Methylphenidate slows reactions of children with attention deficit disorder during and after an error

A Sternberg memory search task was administered under placebo and methylphenidate to 42 children with cross-situational attention deficit disorder (ADD), 31 children with cross-situational ADD plus oppositional features, and 25 patients with marginal ADD. Overall, stimulant medication enhanced accuracy and speed. In addition, patients reacted faster on correct responses not preceded by an error than on errors (especially false alarms) or on correct responses following an error. The slowness during error reactions may reflect decreased confidence or confusion during stimulus classification. This uncertainty may also lead subjects to respond with greater caution, hence more slowly, on correct responses following errors. Notably, methylphenidate increased the slowing of reactions on error trials as well as on correct reactions following an error. Stimulant medication may augment subjects' persistence when they are uncertain or confused, thereby heightening caution and promoting accuracy on succeeding trials. Consistent with previous reports of the generality of enhancement of performance by stimulant medication, the impact of methylphenidate was comparable for the three subtypes of ADD studied.Jaine Strauss is at Macalester College.This research was supported by National Institute of Mental Health Grants MH32103 and MH38118. We thank Rachel Avery, Christine Carriuolo, Lawrence Ota, the late Helen Pollock, and the University of Rochester's Strong Memorial Hospital Pharmacy for their assistance.     

Human judgements of control: The interaction of the current contingency and previous controllability

Two experiments were carried out to determine the effects of the learned helplessness treatment on judgement of control over a outcome. In the first experiment judgements were found to be sensitive to the actual level of response-outcome contingency. When the contingency level was high, this sensitivity was also influenced by pretreatment, in that a prior uncontrollable experience gave rise to lower judgements than both a controllable one and no experience at all. The latter pretreatments produced the most accurate judgements. In the second experiment the judgements after an uncontrollable task were found to be insensitive to a previous controllable or uncontrollable pretreatment. The results are discussed in terms of contingency-learning models.     

Interoceptive fear conditioning and panic disorder: the role of conditioned stimulus-unconditioned stimulus predictability

Interoceptive fear conditioning is at the core of contemporary behavioral accounts of panic disorder. Yet, to date only one study has attempted to evaluate interoceptive fear conditioning in humans (see Acheson, Forsyth, Prenoveau, & Bouton, 2007). That study used brief (physiologically inert) and longer-duration (panicogenic) inhalations of 20% CO(2)-enriched air as an interoceptive conditioned (CS) and unconditioned (US) stimulus and evaluated fear learning in three conditions: CS only, CS-US paired, and CS-US unpaired. Results showed fear conditioning in the paired condition, and fearful responding and resistance to extinction in an unpaired condition. The authors speculated that such effects may be due to difficulty discriminating between the CS and the US. The aims of the present study are to (a) replicate and expand this line of work using an improved methodology, and (b) clarify the role of CS-US discrimination difficulties in either potentiating or depotentiating fear learning. Healthy participants (N=104) were randomly assigned to one of four conditions: (a) CS only, (b) contingent CS-US pairings, (c) unpaired CS and US presentations, or (d) an unpaired "discrimination" contingency, which included an exteroceptive discrimination cue concurrently with CS onset. Electrodermal and self-report ratings served as indices of conditioned responding. Consistent with expectation, the paired contingency and unpaired contingencies yielded elevated fearful responding to the CS alone. Moreover, adding a discrimination cue to the unpaired contingency effectively attenuated fearful responding. Overall, findings are consistent with modern learning theory accounts of panic and highlight the role of interoceptive conditioning and unpredictability in the etiology of panic disorder.     

Career Adapt-Abilities Scale–Portugal Form: Psychometric properties and relationships to employment status

The Career-Adaptabilities Scale (CAAS)–Portugal Form consists of four scales, each with seven items, which measure concern, control, curiosity, and confidence as psychosocial resources for managing occupational transitions, developmental tasks, and work traumas. Internal consistency estimates for the subscale and total scores ranged from good to excellent. The factor structure was fairly similar to the one computed for combined data from 13 countries. The CAAS–Portugal Form includes all the items in the International Form, and it adds one further national item to each scale. The syntheses of a variety of differential studies are presented to illustrate the importance of an adaptability measure to the field of career construction.     

Time-dependent effects of treadmill exercise on aversive memory and cyclooxygenase pathway function

Exercise induces brain function adaptations and improves learning and memory; however the time window of exercise effects has been poorly investigated. Studies demonstrate an important role for cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) pathway function in the mechanisms underlying memory formation. The aim of present work was to investigate the effects of treadmill exercise on aversive memory and COX-2, PGE(2) and E-prostanoid receptors contents in the rat hippocampus at different time points after exercise has ended. Adult male Wistar rats were assigned to non-exercised (sedentary) and exercised (running daily for 20min, for 2weeks) groups. The inhibitory avoidance task was used to assess aversive memory and the COX-2, PGE(2) and E-prostanoid receptors (EP1, EP2, EP3 and EP4) levels were determined 1h, 18h, 3days or 7days after the last training session of treadmill exercise. The step down latency in the inhibitory avoidance, COX-2 and EP4 receptors levels were acutely increased by exercise, with a significant positive correlation between aversive memory performance and COX-2 levels. Increased EP2 content decreased PGE(2) levels were observed 7days after the last running session. The treadmill exercise protocol facilitates inhibitory avoidance memory and induces time-dependent changes on COX-2 pathways function (COX-2, PGE(2) and EP receptors).     

The Effect of Rational Emotive Behaviour Therapy on Post-Traumatic Depression in Flood Victims

Journal of Rational-Emotive & Cognitive-Behavior Therapy - Posttraumatic depression is often observed among flood victims all over the world including Nigeria. People who survived the...     

Updating of context in working memory: An event-related potential study

Flexible control of behavior depends on the representation, maintenance, and updating of context information in working memory, which is thought to rely on the prefrontal cortex (PFC). However, in contrast to maintenance, the dynamics of context activation and updating have not been well studied. To identify neural signals associated with context updating, we compared event-related potentials associated with cues that did or did not provide task-relevant context information. The earliest effect of context was detected 200 msec following cue onset and had a scalp topography consistent with a generator in the PFC. Subsequent effects of context were detected at 400-700 msec following cue onset (P3b), with a broad scalp distribution spanning posterior areas, and during the final 300 msec preceding the target, with a probable generator in the medial frontal cortex. We propose that the effect of context on P2 is consistent with the onset of context updating in the PFC. Subsequent components may be indicative of activation of task-relevant posterior regions and context maintenance.     

The Effect of Retention Interval Task Difficulty on Young Children's Prospective Memory: Testing the Intention Monitoring Hypothesis

The current study examined the impact of retention interval task difficulty on 4- and 5-year-olds’ prospective memory (PM) to test the hypothesis that children periodically monitor their intentions during the retention interval and that disrupting this monitoring may result in poorer PM performance. In addition, relations among PM, working memory, theory of mind (ToM), and 2 types of planning were investigated. Children (N = 64) were randomly assigned to an easy or difficult filler task during the retention interval prior to the PM task. Five-year-olds outperformed 4-year-olds on the PM task, and children receiving the easy filler task outperformed those receiving the difficult filler task. Further, working memory, planning, and ToM were positively associated with PM for children receiving the difficult filler task but not for children receiving the easy filler task. Findings are interpreted with respect to the predictions of the intention monitoring hypothesis as well as the multiprocess framework of PM.     

Anger In Or Out,Which Is Healthier? An Attempt To Reconcile Inconsistent Findings

Abstract

A survey of the literature concerning the relationship between style of anger expression and health disorders does not lead to a clear-cut conclusion. Some studies suggest that the outward expression of anger (anger-out) contributes to health problems of various types, while others present evidence suggesting that it is the suppression of anger (anger-in) which contributes to health problems. The present study examined three conceivable explanations for the contradictory evidence produced in this research area: (1) different aspects of anger expression are differentially related to the individual's health; (2) the pattern of anger expression is related differentially to health disorders of different types; (3) the degree of matching between the individual's style of anger expression and social desirability accounts for the inconsistency in the empirical findings. A sample of 134 men underwent comprehensive medical examinations and also filled in several anger expression questionnaires. The results supported the first hypothesis, namely that intensity of anger expression was negatively correlated with ill health while frequency of anger expression was positively correlated with ill health. No support was found for the hypothesis that anger expression relates differentially to health disorders of different types. However, the matching hypothesis was confirmed in part. It was found that individuals low on both intensity of anger expression and social desirability reported the highest frequency of health problems. The theoretical significance of these findings and their practical implications are discussed.