Determinants of Quality of Life in Pre-Frail Older Adults According to Phenotypic Criteria: the VERISAUDE Study

Frailty is a dynamic clinical syndrome considered as part of an age-associated continuum of severity, including pre-frailty as an intermediate frailty status with potential reversibility to robustness. The main purpose of this study was to analyse the relationship between the different domains of quality of life, functional dependence and depressive symptomatology in older adults diagnosed as pre-frail, before progression to frailty occurs. Logistic regression analyses were conducted to examine whether sex, age, level of education and scores in the Geriatric Depression Scale 15-item Short Form (GDS-SF) and the Instrumental Activities of Daily Living Lawton scale determine the worst score in the WHOQOL-BREF (World Health Organization Quality of Life) in older adults meeting one or two frailty phenotypic criteria. Depressive symptomatology (GDS-SF score) was the main determinant of poor quality of life in both groups, and in all areas of WHOQOL-BREF. Age was only associated with poor satisfaction with own health. Female sex and low educational level were linked to low physical QOL and poor self-rated health, respectively, but only in older adults meeting one frailty criterion. Association between functional status and WHOQOL-BREF scores was only found in the univariate analysis. These results underline the importance of identifying multiple aspects, but mainly the presence of depressive symptomatology, as risk factors for all dimensions of quality of life in the pre-frailty process, where interventions might be targeted to reduce the progression of pre-frailty and frailty in older adults.     

My point is valid,yours is not: myside bias in reasoning about abortion

The study explores whether people are more inclined to accept a conclusion that confirms their prior beliefs and reject one they personally object to even when both follow the same logic. Most of the prior research in this area has relied on the informal reasoning paradigm; in this study, however, we applied a formal reasoning paradigm to distinguish between cognitive and motivational mechanisms leading to myside bias in reasoning on value-laden topics (in this case abortions). Slovak and Polish (N?=?387) participants indicated their attitudes toward abortion and then evaluated logical syllogisms with neutral, pro-choice, or pro-life content. We analysed whether participants’ prior attitudes influenced their ability to solve these logically identical reasoning tasks and found that prior attitudes were the strongest predictor of myside bias in evaluating both valid and invalid syllogisms, even after controlling for logical validity (the ability to solve neutral syllogisms) and previous experience of logic.     

Does midbrain urocortin 1 matter? A 15-year journey from stress (mal)adaptation to energy metabolism

This review summarizes some of the milestones of the research on the biological functions(s) of midbrain urocortin 1 (Ucn1) since its discovery 15 years ago. Detailed characterization of Ucn1 in the midbrain revealed its overall significance in food intake and regulation of homeostatic equilibrium and mood under stress. In addition, we have recently found a conspicuous alteration in midbrain Ucn1 levels in brains of depressed suicide victims. Furthermore, from the results from the genetically modified animals, a picture is emerging where corticotrophin-releasing factor promotes the initial reactions to stress, whereas Ucn1 seems to be crucial for management of the later adaptive phase. In the case of imbalance in action of these principle stress mediators, vulnerability to stress-related brain diseases is enhanced.     

The Relationship Between the Fear-Avoidance Model of Pain and Personality Traits in Fibromyalgia Patients

This study examined the relationship between several cognitive-affective factors of the fear-avoidance model of pain, the big five model of personality, and functional impairment in fibromyalgia (FM). Seventy-four FM patients completed the NEO Five-Factor Inventory, the Pain Catastrophizing Scale, the Pain Anxiety Symptoms Scale-20, the Pain Vigilance and Awareness Questionnaire, and the Impairment and Functioning Inventory. Results indicated that the cognitive-affective factors of pain are differentially associated with personality traits. Neuroticism and conscientiousness were significant predictors of pain catastrophizing, and neuroticism, openness, and agreeableness were significant predictors of pain anxiety. Personality traits did not contribute significantly to vigilance to pain. The effect of neuroticism upon pain anxiety was mediated by pain catastrophizing, and neuroticism showed a trend to moderate the relationship between impairment and pain anxiety. Results support the fear-avoidance model of pain. Implications of the findings for the understanding and management of FM are discussed.     

Attentional orienting and awareness: evidence from a discrimination task

We used several cue–target SOAs (100, 500, 1000 ms) and three different degrees of cue predictability (Non-predictive-50%, Predictive-75%, Counter-predictive-25%), to investigate the role of awareness of cue–target predictability on cueing effects. A group of participants received instructions about the informative value of the cue, while another group did not receive such instructions. Participants were able to extract the predictive value of a spatially peripheral cue and use it to orient attention, whether or not specific instructions about the predictive value of the cue were given, and no matter their ability to correctly report it in a post-test questionnaire. In the non-predictive block, bad estimators who received no instructions showed regular cueing effects, while good estimators exhibited smaller and non-significant facilitatory effects at the short SOA and an absence of significant IOR at longer SOAs. However, for the instructions group, the pattern of results reversed.     

The effects of perpetrator age and abuse disclosure on the relationship between feelings provoked by child sexual abuse and posttraumatic stress

The present study examined the relationship between feelings provoked by child sexual abuse (CSA) and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptom scores in a sample of 163 female survivors of CSA. Finkelhor and Browne's traumagenic dynamics model was applied. The interactive effects of provoked feelings with perpetrator age and the existence of abuse disclosure were also studied. Results showed an overall relationship between feelings provoked by CSA and PTSD symptom scores. Feelings of stigma, betrayal, and powerlessness as a result of CSA were associated with PTSD symptom score when the entire group of CSA victims was analyzed. The role of traumatic sexualization was relevant only when analyzed in interaction with the age of the perpetrator and disclosure. The relationship between traumatic sexualization and PTSD symptom scores was only significant when the abuse was committed by an adult perpetrator and when a disclosure was made during the time of abuse, or a short time after the abuse had occurred.     

Conditioned taste aversion modifies persistently the subsequent induction of neocortical long-term potentiation in vivo

The ability of neurons to modify their synaptic strength in an activity-dependent manner has a crucial role in learning and memory processes. It has been proposed that homeostatic forms of plasticity might provide the global regulation necessary to maintain synaptic strength and plasticity within a functional dynamic range. Similarly, it is considered that the capacity of synapses to express plastic changes is itself subject to variation dependent on previous experience. In particular, training in several behavioral tasks modifies the possibility to induce long-term potentiation (LTP). Our previous studies in the insular cortex (IC) have shown that induction of LTP in the basolateral amygdaloid nucleus (Bla)-IC projection previous to conditioned taste aversion (CTA) training enhances the retention of this task. The aim of the present study was to analyze whether CTA training modifies the ability to induce subsequent LTP in the Bla-IC projection in vivo. Thus, CTA trained rats received high frequency stimulation in the Bla-IC projection in order to induce LTP 48, 72, 96 and 120 h after the aversion test. Our results show that CTA training prevents the subsequent induction of LTP in the Bla-IC projection, for at least 120 h after CTA training. We also showed that pharmacological inhibition of CTA consolidation with anisomycin (1 μl/side; 100 μg/μl) prevents the CTA effect on IC-LTP. These findings reveal that CTA training produces a persistent change in the ability to induce subsequent LTP in the Bla-IC projection in a protein-synthesis dependent manner, suggesting that changes in the ability to induce subsequent synaptic plasticity contribute to the formation and persistence of aversive memories.     

Intracellular calcium chelation and pharmacological SERCA inhibition of Ca2+ pump in the insular cortex differentially affect taste aversive memory formation and retrieval

Variation in intracellular calcium concentration regulates the induction of long-term synaptic plasticity and is associated with a variety of memory/retrieval and learning paradigms. Accordingly, impaired calcium mobilization from internal deposits affects synaptic plasticity and cognition in the aged brain. During taste memory formation several proteins are modulated directly or indirectly by calcium, and recent evidence suggests the importance of calcium buffering and the role of intracellular calcium deposits during cognitive processes. Thus, the main goal of this research was to study the consequence of hampering changes in cytoplasmic calcium and inhibiting SERCA activity by BAPTA-AM and thapsigargin treatments, respectively, in the insular cortex during different stages of taste memory formation. Using conditioned taste aversion (CTA), we found differential effects of BAPTA-AM and thapsigargin infusions before and after gustatory stimulation, as well as during taste aversive memory consolidation; BAPTA-AM, but not thapsigargin, attenuates acquisition and/or consolidation of CTA, but neither compound affects taste aversive memory retrieval. These results point to the importance of intracellular calcium dynamics in the insular cortex during different stages of taste aversive memory formation.     

Growth modeling with nonignorable dropout: alternative analyses of the STAR*D antidepressant trial

This article uses a general latent variable framework to study a series of models for nonignorable missingness due to dropout. Nonignorable missing data modeling acknowledges that missingness may depend not only on covariates and observed outcomes at previous time points as with the standard missing at random assumption, but also on latent variables such as values that would have been observed (missing outcomes), developmental trends (growth factors), and qualitatively different types of development (latent trajectory classes). These alternative predictors of missing data can be explored in a general latent variable framework with the Mplus program. A flexible new model uses an extended pattern-mixture approach where missingness is a function of latent dropout classes in combination with growth mixture modeling. A new selection model not only allows an influence of the outcomes on missingness but allows this influence to vary across classes. Model selection is discussed. The missing data models are applied to longitudinal data from the Sequenced Treatment Alternatives to Relieve Depression (STAR*D) study, the largest antidepressant clinical trial in the United States to date. Despite the importance of this trial, STAR*D growth model analyses using nonignorable missing data techniques have not been explored until now. The STAR*D data are shown to feature distinct trajectory classes, including a low class corresponding to substantial improvement in depression, a minority class with a U-shaped curve corresponding to transient improvement, and a high class corresponding to no improvement. The analyses provide a new way to assess drug efficiency in the presence of dropout.     

An introduction to the 2011 National Multicultural Conference & Summit keynote addresses

This article provides and introduction to the 2011 National Multicultural Conference & Summit Keynote Addresses. The authors explain that they chose to focus on the tension and possibilities within multicultural psychology at the seventh biennial National Multicultural Conference & Summit (NMCS), which was held on January 27-28, 2011, at The Westin-Seattle Hotel. During the 2-day conference, nearly 900 attendees engaged with one another and heard from experts in the field as we focused on the theme, "Unification through Diversity: Bridging Psychological Science & Practice in the Public Interest. Two key sets of presentations are highlighted.