The Relationship of Nondirectiveness to Genetic Counseling: Report of a Workshop at the 2003 NSGC Annual Education Conference

Nondirectiveness has been a guiding principle for genetic counseling since the founding of the profession. However, its efficacy and appropriateness in this role have been frequently questioned. A workshop at the 2003 Annual Education Conference of the National Society of Genetic Counselors provided audience participation in a discussion of these issues. Participants presented arguments for and against nondirectiveness as a central ethos. They described complex personal transitions in adapting what they had learned about nondirectiveness during training to the realities of the workplace. There was support for flexible approaches to genetic counseling, with varying adherence to nondirectiveness, based on client and family needs and values, clinical circumstances, and desired counseling outcomes. The discussion supports the use of clinical experience, outcomes research, and the experience of other professions to move beyond nondirectiveness and more accurately identify the theoretical bases that underlie genetic counseling in the variety of circumstances in which it is currently practiced.     

The lexical bias effect in bilingual speech production: Evidence for feedback between lexical and sublexical levels across languages

The lexical bias effect (LBE) is the tendency for phonological substitution errors to result in existing words (rather than nonwords) at a rate higher than would be predicted by chance. This effect is often interpreted as revealing feedback between the phonological and lexical levels of representation during speech production. We report two experiments in which we tested for the LBE (1) in second-language production (Experiment 1) and (2) across the two languages of a bilingual (Experiment 2). There was an LBE in both situations. Thus, to the extent that the LBE reveals the presence of interactivity between the phonological and the lexical levels of representation, these effects suggest that there is feedback in second-language production and that it extends across the two languages of a bilingual.     

The context-specific proportion congruent Stroop effect: Location as a contextual cue

The Stroop effect has been shown to depend on the relative proportion of congruent and incongruent trials. This effect is commonly attributed to experiment-wide word-reading strategies that change as a function of proportion congruent. Recently, Jacoby, Lindsay, and Hessels (2003) reported an itemspecific proportion congruent effect that cannot be due to these strategies and instead may reflect rapid, stimulus driven control over word-reading processes. However, an item-specific proportion congruent effect may also reflect learned associations between color word identities and responses. In two experiments, we demonstrate a context-specific proportion congruent effect that cannot be explained by such word—response associations. Our results suggest that processes other than learning of word—response associations can produce contextual control over Stroop interference.     

Microstimulation reveals opposing influences of prelimbic and infralimbic cortex on the expression of conditioned fear

Recent studies using lesion, infusion, and unit-recording techniques suggest that the infralimbic (IL) subregion of medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) is necessary for the inhibition of conditioned fear following extinction. Brief microstimulation of IL paired with conditioned tones, designed to mimic neuronal tone responses, reduces the expression of conditioned fear to the tone. In the present study we used microstimulation to investigate the role of additional mPFC subregions: the prelimbic (PL), dorsal anterior cingulate (ACd), and medial precentral (PrCm) cortices in the expression and extinction of conditioned fear. These are tone-responsive areas that have been implicated in both acquisition and extinction of conditioned fear. In contrast to IL, microstimulation of PL increased the expression of conditioned fear and prevented extinction. Microstimulation of ACd and PrCm had no effect. Under low-footshock conditions (to avoid ceiling levels of freezing), microstimulation of PL and IL had opposite effects, respectively increasing and decreasing freezing to the conditioned tone. We suggest that PL excites amygdala output and IL inhibits amygdala output, providing a mechanism for bidirectional modulation of fear expression.