Psychophysiological and cognitive responses to stressful stimuli in subjects practicing progressive relaxation and clinically standardized meditation

Thirty-six volunteer subjects were assigned to one of three conditions: progressive relaxation, clinically standardized meditation, or a waiting list control group asked to relax daily (without specific instruction). Subjects were given paper and pencil tests two times, separated by 5 weeks during which time the two treatment groups received 4 weekly sessions of group training. All subjects were tested in the psychophysiology laboratory at the end of the 5-week period, during which time they were exposed to 5 very loud tones. While relaxing as deeply as possible using the techniques they had learned and anticipating the loud tones, the meditation group exhibited higher heart rates and higher integrated frontalis EMG activity, but they also showed greater cardiac decelerations following each tone, more frontal alpha, and fewer symptoms of cognitive anxiety than the other two groups. The relaxation group reported more sensations of muscular relaxation than the other groups, but also some symptoms of hyperventilation. The results are generally consistent with Davidson and Schwartz's (1976) categorization of meditation as a ‘cognitive’ technique, and suggest that frontal EEG alpha may be a physiological marker for the absence of cognitive anxiety. Physiological findings also support Goleman and Schwartz's (1976) suggestion that meditation prepares people to cope with stress.     

Vocational interests of career and homemaker oriented women

Women who had completed the SVIB-W as freshmen in college were contacted 13 to 21 years later and were classified as career (N = 236) or homemaker (N = 527) oriented on the basis of their actual work experiences. Significant differences between the groups were found on 25 of the 44 occupational scales, one of the three nonoccupational scales, and four of the 19 basic interest scales. The interests of the homemaker oriented women were more similar to the interests of women in business, nonprofessional, and home economics occupations while the interests of the career oriented women were more similar to the interests of women in the verbal-linguistic, verbal scientific, and scientific occupations. The results are discussed in terms of previous research and Holland's Occupational Classification system.     

Schizotypy and verbal memory in the adolescent general population

The following study examines the relationship between verbal memory deficits and schizotypal traits measured psychometrically from a non- clinical adolescent population. In this transversal analytical study participated 139 subjects. They were secondary school students, with ages ranging from 13 to 16 years old (mean= 14, 35; Sta.Dev.= 0, 548). After administrating the scales O-LIFE (psychometrical schizotypy), CVLT (verbal memory), and Letters and Numbers subtest of WAIS-III (working memory), data was analyzed utilizing Pearson correlations and mean comparison test. Results showed lack of relations between schizotypy measures and working memory. Nonetheless, some of the O-LIFE dimensions correlated with verbal memory. These findings support partly the literature reviewed. Yet, more work focused on schizotypy and cognitive deficits as risk factors are suggested.     

Amygdala activation during masked presentation of emotional faces predicts conscious detection of threat-related faces

It has been argued that critical functions of the human amygdala are to modulate the moment-to-moment vigilance level and to enhance the processing and the consolidation of memories of emotionally arousing material. In this functional magnetic resonance study, pictures of human faces bearing fearful, angry, and happy expressions were presented to nine healthy volunteers using a backward masking procedure based on neutral facial expression. Activation of the left and right amygdala in response to the masked fearful faces (compared to neutral faces) was significantly correlated with the number of fearful faces detected. In addition, right but not left amygdala activation in response to the masked angry faces was significantly related to the number of angry faces detected. The present findings underscore the role of the amygdala in the detection and consolidation of memory for marginally perceptible threatening facial expression.     

Behavioral Approach System (BAS) Sensitivity and Bipolar Spectrum Disorders: A Retrospective and Concurrent Behavioral High-Risk Design

In this article, we tested the vulnerability hypothesis of the behavioral approach system (BAS) hypersensitivity model of bipolar disorders. We examined whether self-reported BAS sensitivity predicts lifetime bipolar spectrum diagnoses as well as symptoms and personality characteristics associated with bipolar disorder using a retrospective and concurrent behavioral high-risk design. Participants with high (HBAS; n=28) or moderate (MBAS; n=24) BAS sensitivity were selected and given a lifetime psychiatric diagnostic interview and self-report measures of proneness to bipolar symptoms, current symptoms, and personality characteristics relevant to bipolarity. HBAS participants were significantly and substantially more likely to have a lifetime bipolar spectrum disorder diagnosis than were MBAS participants, but did not differ from MBAS participants in their likelihood of a unipolar depression diagnosis. Also, the HBAS group exhibited higher impulsivity and proneness to hypomanic symptoms than the MBAS group, and BAS-reward responsiveness predicted hypomanic personality characteristics. Finally, high behavioral inhibition system (BIS) sensitivity was associated with proneness to and current depressive symptoms.

Constructing a past in infancy: a neuro-developmental account

The ability to recall the past is fundamental yet until relatively recently, infants were assumed to lack the capacity. Contrary to this perspective, non-verbal tests indicate that developments in recall are well underway by late in the first year of life; by the end of the second year, long-term recall is reliable and robust. New research combining electrophysiological and behavioral measures is identifying the loci of age-related changes: they are attributed to more effective and efficient encoding, consolidation and storage processes associated with developments in the temporal-cortical network that subserves recall. The emerging framework, which applies to episodic and autobiographical memory, highlights the essential developmental continuities in memory from infancy onwards and sheds new light on the phenomenon of childhood amnesia.     

Development of multisensory spatial integration and perception in humans

Previous studies have shown that adults respond faster and more reliably to bimodal compared to unimodal localization cues. The current study investigated for the first time the development of audiovisual (A-V) integration in spatial localization behavior in infants between 1 and 10 months of age. We observed infants' head and eye movements in response to auditory, visual, or both kinds of stimuli presented either 25 degrees or 45 degrees to the right or left of midline. Infants under 8 months of age intermittently showed response latencies significantly faster toward audiovisual targets than toward either auditory or visual targets alone They did so, however, without exhibiting a reliable violation of the Race Model, suggesting that probability summation alone could explain the faster bimodal response. In contrast, infants between 8 and 10 months of age exhibited bimodal response latencies significantly faster than unimodal latencies for both eccentricity conditions and their latencies violated the Race Model at 25 degrees eccentricity. In addition to this main finding, we found age-dependent eccentricity and modality effects on response latencies. Together, these findings suggest that audiovisual integration emerges late in the first year of life and are consistent with neurophysiological findings from multisensory sites in the superior colliculus of infant monkeys showing that multisensory enhancement of responsiveness is not present at birth but emerges later in life.     

Relative impact of young adult personality disorders on subsequent quality of life: findings of a community-based longitudinal study

Little is known about long-term prognostic implications of personality disorder (PD) for quality of life (QOL) in the young adult population not selected for psychiatric treatment. The purpose of this study was to determine the association of PDs with QOL assessed after an 11-year interval. PDs were assessed in 1991-1994 at mean age 22, and indicators of QOL were assessed in 2001-2004 at mean age 33 based on a community sample of 588 young adults. Findings indicated that any PD, or a cluster A, B, or C PD each were independently associated with elevated impairment in overall QOL after adjusting for demographic variables, co-occurring Axis I disorder, and physical illness, and PDs in other clusters. Cluster B PD had a greatest adverse impact on QOL. Symptoms of antisocial, borderline, and schizotypal PD symptoms were independently associated with significant reductions in QOL; avoidant, paranoid, and dependent PD symptoms were associated with smaller reductions, not reaching statistical significance. Symptoms of other individual PDs were not associated with reduced QOL. PDs in young adults in the community have an enduring and adverse impact on subsequent QOL that cannot be attributed to physical illness or Axis I psychiatric disorder.