Low doses of interleukin-1beta improve the leverpress avoidance performance of Sprague-Dawley rats

Recent research has indicated that the pro-inflammatory cytokines, particularly interleukin-1beta (IL-1beta), can affect learning and memory. We injected male Sprague-Dawley rats with IL-1beta (1.0, 3.0, or 6.0 microg/kg, i.p.) or saline vehicle, 24h before a single 4-h session of leverpress escape/avoidance conditioning. No effect of IL-1beta at any dose was observed in the number of escape responses across the 4-h session. However, subjects treated with the two lower doses (1.0 and 3.0 microg/kg) of IL-1beta performed more avoidance responses during the final hour of the 4-h session than the other two groups. Subjects treated with the highest dose of IL-1beta (6.0 microg/kg) did not differ from controls. Results are discussed in terms of the possible mechanisms behind the IL-1beta-induced enhancement of learning, as well as the observed dose-response relationship.     

The gap effect in newborns

In four experiments we investigated the gap effect in infants within the first 3 days of life. Reaction times (RTs) to make a saccade to a peripheral target were measured on gap trials, in which the central fixation stimulus went off 500 ms before target presentation, and on overlap trials, in which the central fixation stimulus remained on. In every experiment the fixation stimulus was a flashing light. The target stimulus was a schematic face in Experiment 1, a flashing light shown at 20° eccentricity in Experiment 2, a flashing light shown at 30° eccentricity in Experiment 3, and an upside-down schematic face in Experiment 4. In Experiments 1–3 a gap effect was found. That is, RT was faster on gap than on overlap trials. In contrast, the gap effect was absent in Experiment 4. These findings are consistent with the view that the superior colliculus plays a major role in producing the gap effect at birth.     

Logical Pluralism from a Pragmatic Perspective

This paper presents a new view of logical pluralism. This pluralism takes into account how the logical connectives shift, depending on the context in which they occur. Using the Question-Under-Discussion Framework as formulated by Craige Roberts, I identify the contextual factor that is responsible for this shift. I then provide an account of the meanings of the logical connectives which can accommodate this factor. Finally, I suggest that this new pluralism has a certain Carnapian flavour. Questions about the meanings of the connectives or the best logic outside of a specified context are not legitimate questions.     

Aging, parafoveal preview, and semantic integration in sentence processing: Testing the cognitive workload of wrap-up

The current study investigated the degree to which semantic-integration processes ("wrap-up") during sentence understanding demand attentional resources by examining the effects of clause and sentence wrap-up on the parafoveal preview benefit (PPB) in younger and older adults. The PPB is defined as facilitation in processing word N + 1, based on information extracted while the eyes are fixated on word N, and is known to be reduced by processing difficulty at word N. Participants read passages in which word N occurred in a sentence-internal, clause-final, or sentence-final position, and a gaze-contingent boundary-change paradigm was used to manipulate the information available in parafoveal vision for word N + 1. Wrap-up effects were found on word N for both younger and older adults. Early-pass measures (first-fixation duration and single-fixation duration) of the PPB on word N + 1 were reduced by clause wrap-up and sentence wrap-up on word N, with similar effects for younger and older adults. However, for intermediate (gaze duration) and later-pass measures (regression-path duration, and selective regression-path duration), sentence wrap-up (but not clause wrap-up) on word N differentially reduced the PPB of word N + 1 for older adults. These findings suggest that wrap-up is demanding and may be less efficient with advancing age, resulting in a greater cognitive processing load for older readers. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved).     

Counseling in the Philippines: Past,Present, and Future

The history of colonization and persistent attempts at self‐governance in the Philippines parallel the beginnings of counseling in the country, which were largely influenced by the United States. Because of the Guidance and Counseling Act of 2004 and the Psychology Act of 2009, counseling is on its way to professionalization and regulation. Counseling is growing in depth and credibility, as evidenced by applications in practice that are not only indigenous but powerfully relevant.     

A comparative study of general intelligence in Spanish and Moroccan samples

The aim of this study is to fill a gap in intelligence research by presenting data for the average IQ in Morocco and for a comparable sample in Spain. Adult samples were administered the Raven Standard Progressive Matrices (SPM) (Raven, Court, & Raven, 2001) and scored for the total test and for the three sub-factors of gestalt continuation, verbal-analytical reasoning and visuospatial ability identified by Lynn, Allik, and Irwing (2004). The total test and the three factors have shown satisfactory reliability. Our results for the Moroccan sample show significant relationship between general intelligence factor, gestalt continuation and visuospatial ability with education level and income. Conversely, these variables have been shown to be independent for the Spanish sample. This sample obtained significantly higher scores for the four factors assessed than the Moroccan one. These differences have been found also comparing samples with the same education levels. Finally, the errors percentage for Moroccans has been higher than for Spaniards in all the items, suggesting that the level of difficulty was higher for the Moroccan sample.     

Stress, Cortisol, and Externalizing Behavior in Adolescent Males: An Examination in the Context of Multisystemic Therapy

Stress and hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis dysregulation have been associated with externalizing behavior in adolescence, but few studies have examined these factors in a treatment context. This study investigated the relationship between stress, cortisol, and externalizing behavior among 120 adolescent males (mean age?=?15) receiving Multisystemic Therapy (MST). To examine the differential relationship of cortisol with various types of stressors, self-report measures assessed lifetime stress, current episodic stress, and daily hassles. Morning and afternoon cortisol samples were collected to examine whether the relationship between stress and treatment outcome depended on the youth's biological stress levels. Regression analyses indicated that awakening cortisol levels moderated the relationship between daily hassles and externalizing behaviors at post-treatment. More specifically, higher levels of daily hassles predicted worse outcomes only among adolescents with high levels of morning cortisol. In addition, lifetime stressors and afternoon measures of cortisol interacted to predict changes in caretaker reports of externalizing problems and youth arrests following treatment; lifetime stressors were positively associated with externalizing behavior when adolescents had low levels of afternoon cortisol. Implications for theory and future directions for evidence-based treatment are discussed.     

Syntactic structure building in the anterior temporal lobe during natural story listening

The neural basis of syntax is a matter of substantial debate. In particular, the inferior frontal gyrus (IFG), or Broca’s area, has been prominently linked to syntactic processing, but the anterior temporal lobe has been reported to be activated instead of IFG when manipulating the presence of syntactic structure. These findings are difficult to reconcile because they rely on different laboratory tasks which tap into distinct computations, and may only indirectly relate to natural sentence processing. Here we assessed neural correlates of syntactic structure building in natural language comprehension, free from artificial task demands. Subjects passively listened to Alice in Wonderland during functional magnetic resonance imaging and we correlated brain activity with a word-by-word measure of the amount syntactic structure analyzed. Syntactic structure building correlated with activity in the left anterior temporal lobe, but there was no evidence for a correlation between syntactic structure building and activity in inferior frontal areas. Our results suggest that the anterior temporal lobe computes syntactic structure under natural conditions.     

Factor models of the Beck Depression Inventory-II. Validation with coronary patients and a critique of Ward's model

The objective of this study was to validate in a sample of 205 coronary patients a factor model for the BDI-II, especially a model that would allow for modeling of depressive symptoms after explicitly removing bias related to somatic symptoms of depression that would overlap those of heart disease. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses for ordinal data were conducted. A one-factor model, six correlated two-factor models and, derivatives thereof, seven models with a single General Depression factor and two uncorrelated factors, were analyzed. Exploratory analysis extracted two factors, Somatic-affective and Cognitive. Confirmatory factor analyses showed the worst fit for the one-factor model. Two-factor models were surpassed in goodness of fit by the models of general-factor and group factors. Among these, the General, Somatic-affective and Cognitive (G-Sa-C) model of Beck with students is noteworthy. The reduced General, Somatic and Cognitive (G-S-C) model of Ward showed the worst goodness of fit. Our model surpasses the cutoff criteria of all fit indexes. We conclude that the inclusion of a general-factor and group factors in all the models surpasses the results of G-S-C model and, therefore, questions it. The G-Sa-C model is strengthened.