Entwicklungspsychologische Aspekte von Delinquenz

Children and adolescents are more likely to present aggressive behavior than adults. According to official criminal statistics in Germany approximately one quarter of all delinquents are younger than 25 years. Nevertheless, delinquency is a transient phenomenon in adolescence and the prevalence of delinquency in young adults decreases significantly. Most children show no problems with aggressive behavior or delinquency and only persistent problems with aggressive behavior, violence and conduct problems indicate the necessity for child and adolescent psychiatric diagnostics. The type of aggression (proactive versus reactive) a child presents seems to be predictive for the later outcome and children with proactive aggression are at higher risk for later delinquency and social problems. Lack of empathy and psychopathic traits are further aspects which are of interest in research on etiology of aggressive behavior in children. Both seem to be relevant as predictors of the course of aggressive behavior. Furthermore, attachment problems in infancy, parenting style and ecological factors, such as socioeconomic status and peers have an influence both on the origin and on the course of aggressive behavior in children.     

Langzeitergebnisse einer Funktionellen-Magnetresonanztomographie-Studie

In a controlled functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study the effect of psychodynamic short-term psychotherapy on cerebral activation of panic disorder patients was determined. In a linguistic go-no go paradigm behavioral measures and cerebral activation to affective word stimuli with threatening, neutral and positive content were assessed pretreatment and post-treatment in 9 patients with panic disorder. 18 healthy controls were scanned twice at the same intervals. In an additional long-term follow-up after approximately 3 years post-treatment the effect of brain activation changes during treatment on the long-term outcome of core symptoms (panic-related cognition and fear of body sensations) were determined. In accordance with the hypotheses increased limbic (hippocampus and amygdala) activation accompanied by low prefrontal activation to negative words were found. At treatment termination, panic-related symptoms had improved significantly and fronto-limbic activation patterns were normalized. Reduction of activation of the limbic system during treatment was predictive of a favorable long-term outcome. The results indicate that short-term psychodynamic treatment leads to changes in fronto-limbic networks, similar to previous findings on cognitive-behavioural treatment.     

Honeybee methodology, cognition, and theory: recording local directional decisions in interpatch foraging and interpreting their theoretical relevance

Investigations made into the cognitive decision making of honeybees (Apis mellifera) traveling from one flower patch to another flower patch (interpatch foraging) are few. To facilitate such research, we present methods to artificially emulate interpatch foraging and quantify the immediate decision making of honeybees (within 50 cm) choosing to fly an interpatch path. These “Interpatch Methods” are validated, applied, and shown to produce novel information for the field of honeybee spatial cognition. Generally, we demonstrate that a single foraging cohort of honeybees is shown to be capable of making decisions based upon different sets of learned cues, in the exact same context. Specifically, both terminal beacon orientation cues and compass navigation cues can guide the cognitive decision making of interpatch foraging honeybees; our bees chose both cues equally. Finally, the theoretical importance of decision making for interpatch paths is compared with the other foraging paths (outward and homing) with respect to the information available to recruited foragers and scout foragers. We conclude that the ability to analyze interpatch foraging is critical for a more complete understanding of honeybee foraging cognition and that our methods are capable of providing that understanding.     

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