Endogenous cortisol level interacts with noradrenergic activation in the human amygdala

Animal studies show that high cortisol levels exert their effect on stressful task performance via modulation of the amygdala. Availability of noradrenaline in this brain region appears to be a critical prerequisite for this effect. This relationship between noradrenaline and cortisol is explained by an animal model where the amygdala constitutes a crucial region for this interaction. In humans this model has not been extensively tested so far. In a previously reported study human subjects (aged 20.93+/-2.38) were scanned using fMRI when watching sets of emotional and neutral pictures after taking the beta-adrenergic antagonist propranolol or placebo. Stimulus sets consisted of 92 pictures, divided in four emotional categories that ranged from neutral scenes of domestic objects (CAT1) to extremely negative scenes of mutilation or accidents (CAT4). Confrontation with arousing emotional pictures, accompanied by increased noradrenaline levels, evoked increased amygdala activation under placebo but not under betablocker condition. This new and additional analysis of this data set was carried out to determine the effect of differential endogenous cortisol levels on amygdala activation. Cortisol levels during scanning were determined using salivary samples and subjects were post hoc divided in a High (n=14) and Low cortisol group (n=14). When subjects were watching emotional stimuli, presumably associated with enhanced noradrenaline (NA) levels, amygdala activation was contrasted between the two cortisol groups. We hypothesized that emotional stimuli would elicit more amygdala activation in the High than in the Low cortisol group. Here we demonstrate indeed a significant interaction effect of the endogenous cortisol level with increasing activation in the amygdala under placebo but not under betablocker condition, thereby extending the rodent based model of a synergistic effect of the two stress hormones to the human.     

Untangling invariant object recognition

Despite tremendous variation in the appearance of visual objects, primates can recognize a multitude of objects, each in a fraction of a second, with no apparent effort. However, the brain mechanisms that enable this fundamental ability are not understood. Drawing on ideas from neurophysiology and computation, we present a graphical perspective on the key computational challenges of object recognition, and argue that the format of neuronal population representation and a property that we term 'object tangling' are central. We use this perspective to show that the primate ventral visual processing stream achieves a particularly effective solution in which single-neuron invariance is not the goal. Finally, we speculate on the key neuronal mechanisms that could enable this solution, which, if understood, would have far-reaching implications for cognitive neuroscience.     

An overview of paradoxical counseling and its congruence with biblical writings

Paradoxical counseling (PC) became popular in the second part of last century with the advent of systemic and multi-relational therapies. Since then, it has changed into a variety of behavioral techniques still in use today. How consistent or inconsistent is PC will depend a great deal upon each counselor's beliefs, including those who consider themselves pastoral counselors or Christian counselors. The authors suggest, however, that using workbooks written in both linear-straight-forward or circular-paradoxical ways as homework assignments may enlarge the expertise of a variety of counselors in ways perhaps heretofore unfamiliar to them.     

EMuJoy: Software for continuous measurement of perceived emotions in music

An adequate study of emotions in music and film should be based on the real-time measurement of selfreported data using a continuous-response method. The recording system discussed in this article reflects two important aspects of such research: First, for a better comparison of results, experimental and technical standards for continuous measurement should be taken into account, and second, the recording system should be open to the inclusion of multimodal stimuli. In light of these two considerations, our article addresses four basic principles of the continuous measurement of emotions: (1) the dimensionality of the emotion space, (2) data acquisition (e.g., the synchronization of media and the self-reported data), (3) interface construction for emotional responses, and (4) the use of multiple stimulus modalities. Researcher-developed software (EMuJoy) is presented as a freeware solution for the continuous measurement of responses to different media, along with empirical data from the self-reports of 38 subjects listening to emotional music and viewing affective pictures. Behavior Research Methods     

The Institute for Music Physiology and Musicians’ Medicine

The Institute of Music Physiology and Musicians' Medicine of the University of Music and Drama in Hannover, Germany, is a unique Institution in Europe whose scope includes teaching the basics of music physiology and musicians' medicine and research into the physiological and neurobiological principles of professional music performance and music perception. Furthermore, the institute conducts research into the causes of occupational injuries in musicians and provides means for prevention, diagnosis and treatment of such injuries.     

Explorations of anticipatory behavioral control (ABC): a report from the cognitive psychology unit of the University of Würzburg

The report comprises recent theoretical considerations, experimental research, and simulations which all aim at a clarification of anticipatory mechanisms of behavioral control.     

The existential cost of economic insecurity: Threatened financial security undercuts meaning

Financial security (i.e., a person’s sense that they can afford the things they need now and in the foreseeable future) contributes to psychological health and well-being. In the present research, we explored the implications of financial security for perceptions of meaning in life. In Study 1, we found that perceptions of financial insecurity predicted perceptions of meaning in life above and beyond income. Further, income only predicted perceptions of meaning to the extent that it was associated with reduced financial insecurity. In Studies 2 and 3, we found that financial security threats undermined perceptions of meaning in life. Taken together, these studies suggest that maintaining financial security is important for a sense of meaning in life.     

About the role of bottom-up and top-down processes on perception–action interaction in sensorimotor transformations

Theories of common-coding propose that feature codes of perceived and to-be-produced events are likely to interact with each other when they overlap. We investigated the impact of bottom-up and top-down processes on cross talk in a motor replication task. Participants moved a pen on a covered digitizer tablet while a gain varied the relation between hand and cursor amplitude. Then, participants replicated the hand amplitude (intra-modal) or the cursor amplitude (intermodal) without visual feedback. We replicated that, when the not-to-be-replicated amplitude was longer (shorter) than the to-be-replicated amplitude, replications significantly overshot (undershot) (= after-effects). Importantly, after-effects were remarkably smaller in the experimental groups which wore gloves (thin and thick rubber) or goggles (clear and tinted lenses) than in a control group. Our results provide evidence that top-down attention modulated perception–action interaction.