Classical discrimination conditioning of the rabbit's eyelid response using pontine stimulation as a conditioned stimulus

Classical discrimination conditioning of the nictitating membrane/eyelid response was performed on seven rabbits using stimulation of the pontine nuclei or middle cerebellar peduncle as the conditioned stimulus (CS) and an air puff as the unconditioned stimulus (US). The rabbits learned to discriminate between a CS paired with a US and delivered to one pontine nucleus (the CS+) and a CS presented alone and delivered to the contralateral pontine nucleus (the CS-). Subsequent reversal of the discrimination was also achieved when the CS+ and CS- stimulation sites were interchanged. The results are interpreted as support for the idea that essential plasticity for classical eyelid conditioning occurs efferent to the pontine nuclei, possibly in regions of the cerebellum.     

My Disaster Recovery: a pilot randomized controlled trial of an Internet intervention

This pilot study tested the efficacy of the My Disaster Recovery (MDR) website to decrease negative affect and increase coping self-efficacy. Fifty-six survivors of Hurricane Ike were recruited from a larger study being conducted at the University of Texas Medical Branch at the first anniversary of the storm. Restricted randomization was used to assign participants to the MDR website, an information-only website, or a usual care condition. Group×time interactions indicated that MDR reduced participant worry more than the other conditions. A similar trend was also identified for depression. Both websites were accessed a small to moderate amount and participants reported mixed satisfaction for both websites. Although the effect sizes for worry and depression were in the moderate to large range, small sample size and timing of the intervention qualify the findings. These preliminary findings encourage further evaluation of MDR with a larger, demographically diverse sample and indicate that the MDR website might be helpful in reducing worry and depression.     

Effects of Emotional Valence and Arousal Manipulation on Eyeblink Classical Conditioning and Autonomic Measures

Using a classical eyeblink conditioning paradigm, we have previously shown that the rate of acquisition of a conditioned response may be manipulated by engaging subjects in background tasks of varying complexity concurrent to conditioning. To further examine the influence of the background environment on conditioning, a picture set designed to elicit emotional responses, the International Affective Picture System (IAPS), was presented to subjects during classical eyeblink conditioning. The results suggest that eyeblink conditioning does appear to be sensitive to contextual manipulations of arousal. Pictures rated as very arousing were found to engage subjects enough to enhance learning, although not to the point that autonomic functions were significantly altered between picture groups. We suggest that group differences in learning may be a result of either novelty of, or vigilance to, interesting pictures rather than as a direct result of physiological arousal.     

Eyeblink classical conditioning and interpositus nucleus activity are disrupted in adult rats exposed to ethanol as neonates

Neonatal exposure to ethanol in rats, during the period of brain development comparable to that of the human third trimester, produces significant, dose-dependent cell loss in the cerebellum and deficits in coordinated motor performance. These rats are also impaired in eyeblink conditioning as weanlings and as adults. The current study examined single-unit neural activity in the interpositus nucleus of the cerebellum in adults following neonatal binge ethanol exposure. Group Ethanol received alcohol doses of 5.25 g/kg/day on postnatal days 4–9. Group Sham Intubated underwent acute intragastric intubation on postnatal days 4–9 but did not receive any infusions. Group Unintubated Control (from separate litters) did not receive any intubations. When rats were 3–7 mo old, pairs of extracellular microelectrodes were implanted in the region of the interpositus nucleus. Beginning 1 wk later, the rats were given either 100 paired or 190 unpaired trials per day for 10 d followed by 4 d of 100 conditioned stimulus (CS)-alone trials per day. As in our previous study, conditioned response acquisition in Group Ethanol rats was impaired. In addition, by session 5 of paired acquisition, Group Sham Intubated and Group Unintubated Control showed significant increases in interpositus nucleus activity, relative to baseline, in the CS–unconditioned stimulus interval. In contrast, Group Ethanol failed to show significant changes in interpositus nucleus activity until later in training. These results indicate that the disruption in eyeblink conditioning after early exposure to ethanol is reflected in alterations in interpositus nucleus activity.     

Neutral details associated with emotional events are encoded: evidence from a cued recall paradigm

Enhanced emotional memory often comes at the cost of memory for surrounding background information. Narrowed-encoding theories suggest that this is due to narrowed attention for emotional information at encoding, leading to impaired encoding of background information. Recent work has suggested that an encoding-based theory may be insufficient. Here, we examined whether cued recall—instead of previously used recognition memory tasks—would reveal evidence that non-emotional information associated with emotional information was effectively encoded. Participants encoded positive, negative, or neutral objects on neutral backgrounds. At retrieval, they were given either the item or the background as a memory cue and were asked to recall the associated scene element. Counter to narrowed-encoding theories, emotional items were more likely than neutral items to trigger recall of the associated background. This finding suggests that there is a memory trace of this contextual information and that emotional cues may facilitate retrieval of this information.     

Views on Quality of Life Differ Between Alcohol Related Brain Damaged Individuals and Their Healthcare Professionals

Measuring quality of life (QoL) in alcohol related brain damaged individuals (ARBDs) is challenging, mostly because patients are characterized by important cognitive impairments and are generally unaware of their defects. However, quality of life assessments are essential to help inform care and rehabilitative settings; thus introducing and including views from healthcare professionals on ARBDs’ quality of life is a reasonable approach. We examine QoL and the perception of cognitive defects among ARBDs and compare them to expert appraisals by acquainted healthcare professionals. We hypothesize that ARBDs self-assessments outscore QoL expert-ratings by professionals and demonstrate an unawareness of their cognitive deficits, with anosognosia being related to the QoL domains of interest. Six domains of QoL and the occurrence of cognitive problems in 14 detoxified alcoholics are investigated by means of self-ratings and expert-ratings from two acquainted healthcare professionals. Anosognosia is assessed by using difference scores between self- and expert-ratings on the manifestation of everyday executive dysfunctions. We find that ARBDs experience anosognosia (ps?<?.001) and outscore systematically expert-ratings on the investigated QoL domains (ps?<?.03). Complex patterns of relationships between self-/expert-rated QoL relate mostly negatively and moderately with anosognosia, confirming some of our assumptions and informing others. ARBDs are characterized by anosognosia and differ largely from expert’s views on patient QoL. Professionals relate compromised patient QoL to the inability of the patient to have insight of his/her dysfunctions; whereas among patients, QoL relates less strongly to anosognosia. Remaining doubts on the validity of QoL self-/expert-ratings in ARBDs are discussed.     

The circular structure of values: The case of China

This study examined the circular structure of values in China. The circular structure is a central element of Schwartz value theory and visualises the idea that some values are similar while others conflict with one another. Whereas numerous studies addressed the question whether the circular structure of values can be generalised cross‐culturally, results for China are inconclusive. In this paper, we argue that taking a closer look at China provides a challenge to the circular structure and allows for drawing conclusions regarding the limits versus generalizability of Schwartz' theory. For this purpose, we first conduct a re‐analysis of Chinese data from a former meta‐analysis (Study 1) and second, present results from a large study of 10,652 Chinese college students (Study 2). Results of Study 1 revealed that graphical representation of the circular structure matched theoretical expectations but five out of six samples showed relatively bad fit to the theorised structure. By contrast, data in Study 2 showed a good model fit. As an overall conclusion, the circular structure is well supported in the Chinese context, and small sample sizes in previous studies might have caused the imperfect match to the prototypical circular structure.