Learning to fear outgroups: An associative learning explanation for the development and reduction of intergroup anxiety

Pavlovian conditioning is a form of associative learning shown to contribute to the development and reduction of clinical anxiety and fear, and more recently, intergroup anxiety and fear. The current review provides a synthesis of the literature on associative learning of fear toward outgroups. Findings are reviewed that outline how fear toward the outgroup, relative to the ingroup, can be preferentially learnt and is resistant to extinction‐based techniques. Novel future research directions for intergroup anxiety are then identified based upon previous research on clinical anxiety. It is proposed that processes known to enhance the extinction of specific phobia should be investigated with social stimuli. Specifically, it is argued that exploring cognitive factors during extinction and conducting extinction in multiple contexts may provide new avenues to pursue intergroup harmony through reduced intergroup anxiety. The review concludes by suggesting innovative research designs are needed to validate an associative learning account of fear toward outgroups outside of experimental settings.     

The brain prolactin system: involvement in stress response adaptations in lactation

This review focuses on prolactin as a potential candidate for the regulation of emotional and neuroendocrine stress responses in the brain. In particular, we summarise evidence for a brain prolactin receptor-mediated anxiolytic action both in female and male rats, and for inhibitory actions on the reactivity of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis and the neurohypophysial oxytocin system. These physiological functions of the brain prolactin system are especially relevant in the peripartum period, as an attenuation of behavioural and neuroendocrine stress responses has been described during pregnancy and lactation. At this time, there is an increase in brain prolactin receptor expression and binding, and an increase in hypothalamic prolactin gene expression. In the absence of a selective prolactin receptor antagonist, complementary approaches including chronic intracerebral infusion of prolactin, and antisense targeting of the long form of the brain prolactin receptor were used to investigate the actions of prolactin. The hypothesis of a brain prolactin system activated in the peripartum period which contributes to the adaptive changes in stress responsiveness in order to support reproductive functions is strongly emphasised.     

Confirmatory factor analysis of the psychopathy checklist: screening version in offenders with axis I disorders

One hundred forty-nine inpatients within a maximum security psychiatric facility were assessed with the Psychopathy Checklist: Screening Version (PCL:SV; S. D. Hart, D. N. Cox, & R. D. Hare, 1995). Within the total sample, 68% had a psychotic disorder and 30% met criteria for psychopathy. Using confirmatory factor analysis, the authors tested the 2-factor PCL:SV model of psychopathy and recent 3- and 4-factor models. Results indicated good fit for each model, with the 4-factor model showing best overall fit. Structural equation modeling was used to determine which psychopathy factors predicted 6-month follow-up of inpatient aggression. The 2-, 3-, and 4-factor models, respectively, accounted for 16%.27%. and 3l% of the variance in aggression.     

Temporal, but not spatial, context modulates a masked prime's effect on temporal order judgment, but not on response latency

Three experiments investigated a dissociation originally described by Neumann, Esselmann, and Klotz. Stimuli were geometric shapes, preceded by similar shapes that were masked by metacontrast. Each experiment consisted of three parts. In the reaction time (RT) part, participants saw an array of geometric shapes, one of which was marked by bars, and had to respond to the marked shape's position by pressing an appropriate button. A prime (a similar, but smaller stimulus) preceded either the marked or an unmarked stimulus. In the temporal order judgment (TOJ) part, the task was to judge the temporal order of the marked and the unmarked stimulus. In the detection part, detectability of the prime was tested. Although its detectability was zero or close to zero, the prime affected both RT and the apparent onset as measured by TOJ. The effect on RT was significantly larger than the effect on TOJ (Exp. 1). Increasing the spatial context (number of non-target stimuli in the display) did not affect this pattern (Exp. 2). By contrast, reducing the temporal context (range of stimulus onset asynchronies) abolished the prime's effect in the TOJ task, although the prime affected RT under identical conditions. It is concluded that partially different mechanisms mediate the prime's effect in the two tasks and that the effect of stimulus context on TOJ found in the Neumann et al. study was due to temporal, not spatial context. Received: 17 December 1997 / Accepted: 15 December 1998     

A simple cell model with dominating opponent inhibition for robust contrast detection

Ein Modell kortikaler Einfachzellen mit dominanter opponenter Inhibition zur robusten Kontrastdetektion Zusammenfassung. Im primären visuellen Pfad wird Information in zwei getrennten, komplementären Domänen repräsentiert, den on- und off-Zellen. In dieser Arbeit untersuchen wir die Interaktion von on- und off-Zellen zur Generierung der Eingabe für eine kortikale Einfachzelle. Basierend auf physiologischen Studien schlagen wir einen Mechanismus vor, bei dem eine kortikale Einfachzelle aus beiden Domänen eine Eingabe erhält, wobei die Eingabe aus dem opponenten Pfad stärker gewichtet wird. Mit diesem Mechanismus der dominanten opponenten Inhibition können Antworten von kortikalen Einfachzellen auf Hell-Dunkel-Balken simuliert werden, die im primären visuellen Kortex der Katze gemessen wurden. Bei der Verarbeitung synthetischer und natürlicher Bilder können mit dem neuen Modell schärfere Antworten und bessere Rauschunterdrückung erreicht werden. Wir geben eine stochastische Analyse der Rauschunterdrückungscharakteristika des vorgeschlagenen Mechanismus und präsentieren detaillierte numerische Simulationen mit systematischen Parametervariationen. Die Resultate zeigen, dass das Modell kortikaler Einfachzellen mit dominanter opponenter Inhibition robuster gegenüber verrauschten Eingaben wird, weitgehend unabhängig von der Stärke des Rauschens. Diese Eigenschaft ist möglicherweise der Grund für die physiologisch gemessene dominante Inhibition und für die Repräsentation von Kontrastinformation in zwei komplementären Domänen. Basierend auf diesen Ergebnissen stellen wir die Hypothese auf, dass dominante opponente Inhibition im visuellen System verwendet wird, um in verrauschten Umgebungen Kontraste robust extrahieren zu können. Summary. In the primary visual pathway, information is represented in two distinct, complementary domains, namely "on" and "off" cells. In this work we examine how on and off cells may interact to form the input to simple cell subfields. On the basis of physiological evidence, we propose a mechanism of dominating opponent inhibition, where a simple cell subfield is driven by both on and off domains, receiving more heavily weighted input from the opponent pathway. We demonstrate that the model can account for physiological data on luminance gradient reversal recorded from simple cells in cat striate cortex. Next, we use the model for the processing of synthetic and natural images, showing that sharpness of response and robustness to noise can be increased by dominating opponent inhibition. Finally, we present a stochastic analysis of the noise-suppression characteristics of the proposed mechanism accompanied by detailed simulations with systematic parameter variations. Results show that dominating opponent inhibition makes the simple cell responses more robust to noise, largely independently of the amount of noise added. This property may give a rationale for the strong inhibition measured physiologically and for the representation of contrast information in two complementary domains. On the basis of these findings, we hypothesize that the visual system uses dominating opponent inhibition in order to robustly extract features in noisy environments.     

Being the agent: memory for action events

Whoever paid the bill at the restaurant last night, will clearly remember doing it. Independently from the type of action, it is a common experience that being the agent provides a special strength to our memories. Even if it is generally agreed that personal memories (episodic memory) rely on separate neural substrates with respect to general knowledge (semantic memory), little is known on the nature of the link between memory and the sense of agency. In the present paper, we review results from two experiments investigating the effects of agency on both explicit and implicit memory traces. Performance of normal subjects is compared to that of schizophrenic patients in order to explore the role of awareness of action on memory. It is proposed that reliable first-person information is necessary to create a stable and coherent motor memory trace.     

Assessing Axis I symptomatology on the SADS-C in two correctional samples: the validation of subscales and a screen for malingered presentations

The Schedule of Affective Disorders and Schizophrenia-Change Version (SADS-C; Spitzer & Endicott, 1978b) is a brief, highly reliable structured interview with clinical applications to diverse populations. This investigation involved reanalyses of data from 2 earlier studies (Rogers, Grandjean, Tillbrook, Vitacco, & Sewell, 2001; Ustad, Rogers, & Salekin, 1998). Focusing on 2 clinical samples from a metropolitan jail, we investigated its subscales via exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis. A good model fit was found (comparative fit index =.92; robust comparative fit index =.94) for 4 subscales (Dysphoria, Psychosis, Mania, and Insomnia) with good interrater reliability (M intraclass coefficient =.95) and clinical relevance. As a preliminary screen for feigned mental disorders, 2 detection scales (Symptom Combinations and Symptom Selectivity) were moderately successful. By maximizing negative predictive power, the SADS-C detection strategies proved effective at ruling out feigning for mentally disordered offenders with a high likelihood of genuine disorders.     

Smiling faces and cash bonuses: Exploring common affective coding across positive and negative emotional and motivational stimuli using fMRI

Although it is clear that emotional and motivational manipulations yield a strong influence on cognition and behaviour, these domains have mostly been investigated in independent research lines. Therefore, it remains poorly understood how far these affective manipulations overlap in terms of their underlying neural activations, especially in light of previous findings that suggest a shared valence mechanism across multiple affective processing domains (e.g., monetary incentives, primary rewards, emotional events). This is particularly interesting considering the commonality between emotional and motivational constructs in terms of their basic affective nature (positive vs. negative), but dissociations in terms of instrumentality, in that only reward-related stimuli are typically associated with performance-contingent outcomes. Here, we aimed to examine potential common neural processes triggered by emotional and motivational stimuli in matched tasks within participants using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Across tasks, we found shared valence effects in the ventromedial prefrontal cortex and left inferior frontal gyrus (part of dorsolateral prefrontal cortex), with increased activity for positive and negative stimuli, respectively. Despite this commonality, emotion and reward tasks featured differential behavioural patterns in that negative valence effects (performance costs) were exclusive to emotional stimuli, while positive valence effects (performance benefits) were only observed for reward-related stimuli. Overall, our data suggest a common affective coding mechanism across different task domains and support the idea that monetary incentives entail signed basic valence signals, above and beyond the instruction to perform both gain and loss trials as accurately as possible to maximise the outcome.     

Cognitive and affective components of empathy and their relationship with personality dimensions in a Chinese sample

Empathy is an essential component of social interactions and may be related to personality characteristics. However, this issue has not been extensively examined in a Chinese sample. Students at six universities in China (N = 257) completed the Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IRI), the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire‐Revised (EPQ‐R), and the Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scale (DASS‐21). Using multiple regression analyses, and after accounting for demographic variables (sex and age), it was found that the affective empathy component Personal Distress positively predicted EPQ‐R Neuroticism scores (β = .49), negatively predicted Extraversion (β = –.21) and Lie scale scores (β = –.22), and positively predicted DASS‐21 Depression (β = .26), Anxiety (β = .34) and Stress scores (β = .39). Empathic Concern positively predicted Lie Scale scores (β = .21), and negatively predicted Psychoticism scores (β = –.24). Individuals with high scores in Empathic Concern were also found to score more highly on Fantasy, Personal Distress, Neuroticism, Stress and Anxiety. Thus, more empathic individuals are likely to experience elevations in negative affectivity when they perceive the emotional suffering of others.