets on a string? The contextual meaning of unconscious expressive cues

In three studies, the authors show that unconscious expressive cues can lead to opposite evaluations, depending on the context in which they occur. In Study 1, brow (vs. cheek) tension reduced preferences in an easy judgment context but increased preferences in a difficult context. In Study 2, head shaking (vs. nodding) either increased or decreased prosocial affect depending on the context in which the judged character was presented. In Study 3, a subliminal smile (vs. frown) led to higher self-ratings of performance when paired with one's own actions but to lower self-ratings of performance when paired with a competitor's actions. Together, these results suggest that the meaning of unconscious expressive cues is not fixed.     

Early detection of core deficits in autism

The goal of this review of the research literature is to discuss approaches to the early detection of autism in infancy. Early detection would enable diagnoses to be made before 18 months of age rather than at 24-30 months, the age where diagnoses start to be made now. After summarizing the criteria for a deficit to be considered "core" to the disorder, the literature on research strategies used in early detection is examined. In order to guide the design of future studies, the review then turns to an overview of what is known about the processes of early social development in typically developing children that underlie the domains in which core deficits are manifested in young children with autism. The social domains covered in the review are those that show development in typically developing infants below 18 months of age: dyadic interaction and imitation; emotion discrimination; and attachment. The review concludes that all of these areas are worthy of investigation in young children, particularly those at higher risk of showing some of the core deficits of autism such as the infant siblings of children with autism.     

Theoretical and computational analysis of skill learning, repetition priming, and procedural memory

This article analyzes the relationship between skill learning and repetition priming, 2 implicit memory phenomena. A number of reports have suggested that skill learning and repetition priming can be dissociated from each other and are therefore based on different mechanisms. The authors present a theoretical analysis showing that previous results cannot be regarded as evidence of a processing dissociation between skill learning and repetition priming. The authors also present a single-mechanism computational model that simulates a specific experimental task and exhibits both skill learning and repetition priming, as well as a number of apparent dissociations between these measures. These theoretical and computational analyses provide complementary evidence that skill learning and repetition priming are aspects of a single underlying mechanism that has the characteristics of procedural memory.     

Speed of processing of the visual-orthographic and auditory-phonological systems in adult dyslexics: the contribution of "asynchrony" to word recognition deficits

This study investigated whether "asynchrony" in speed of processing (SOP) between the visual-orthographic and auditory-phonological modalities contributes to word recognition deficits among adult dyslexics. Male university students with a history of diagnosed dyslexia were compared to age-matched normal readers on a variety of experimental measures while event-related potentials and reaction time data were collected. Measures were designed to evaluate auditory and visual processing for non-linguistic (tones and shapes) and linguistic (phonemes and graphemes) low-level stimuli as well as higher-level orthographic and phonological processing (in a lexical decision task). Data indicated that adult dyslexic readers had significantly slower reaction times and longer P300 latencies than control readers in most of the experimental tasks and delayed P200 latencies for the lexical decision task. Moreover, adult dyslexics revealed a systematic SOP gap in P300 latency between the auditory/phonological and visual/orthographic processing measures. Our data support and extend previous work that found SOP asynchrony to be an underlying factor of childhood dyslexia. The present data suggests, however, that among adult dyslexics the between modalities asynchrony occurs at later processing stages than in children.