Neurorobiology and evidence-based biological treatments for substance abuse disorders

Behavioral patterns of addiction include compulsive drug-seeking, persistent abuse of substances despite the often dire consequences on social functioning and physical health, and the high probability of relapse even after prolonged drug-free periods. The recent focus on the biological basis of addiction has provided evidence to support the hypothesis that behavioral manifestations for addiction are influenced by biological factors, and biological factors often produce behavioral changes that can further increase risk. The current understanding of the role of the dopaminergic, glutamatergic, Upsilon-aminobutyric acidergic, and opioid receptor systems in the pathophysiology of addiction as well as the clinical implications of these systems for new and emerging treatments will be discussed. This article will also review the pharmacologic agents used in the treatment of substance abuse disorders and presents evidence-based data for their safety, efficacy, and feasibility of use in different patient populations.     

Repetition blindness for words yet repetition advantage for nonwords

Accuracy of report of words in a rapidly presented sequence is reduced if 1 word is a repetition of a previous word. This is repetition blindness. If, however, the items are pronounceable nonwords, or pseudohomophones, repetition improves recall. A repetition advantage for nonwords also occurs when subjects merely count the items or when the item between the critical nonwords is a familiar word. Familiarizing subjects with the nonwords improved the level of recall but did not affect the repetition advantage. These results are considered in relation to token individuation and other accounts of repetition blindness. The findings suggest that for identical linguistic stimuli the types bound to episodic memory tokens that are vulnerable to repetition blindness are lexical units.     

Subadditivity in Memory for Personal Events

Abstract—People's subjective probability judgments of external events are often subadditive (i.e., the probability estimates of component parts of a single event sum to greater than one)—a clear violation of the extensional nature of probability theory. We show that people's frequency judgments of personal events can also be subadditive. We found subadditivity even when component events made up a proper subset of a wider composite event. Our findings imply that the somewhat arbitrary choice of the specificity with which questions are asked can produce widely different reports for the same composite events.     

Perceptions of adulthood among Anglo and Latino parents

The transition to adulthood presupposes that a developing adolescent acquires a set of characteristics that enables him or her to perform expected adult behaviors. There is a gap in the literature in identifying these expected behaviors as they pertain to different cultural and racial groups. To fill this gap, parent-generated indicators of adulthood were studied, including the beliefs, behaviors, and attitudes that are either common or specific to Anglo and Latino parents. College students at an urban university in the Los Angeles area were recruited to enlist their parents to complete a questionnaire. Equal numbers from each ethnic group were surveyed. The results of this study indicate that Anglo participants defined adulthood in terms of independence significantly more often than Latino participants. Furthermore, Latino participants defined adulthood in terms of event-related markers, such as marriage, significantly more often than Anglo participants. This research points to the need to define adulthood in ways that reflect the ethnic diversity of the United States. The authors express their thanks to Russell Espinoza, Ileana Garoz, Anna Rivera, Sandra Samayoa, Gabriella Chavira, Maria Hernandez, Angel Lahr, and Kevin Kim for their invaluable assistance. An earlier version of this paper was presented at the 1997 meeting of the Western Psychological Association, Seattle.     

In re Edna MF: Case Law Confusion in Surrogate Decision Making

I review the recent case of Edna Folz, a 73 year-old woman who was suffering through the end stages of very advanced Alzheimer's dementia when her case was adjudicated by the Wisconsin Supreme Court. I consider this case as an example of how courts are increasingly misinterpreting the ethical and legal decision-making standards known as substituted judgment and best interests and thereby threatening individuals' treatment decision-making rights as developed by other courts over the past two decades and creating serious roadblocks to health-care providers' ability to render appropriate patient care. The Wisconsin Supreme Court held that Edna's legal guardian could not authorize withdrawal of Edna's treatment, ruling that as a matter of law, if an incompetent person is not in a persistent vegetative state, it is not in his or her best interests for life-sustaining treatment to be withdrawn unless (s)he has executed an advance directive or other statement clearly indicating his or her desires.     

Recall of short word lists presented visually at fast rates: Effects of phonological similarity and word length

Phonological similarity of visually presented list items impairs short-term serial recall. Lists of long words are also recalled less accurately than are lists of short words. These results have been attributed to phonological recoding and rehearsal. If subjects articulate irrelevant words during list presentation, both phonological similarity and word length effects are abolished. Experiments 1 and 2 examined effects of phonological similarity and recall instructions on recall of lists shown at fast rates (from one item per 0.114-0.50 sec), which might not permit phonological encoding and rehearsal. In Experiment 3, recall instructions and word length were manipulated using fast presentation rates. Both phonological similarity and word length effects were observed, and they were not dependent on recall instructions. Experiments 4 and 5 investigated the effects of irrelevant concurrent articulation on lists shown at fast rates. Both phonological similarity and word length effects were removed by concurrent articulation, as they were with slow presentation rates.     

Electrodermal activity and extraversion: Caffeine,preparatory signal and stimulus intensity effects

The Eysenck hypothesis that introverts are more and extraverts less cortically aroused has been supported by the results of most electrodermal studies, though there is some inconsistency in the literature. Further tests of the hypothesis can be carried out using arousal-manipulation paradigms. Some studies have used caffeine or stimulus intensity to increase arousal, as was also the case in the present study. The latter, however, also introduced a preparatory signal, which may be expected under certain conditions, to reduce responses to the stimulus which follows it. Extraverts and introverts were randomly assigned to receive low, medium or high doses of caffeine or a placebo. Each S then heard two sets of tones with the tones in one set preceded by a preparatory signal. Results showed that the preparatory signal reduced phasic amplitudes only at the highest levels of stimulus intensity. Introverts had higher overall SCLs and response magnitudes. In addition, the preparatory signal had little effect on extraverts, but reversed dosage-related response patterns in introverts. Results were supportive of the basic Eysenck arousal hypothesis and also showed that the arousal difference leads to attentional variability between the two groups.     

Recency effects in memory,as a function of modality of intervening events

Summary Word lists of fifteen items were presented to eye or to ear, with recall either immediately, or after a visual task, or after an auditory one. Instructions were to recall the last items first. An intervening task using the same modality greatly reduced recall of the last items presented; whereas a visual task did not do so for acoustically presented items. An auditory task reduced visual memory. These results suggest a specific auditory memory for recent events, over-written by subsequent auditory events.This research was supported by the Medical Research Council. The experimental work was performed at the Applied Psychology Unit, Cambridge.