Mechanism of isoflavone aglycone's effect on cognitive performance of senescence-accelerated mice

This study investigated the effect of isoflavone aglycone (IA) on the learning and memory performance of senescence-accelerated mice, and explored its neural protective mechanism. Results showed that SAM-P/8 senescence-accelerated mice treated with IA performed significantly better in the Y-maze cognitive test than the no treatment control (P<0.05). The cortex AchE activity, serum SOD and GSH-Px activities were notably higher (P<0.05). MDA concentration and the β-secretase activity in the hippocampal tissue were both lower (P<0.05). Additionally, the number of hippocampal neurons was increased and cell morphology was significantly improved. Data suggested that IA could indirectly increase concentration of the cholinergic neural transmitter Ach through regulation of AchE, therefore improving the central cholinergic function and enhancing the learning and memory ability. By reducing the β-secretase activity, IA could decrease the formation and deposition of insoluble Adebris, relieve the resulted toxicity and damage to neurons, and thereby effectively protect the nervous system.     

Correction to: Organizational Benefits of Onboarding Contingent Workers: an Anchoring Model Approach

Journal of Business and Psychology -     

Goal complexes: Integrating achievement goals as standards and self-attributed motives as reasons underlying goal pursuit

Goal complexes, which are formed by pairing standards of competence strivings with their underlying reasons, are essential to an understanding of achievement goal regulation. This paper examines goal complexes that cross other-approach and other-avoidance goals with the approach-avoidance dimensions of Big Three motives as underlying reasons. 220 undergraduates participated in Study 1 which developed and validated the Self-Attributed Motive Scale to measure hope of success, fear of failure, hope of affiliation, fear of rejection, hope of power, and fear of loss of power. Additionally, 235 undergraduates participated in Study 2 where goal complexes were created by crossing the motive items developed in Study 1 with other-approach and other-avoidance goals. The predictive utility of the resultant goal complexes was examined in relation to positive well-being (positive learning-related emotions and engagement), negative well-being (negative learning-related emotions and burnout), and academic buoyancy. The contributions of the studies to the self-attributed motive and goal complex literatures are discussed.

     

Intentionality and partial belief

Suppose we wish to provide a naturalistic account of intentionality. Like several other philosophers, we focus on the intentionality of belief, hoping that we may later supplement our account to accommodate other intentional states like desires and fears. Now suppose that we also take partial beliefs or credences seriously. In cashing out our favoured theory of intentionality, we may for the sake of simplicity talk as if belief is merely binary or all-or-nothing. But we should be able to supplement or modify our account to accommodate credences. I shall argue, however, that it is difficult to do so with respect to certain causal or teleological theories of intentionality-in particular, those advanced by the likes of Stalnaker (Inquiry, 1984) and Millikan (J Philos 86:281–297, 1989). I shall first show that such theories are tailor-made to account for the intentionality of binary beliefs. Then I shall argue that it is hard to extend or supplement such theories to accommodate credences. Finally, I shall offer some natural ways of modifying the theories that involve an appeal to objective probabilities. But unfortunately, such modifications face problems.     

神仙迷雾中的科学颗粒--中国传统炼丹术面面观

中国传统炼丹术虽因目标的虚幻早已退出历史舞台,但拨开炼丹术的神仙迷雾,在炼丹术的理论与实践中也包含着诸多值得总结思考的内容。在荒谬的追求中,神仙意志支配下的炼丹活动客观上产生了一些有价值的副产品。从“炼丹所依据的正确哲学和科学命题”,“在正确前提指导下的炼丹术如何最终走向谬误”、“在歪曲和虚妄中又何以能取得客观的科学成果”等问题展开分析论证,既肯定了古代炼丹家通过人工变革自然的主动探求精神,也揭示了其中错误的原因。     

我们应该“创造生命”吗？

人造细胞是现代生物科学技术中的热点问题之一,由人造细胞及其衍生出来人造生命的伦理问题也备受关注,关于是否应该继续研究人造生命,支持者和反对者之间各执其词。以克莱格·文特“创造人造细胞”事件为切入点,回顾了人造生命的历史,简要介绍人造细胞的产生过程,分析人造细胞的正面和负面影响;同时提出马克思主义哲学可以为医学伦理问题的研究提供不同的维度与角度,让人们对人造细胞产生的道德问题做出更全面的判断。     

Neural correlates of inefficient filtering of emotionally neutral distractors from working memory in trait anxiety

Research has indicated that highly trait-anxious (HTA) individuals exhibit a specific deficit in filtering threat-related distractors from visual–spatial working memory (WM). Prior demonstrations of impaired inhibition control in HTA individuals have mainly focused on tasks that required the inhibition of prepotent response tendencies. Studies on the suppression of emotionally neutral distractors from WM in trait anxiety have also been minimal. In this article, we present a study on the manifestation of general inefficient filtering of neutral distractors during visual–spatial WM maintenance stages in HTA individuals. Female participants performed a visual–spatial WM task while event-related potentials were recorded. They were made to remember the orientations of red rectangles within half of the screen and to ignore all salient green rectangles. As predicted, no significant main effect of group and no interaction between group and condition were found in the N2pc component, suggesting that group differences did not manifest in the initial process of object individuation. During the subsequent WM maintenance phase, HTA individuals were highly inefficient at filtering the irrelevant items from WM, as reflected not only by parallel late contralateral delay activity (CDA; 450 to 900 ms) amplitudes for the distractor condition and the four red items, but also by a smaller filtering efficiency score in the HTA group than in the low-trait-anxiety group. Extending previous studies, our findings verify a general filtering impairment in HTA individuals for task-irrelevant salient distractors during a WM maintenance phase.     

对恐怖情绪的调节:认知重评和表达抑制的差异——一项ERP研究

本研究采用事件相关电位(ERP)技术,通过测量由视觉诱发的脑电成分晚正波(LPP)来比较情绪调节策略在生理电特征上的差异,探讨认知重评和表达抑制的优劣。实验结果表明:(1)从波幅的角度来比较:在400—600ms时间窗口内,认知重评条件下恐怖图片诱发的LPP波幅显著小于在自由观看条件下的波幅,而表达抑制和自由观看组所诱发的LPP波幅差异较小。(2)从时间进程的角度来比较:认知重评与自由观看组的差异发生在400ms并持续到600ms;而表达抑制和自由观看之间的差异发生在450ms但是只持续到550ms。这表明认知重评相较于表达抑制,对负性情绪起调节作用开始较早,并且持续时间较长。这为认知重评优于表达抑制策略提供了神经生理学上的证据。     

大学生学习适应量表的编制

对当代大学生学习适应问题进行了深入分析,在有关研究的基础上,探讨了当代大学生学习适应的主要因素,并编制一套适合当代大学生学习适应的测验。对四类院校918名大学生进行了施测,对调查数据进行了探索性因素分析和验证性因素分析。探索性因素分析结果表明,大学生学习适应的主要因素包括学习动机、教学模式、学习能力、学习态度、环境因素等5个方面;验证性因素分析结果表明,所提取的5个因素与构想模型拟合较好,测验具有较好的信、效度