All role transitions are not experienced equally: Associations among self-change,emotional reactions,and self-concept clarity

Individuals experience numerous transitions across various roles during their lives. These role transitions can be disruptive to the way individuals view their identity, and thus their well-being; however, role transitions do not affect all individuals equally. Therefore, in the current work, we focused on two factors which may influence self-concept clarity and explain differential experiences following role transitions. We tested the relationship between the amount of self-change and positive emotions in reaction to a role transition predicting self-concept clarity, including both role entries (e.g. parenthood/new relationships, Studies 1–4) and role exits (e.g. divorce/job loss, Studies 3 and 4). Across several studies and all role transitions, we found that among individuals who experienced low levels of positive emotions after a role transition, greater self-change predicted reduced self-concept clarity. Among individuals who experienced higher levels of positive emotionality, this association did not emerge.     

The resolution and recovery of filler-gap dependencies in aphasia: evidence from on-line anomaly detection

This study examines the on-line processing of sentences with movement using an auditory anomaly detection task (after Borland, Tanenhaus, Garnsey, & Carlson, 1995). Eight agrammatic aphasic participants (four of whom had undergone treatment focused on comprehension and production of filler-gap sentences) and 24 young normal participants listened to sentences and pressed a button when the sentences "stopped making sense." Critical sentences contained an anomaly in object relative clauses or conjoined clauses. Results showed that both young normals and aphasic participants were able to reject anomalous sentences of both types. In addition, both groups showed evidence of filler-gap resolution on-line. Importantly, however, there was evidence of a treatment effect for the aphasic patients: those who received treatment showed better performance than those who had not. Treated patients were more successful than the untreated patients in detecting the anomaly in filler-gap conditions, rejecting the anomalous filler-gap sentences reliably more often than the non-anomalous ones, like the young normals. This effect was not noted for untreated participants, i.e., there was no statistical difference between their rejection of anomalous and non-anomalous filler gap sentences. Further, the reaction time data showed that the treated aphasic patients' rejections came before sentence's end (within 2000 ms), while the majority of responses made by untreated patients did not. These results indicate that individuals with agrammatic aphasia appear to retain some gap-filling capacity and that treatment can improve their ability to make use of this capacity.     

Magnetic stimulation studies of foveal representation

The right and left visual fields each project to the contralateral cerebral hemispheres, but the extent of the functional overlap of the two hemifields along the vertical meridian is still under debate. After presenting the spatial, temporal, and functional specifications of Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS), we show that TMS is particularly suitable to study the question of foveal representation as it allows one to study the effects of selective disruption of left or right hemisphere functions on the processing of centrally presented stimuli. Future strategies for the use of TMS in further tests of visual word recognition are suggested.     

Family resilience: a framework for clinical practice

This article presents an overview of a family resilience framework developed for clinical practice, and describes its advantages. Drawing together findings from studies of individual resilience and research on effective family functioning, key processes in family resilience are outlined in three domains: family belief systems, organizational patterns, and communication/problem-solving. Clinical practice applications are described briefly to suggest the broad utility of this conceptual framework for intervention and prevention efforts to strengthen families facing serious life challenges.     

Proactive interference between cues trained with a common outcome in first-order Pavlovian conditioning

The nature of interference between cues (X, A) trained apart with a common outcome (O; an unconditioned stimulus) was explored by assessing proactive interference in first-order Pavlovian conditioning (i.e., A-O, X-O, resulting in attenuated responding to X). Three lick-suppression studies were conducted with water-deprived rats. Posttraining extinction of the interfering cue (A) attenuated proactive interference (Experiment 1), which mirrors the observation that extinction of the competing cue can reduce competition between cues trained together (e.g., recovery from overshadowing). Proactive interference was also attenuated with manipulations known to attenuate interference between outcomes trained apart (e.g., counterconditioning), namely reminder cues (Experiment 2) and renewal (Experiment 3). The findings suggest that similar processes underlie interference between cues trained apart, between cues trained together, and between outcomes trained apart.     

The role of cortical cholinergic pre- and post-synaptic receptors in taste memory formation

A number of studies have implicated cholinergic activity in the mediation of learning and memory processes. However, the specific role of muscarinic receptors in memory formation mechanisms is less known. The aim of the present study is to evaluate the effects of muscarinic antagonist M2 presynaptic receptor, AFDX-116 (0.5mM) and M1 and M3 post-synaptic receptor pirenzepine (100mM), as well as a non-selective muscarinic antagonist, scopolamine (136mM), in the insular cortex (IC) during acquisition and retrieval of conditioned taste aversion (CTA). In addition, we evaluate the effects of those antagonists in cortical ACh release by in vivo microdialysis and the effects on the induction of in vivo LTP in the BLA-IC projection. The results showed that the cortical microinjections of scopolamine and pirenzepine, but not AFDX-116, produced significant disruption in the acquisition of CTA, without effects during retrieval. Microinjections of scopolamine and AFDX-116 produced significant cortical ACh release, while infusions of pirenzepine did not produce any release. Application of scopolamine and pirenzepine diminished induction of LTP in the BLA-IC projection, but not AFDX-116, as compared with vehicle. The induction of BLA-CI LTP seems to be modulated by post-synaptic muscarinic acetylcholine receptors and not by pre-synaptic muscarinic receptors. These results suggest a differential involvement of cholinergic receptors during acquisition and retrieval of aversive memory formation, as well as a differential role of muscarinic receptors in the biochemical and electrophysiological processes that may underlay aversive memory.     

Crossed categorization in common ingroup contexts

In three experiments, the authors tested the hypothesis that a common ingroup context would moderate evaluations of crossed category targets. In Experiment 1, the typical additive pattern of evaluation across artificial crossed category groups became a social inclusion pattern in a common ingroup context. In Experiment 2, the authors manipulated the importance of real crossed category targets. When the crossed groups were of low importance, the effects of imposing a common ingroup replicated those observed in Experiment 1. For important crossed groups, however, the additive pattern remained. In Experiment 3, the authors measured perceived importance of the crossed groups to social identity prior to introducing a common ingroup context. The effects of a common categorization on evaluations were again moderated by perceived importance. These findings are discussed in the context of integrating crossed categorization and common ingroup identity models of multiple categorization.     

Idiopathic physical symptoms: a common manifestation of psychiatric disorders in primary care

Worldwide, patients with common mental disorders, such as depression and anxiety, have a tendency to present first to primary care exhibiting idiopathic physical symptoms. Typically, these symptoms consist of pain and other physical complaints that remain medically unexplained. While in the past, traditional psychopathology emphasized the relevance of somatic presentations for disorders, such as depression, in the last few decades, the "somatic component" has been neglected in the assessment and treatment of psychiatric patients. Medical specialties have come up with a variety of "fashionable" labels to characterize these patients and the new psychiatric nomenclatures, such as the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition, attempt to classify these patients into a separate "somatoform disorders" category. These efforts fall short, and revisionists are asking altogether for the elimination of "somatoform disorders" from future nomenclatures. This review emphasizes the importance of idiopathic physical symptoms to the clinical phenomenology of many psychiatric disorders, offers suggestions to the diagnostic conundrum, and provides some hints for the proper assessment and management of patients with these common syndromes.     

Synaesthesia: supernormal integration?

Synaesthesia has been known to scientific research for over 100 years but has undergone something of a renaissance recently as new investigations begin to uncover its neurological basis. Rather than being an anomaly, it might offer beneficial insights into the basis of normal perception. A new study by Esterman et al. epitomises this current trend and claims to show that the posterior parietal cortex is a crucial locus of synaesthetic experience. As the posterior parietal cortex is commonly linked to normal sensory integration, Esterman et al.'s finding might lend support to the claim that synaesthesia is an extension of the normal perceptual processes assumed to occur in binding.     

Isatin: role in stress and anxiety

(Indoledione 2,3) isatin is an endogenous indole found both in mammalian brain and peripheral tissues. Isatin concentration in blood can exceed 1 microM and tissue concentrations vary from < 0.1 to 10 microM. Its level in the brain and periphery is increased by stress. Isatin has a wide spectrum of behavioural and metabolic effects. It is anxiogenic at lower doses and sedative at higher doses. Its most potent known in vitro actions are as an antagonist of atrial natriuretic peptide (ANP) function and NO signaling. In this review, we discuss isatin and stress in animal models, the few human studies, and also what it is known to date about the molecular mechanisms of its action. We suggest the possibility that isatin and its analogues may be interesting new pharmacological agents; Isatin antagonists may be anxiolytic, and isatin agonists may activate the HPA axis.