ICD-11 guidelines for psychotic,mood, anxiety and stress-related disorders in Mexico: Clinical utility and reliability

Background/Objective: The World Health Organization's diagnostic guidelines for ICD-11 mental and behavioural disorders must be tested in clinical settings around the world to ensure that they are clinically useful and genuinely global. The objective is evaluate the inter-rater reliability and clinical utility of ICD-11 guidelines for psychotic, mood, anxiety- and stress-related disorders in Mexican patients. Method: Adult volunteers exhibiting the selected symptoms were referred from the pre-consultation unit of a public psychiatric hospital to an interview by a pair of clinicians, who subsequently assigned independent diagnoses and evaluated the clinical utility of the diagnostic guidelines as applied to each particular case, on the basis of a scale developed for this purpose. Results: 23 clinicians evaluated 153 patients. Kappa scores were strong for psychotic disorders (.83), moderate for stress-related (.77) and mood disorders (.60) and week for anxiety and fear-related disorders (.43). A high proportion of clinicians considered all diagnostic guidelines to be quite to extremely useful as applied to their patients. Conclusions: ICD-11 guidelines for psychotic, stress-related and mood disorders allow adequate inter-rater consistency among Mexican clinicians, who also considered them as clinical useful tools.     

Hybrid Probabilistic Logic Programs as Residuated Logic Programs

In this paper we show the embedding of Hybrid Probabilistic Logic Programs into the rather general framework of Residuated Logic Programs, where the main results of (definite) logic programming are validly extrapolated, namely the extension of the immediate consequences operator of van Emden and Kowalski. The importance of this result is that for the first time a framework encompassing several quite distinct logic programming semantics is described, namely Generalized Annotated Logic Programs, Fuzzy Logic Programming, Hybrid Probabilistic Logic Programs, and Possibilistic Logic Programming. Moreover, the embedding provides a more general semantical structure paving the way for defining paraconsistent probabilistic reasoning with a logic programming semantics.     

Priming in deduction: a spatial arrangement task

The mental model theory assumes that people reason by manipulating mental representations of states of the word, called "mental models." In the present study we used a new deduction task based on diagrammatic premises. We show that a premise can prime other premises that induce similar mental models in a way analogous to the case of words with related meanings, which prime one another. We present three experiments. In Experiment 1 we used an evaluation task. In Experiment 2, a construction task was used. The priming effect was obtained in both cases. In a third experiment we show that the priming effect was still present when partcipants were instructed to ignore a prime displayed before the premises. In all three experiments we compared determinate and indeterminate problems and found faster responses in the former.     

Priming and interference effects can be dissociated in the Stroop task: new evidence in favor of the automaticity of word recognition

Recently, Besner, Stolz, and Boutilier (1997) showed that by coloring a single letter instead of the whole word, Stroop interference is reduced or even eliminated, a result that is at odds with the widely accepted assumption that word recognition is automatic. In a replication of the Besner et al. study, we computed priming effects in addition to the standard Stroop interference. Interference results replicated those of Besner et al. Also, negative priming in the all-letter-colored condition and positive priming in the single-letter-colored condition were obtained. Priming findings demonstrate that word processing can take place in the absence of interference effects. These results support the view of automatic processing of words in the Stroop task and call for priming as a more appropriate measure of word processing than interference.     

Treatment dynamics in sensorimotor disorders: the contribution of electrophysiology]

In the field of sensorimotor activities, progresses achieved over the last fifty years have been largely driven by the Reaction Time (RT) paradigm. Information processing models are set in the context of a global breakdown of sensorimotor activities in multiple concatenated stages, each aggregated in many fundamental operations that are functionally linked. If there is a consensus today about this breakdown, the way stages organize themselves in time however is still much debated. According to one hypothesis, there is no temporal overlap between each stages: the process occurs sequentially. According to another theory, the stages overlap over in time: the process occurs in a parallel manner. A behavioral analysis does not allow to determine between these two hypothesis because the RT represents the final product of the whole sensorimotor pathway, while the temporal organization of the processing of information depends on the nature of the transfer between individual stages. An all-or-nothing information transfer, also called discrete, leads to a sequential organization, while a progressive or continuous transfer brings about a parallel organization. Moreover, contrary to a preconceived notion, data obtained from classical neurophysiology are compatible with both a sequential organization and a parallel organization. Particularly, the great number of connections between the different elements of the nervous system has often seemed difficult to conciliate with a sequential organization. In fact, this argument is inadmissible because it stems from confusion between a temporal organization and an anatomical organization of the processing of information. More generally, our knowledge of the functional anatomy of sensorimotor activities imposes but few constraints on the temporal organization patterns of the processing of information. The lack of interest for the neurophysiological argument seems essentially due to the fact that theses arguments rest on research which is not aimed at the temporal organization of the sensorimotor information processing. Recently, approaches that integrate concepts and methods used in experimental psychology and neurosciences have contributed to putting in perspective the organization of information processing. Electromyography, EEG, reflexology and neuronal recording techniques have been used in the context of two inference logics. The first logic, that we call "factual", is based on the study of functional relations between RT and certain neuronal events. The second logic, that we call "chronometric", is based on the study of the relationships between RT and intervals resulting from the breakdown of the RT in relation to certain neuronal events. Generally speaking, most studies suggest that in tasks where the stimulus is composed of numerous attributes, information processing operates in parallel. On the other hand, when the stimulus is made up of a single attribute, information processing could be operating in a sequential manner. One weakness of this electrophysiological approach is that it has so far only examined relationships between physiological indicators and means RT. We propose here to offset these weaknesses by examining functional relationships between RT distribution variances and certain neuronal events linked to information processing.     

How many faces can be processed during a single eye fixation?

The purpose of our study was to estimate the perceptual span for facial information: how many faces can be processed during a single eye fixation. We used a visual-search task, in which the targets and distractors were facial photographs. The task of the observer was to search for and identify a target face in an array of faces. We measured the time needed for one search--threshold search time--by using a multiple-alternative staircase method. The threshold represents the duration of stimulus presentation at which the probability of correct responses was 79%. The array size was varied from 2 x 2 to 8 x 8 faces. Simultaneously with the performance measurements we measured eye movements with a video eye tracker. We found that threshold search time increased with increasing set size nearly linearly. The number of fixations also increased linearly from unity at the smallest set size to about fifteen at the largest set size. The result of 2 x 2 faces during a single fixation gave an estimate of 4 faces for the perceptual span. If, on average, only half of the elements had to be scanned for finding the target, 15 fixations at the largest set size (8 x 8) gave another estimate of 2.13 faces. The mean fixation duration was around 200 ms. Thus, the results suggest that 2-4 faces can be processed during one fixation of about 200 ms.     

A single exposure to severe stressors causes long-term desensitisation of the physiological response to the homotypic stressor

Although some laboratories have reported that a single session of stress is able to induce a long-lasting sensitisation of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) response to further exposures to stress, we have found that a single exposure to severe emotional (immobilisation, restraint or shock) or systemic (endotoxin) stressors reduces the responsiveness of the HPA to the same, but not to a novel (heterotypic), stressor, in which case a slight sensitisation was observed. Long-term desensitisation has been found to reduce not only secretion of peripheral HPA hormones (ACTH and corticosterone), but also to reduce responses of central components of the HPA axis (c-fos and CRF gene expression at the level of the paraventricular nucleus of the hypothalamus, PVN). In addition, desensitisation also applies to the impact of the stressor on food intake and, probably, to stress-induced hyperglycaemia. The development of long-term desensitisation of the HPA axis does not appear to be a universal consequence of exposure to severe stressors as it was not observed in response to insulin-induced hypoglycaemia. Whether or not the development of long-term effects of stress depend on the specific pathways activated by particular stressors remains to be tested. The observed desensitisation of the HPA axis in response to the homotypic stressor shows two special features which makes it difficult to be interpreted in terms of an habituation-like process: (a) the effect increased with time (days to weeks) elapsed between the first and second exposure to the stressor, suggesting a progressive maturational process; and (b) the stronger the stressor the greater the long-term desensitisation. Therefore, it is possible that desensitisation of the HPA axis is the sum of two different phenomena: long-term effects and habituation-like processes. The contribution of the former may be more relevant with severe stressors and longer inter-stress intervals, and that of the latter with mild stressors and repeated exposures. Long-term stress-induced changes may not take place at the level of the PVN itself, but in brain nuclei showing synaptic plasticity and putatively involved in the control of the HPA axis and other physiological responses. As for the precise areas involved, these remain to be characterized.     

A note on Skinner and Pavlov's physiology

These short notes describe the way in which Skinner considers and resolves his differences with Pavlov in the question of the relation between psychology and physiology as forms of knowledge. After establishing his viewpoint in the general epistemological issue, Skinner is concerned about linking his study of behavior to the work of Pavlov, who considered it to be of a physiological nature. Skinner contrasts Pavlov's empirical and theoretical work and characterizes the latter in terms of the notion of the "Conceptual Nervous System."     

Women and vulnerability to depression: some personality and clinical factors

The purpose of this study is to explore the role of sex differences and personality in vulnerability to depression. Sex differences in personality and some clinical variables are described. We also assess the value of the variables that revealed significant sex differences as predictors of vulnerability to depression. In a group of adult participants (N = 112), 50% males and 50% females (mean age = 41.30; SD = 15.09; range 17-67), we studied sex differences in the three-factor personality model, using the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire, Form A (EPQ-A; Eysenck & Eysenck, 1975), and in the Five-Factor Personality Model, with the NEO Personality Inventory (NEO-PI; Costa & McCrae, 1985). The following clinical scales were used: the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI; Beck, Rush, Shaw, & Emery, 1979), the Schizotypy Questionnaire (STQ; Claridge & Broks, 1984; Spanish version, Carrillo & Rojo, 1999), the THARL Scales (Dua, 1989, 1990; Spanish version, Dua & Carrillo, 1994) and the Adjustment Inventory (Bell, 1937; Spanish version, Cerdá, 1980). Subsequently, simple linear regression analysis, with BDI scores as criterion, were performed to estimate the value of the variables as predictors of vulnerability to depression. The results indicate that a series of personality variables cause women to be more vulnerable to depression than men and that these variables could be explained by a negative emotion main factor. Results are discussed within the framework of the psychological behaviorism theory of depression.