Recognition of facial expressions of different emotional intensities in patients with frontotemporal lobar degeneration

Behavioural problems are a key feature of frontotemporal lobar degeneration (FTLD). Also, FTLD patients show impairments in emotion processing. Specifically, the perception of negative emotional facial expressions is affected. Generally, however, negative emotional expressions are regarded as more difficult to recognize than positive ones, which thus may have been a confounding factor in previous studies. Also, ceiling effects are often present on emotion recognition tasks using full-blown emotional facial expressions. In the present study with FTLD patients, we examined the perception of sadness, anger, fear, happiness, surprise and disgust at different emotional intensities on morphed facial expressions to take task difficulty into account. Results showed that our FTLD patients were specifically impaired at the recognition of the emotion anger. Also, the patients performed worse than the controls on recognition of surprise, but performed at control levels on disgust, happiness, sadness and fear. These findings corroborate and extend previous results showing deficits in emotion perception in FTLD.     

Social exclusion and the deconstructed state: time perception, meaninglessness, lethargy, lack of emotion, and self-awareness

The authors hypothesize that socially excluded individuals enter a defensive state of cognitive deconstruction that avoids meaningful thought, emotion, and self-awareness, and is characterized by lethargy and altered time flow. Social rejection led to an overestimation of time intervals, a focus on the present rather than the future, and a failure to delay gratification (Experiment 1). Rejected participants were more likely to agree that "Life is meaningless" (Experiment 2). Excluded participants wrote fewer words and displayed slower reaction times (Experiments 3 and 4). They chose fewer emotion words in an implicit emotion task (Experiment 5), replicating the lack of emotion on explicit measures (Experiments 1-3 and 6). Excluded participants also tried to escape from self-awareness by facing away from a mirror (Experiment 6).     

Treatment of bipolar depression

Bipolar disorder is underdiagnosed and often mistaken for unipolar depression. Bipolar patients spend 33% of their time in a state of depression compared to 11% of time spent in a manic state. Duration of time depressed and severity of depression are associated with increased risk for suicide, which occurs in 10% to 20% of bipolar patients. Antidepressants are increasingly being used as adjuncts in the depressed phase of bipolar disorder, although they provide a moderate risk for switch into mania. Lithium and some antiepileptics and atypical antipsychotics have shown antidepressant effects in the treatment of bipolar disorder. Other adjuncts for treatment-refractory patients include monoamine oxidase inhibitors and electroconvulsive therapy.     

Issues in exercise,fitness, and subjective perceptions of fitness of physical education teachers

Several issues arise on reading the paper by Netz and Raviv. Their role in interpretation of the data and stimulating questions for further study is mentioned.     

Frontal-Lobe Involvement in Spatial Memory: Evidence from PET,fMRI, and Lesion Studies

Many studies have identified the prefrontal cortex as the brain area that is critical for spatial memory, both in humans and in other primates. Other studies, however, have failed to establish this relation. Therefore, the aim of this paper was to review the literature regarding the role of the human prefrontal lobe in spatial memory. This was done by examining the evidence obtained from neuropsychological patients and from studies using brain-imaging techniques (PET and fMRI). Evidence supporting the notion that the prefrontal cortex is extensively involved in spatial working memory was found. The majority of these studies, however, suggests that frontal-lobe involvement is not related to the type of material that is being processed (e.g., spatial vs. nonspatial), but to process-specific functions, such as encoding and retrieval. Theoretically, these functions could be linked to the central executive within Baddeley's working-memory model, or to recent theories that emphasize the various processes that play a role in working memory. Also, methodological issues were discussed. Further research is needed to enhance our understanding of the precise interaction of domain-specific and general processes.     

Task demands and limb apraxia in stroke

The present study was designed to examine the frequency and severity of apraxia in patients with left- or right-hemisphere stroke in both pantomime and imitation conditions and to compare the frequency of apraxia in each stroke group across the three patterns of apraxia described in Roy's model (Roy, 1996). Ninety-nine stroke patients and 15 age-matched healthy adults performed eight transitive gestures to pantomime and to imitation. Gestural performance was quantified as accuracy on five performance dimensions; a composite score, an arithmetic combination of the five performance dimensions, was used as an index of the overall accuracy. Analyses revealed a comparable proportion of patients in each stroke group were classified as apraxic in the imitation condition, but a higher proportion of left stroke patients were apraxic in the pantomime condition. The severity of apraxia in each stroke group and the performance dimensions affected were, however, comparable. Analyses of the patterns of apraxia (pantomime alone, imitation alone or apraxia in both conditions) revealed a higher frequency of apraxia in both stroke groups for the pattern reflecting apraxia in both conditions, indicating that a disruption at the movement execution stage of gesture performance was most common.     

Social exclusion impairs self-regulation

Six experiments showed that being excluded or rejected caused decrements in self-regulation. In Experiment 1, participants who were led to anticipate a lonely future life were less able to make themselves consume a healthy but bad-tasting beverage. In Experiment 2, some participants were told that no one else in their group wanted to work with them, and these participants later ate more cookies than other participants. In Experiment 3, excluded participants quit sooner on a frustrating task. In Experiments 4-6, exclusion led to impairment of attention regulation as measured with a dichotic listening task. Experiments 5 and 6 further showed that decrements in self-regulation can be eliminated by offering a cash incentive or increasing self-awareness. Thus, rejected people are capable of self-regulation but are normally disinclined to make the effort.