Effects of transient coronary artery occlusion on canine intrinsic cardiac neuronal activity

In order to further elucidate the regulatory function of canine epicardial neurons, the effects of transient coronary artery occlusion on their spontaneous activity was studied. Fifty-eight individual, spontaneously active units were identified by means of their action potential configurations in specific loci of atrial and ventricular epicardial fat of 10 anesthetized dogs. The activity of 49 of the units was modified by one minute of coronary artery occlusion. Twenty-four of the 49 responding units exhibited increased activity and 37 decreased activity during coronary artery occlusions. Activity changes were sometimes, but not always, associated with decreased left ventricular intramyocardial systolic pressure. During reperfusion, the activity of 6 units was increased compared to control levels, even though ventricular pressures remained the same. Following acute decentralization, 48% of previously active units generated spontaneous activity; the activity of 89% of these was altered during coronary artery occlusion despite the fact that overall cardiodynamics were unchanged. Following hexamethonium administration, the activity generated by 9 of 10 spontaneously active units was modified by coronary artery occlusion. It is concluded that transient coronary artery occlusion can modify the activity generated by intrinsic cardiac neurons, such modification involving central and peripheral neuronal interactions.     

Cognitive training in schizophrenic diseases

The comparison of an experimental group of schizophrenic patients undergoing cognitive training with a control group was tested for significance over a total of 23 psychometric features, using the test known as t-distribution or "Students distribution". Cognitive training results in varying degrees of improvement in the various parameters. Uncharacteristic schizophrenic basic disorders remitted significantly, and there was improvement in activity of intention, BP/RS sum score, and the BP/RS factors of anxiety/depression, anergy, and activation. The NOSIE factors of manifest psychosis, irritability, and depression remitted, and social interest improved. From the psychological data it can be concluded that cognitive training can help improve, in particular, cognitive adjustment and adaptability, and the organisation of complex societal conditions.     

Personality-based latent classes of posttraumatic psychopathology: personality disorders and the internalizing/externalizing model

Prior research using the Brief Form of the Multidimensional Personality Questionnaire (MPQ-BF; Patrick, Curtin, & Tellegen, 2002) has shown evidence of 3 temperament-based subtypes--termed internalizing, externalizing, and simple PTSD--among individuals with symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD; Miller, Greif, & Smith, 2003). This study sought to replicate and extend research in this area by conducting a latent profile analysis of higher order temperament scales from the MPQ-BF using a new sample of 208 veterans with symptoms of PTSD. Results suggest that a 3-class solution reflecting internalizing, externalizing, and simple subtypes of posttraumatic psychopathology provided the best fit to the data. The externalizing subtype was characterized by features of antisocial, borderline, histrionic, and narcissistic personality disorders on the International Personality Disorder Examination (Loranger, 1999) as well as low levels of constraint and high levels of negative emotionality on the MPQ-BF. In contrast, individuals in the internalizing class exhibited features of schizoid and avoidant personality disorders, low levels of positive emotionality, and high levels of negative emotionality. The simple subtype was defined by low levels of comorbid personality disorder features and relatively normal personality profiles. Findings support the reliability of this typology and support the relevance of the internalizing and externalizing model to the structure of personality disorders.     

Exaggerated attention blink response in prisoners with externalizing

The diverse phenotypic expressions of disinhibitory psychopathology are believed to reflect a common latent predisposing variable: externalizing. While deficiencies in executive functioning (i.e., cognitive/inhibitory control, working memory) and affective hyper-reactivity are commonly associated with externalizing, there is also evidence that externalizing is related to anomalous allocation of attention. In this study, we administered an attention blink task to a sample of male prisoners and assessed externalizing using the Impulsive–Antisociality scale (Benning, Patrick, Hicks, Blonigen, & Krueger, 2003). Individuals with high Impulsive–Antisociality displayed a significantly steeper attention blink (i.e., less accurate identification of a second target) than individuals with low Impulsive–Antisociality. Results provide new evidence that externalizers over-allocate attention to salient information and suggest a novel conceptualization of their disinhibitory psychopathology.     

Using priors to formalize theory: Optimal attention and the generalized context model

Formal models in psychology are used to make theoretical ideas precise and allow them to be evaluated quantitatively against data. We focus on one important??but under-used and incorrectly maligned??method for building theoretical assumptions into formal models, offered by the Bayesian statistical approach. This method involves capturing theoretical assumptions about the psychological variables in models by placing informative prior distributions on the parameters representing those variables. We demonstrate this approach of casting basic theoretical assumptions in an informative prior by considering a case study that involves the generalized context model (GCM) of category learning. We capture existing theorizing about the optimal allocation of attention in an informative prior distribution to yield a model that is higher in psychological content and lower in complexity than the standard implementation. We also highlight that formalizing psychological theory within an informative prior distribution allows standard Bayesian model selection methods to be applied without concerns about the sensitivity of results to the prior. We then use Bayesian model selection to test the theoretical assumptions about optimal allocation formalized in the prior. We argue that the general approach of using psychological theory to guide the specification of informative prior distributions is widely applicable and should be routinely used in psychological modeling.     

Der ?ltere Gewaltt?ter vor der Strafvollstreckungskammer

As much as violent offences are the beloved item of criminal novels and, the more brutal the better of the media, there is little research about this issue, when it comes to convicted offenders being in their sixties and seventies, and subjects of whether or not to be released. This article cannot present any evaluated database but must refer to common experience drawn from many individual cases mostly related to prisoners serving a life-time sentence or preventive detention. The discussion requires a distinction between a large variety of violations and will lead to the finding that every single violent offender must be closely and individually scrutinized. Nevertheless, the law provides some rules which, although they are given for every decision to be made on sentenced offenders who are to be released or to stay in penitentiary (which is, according to German law, a decision dedicated to a special Chamber of the Court), show specific implementations when applied to this group; what it does not show is pure age as a valid protective factor.     

Zur Qualit?t forensischer Gutachten aus strafrechtlicher Sicht

The paper describes the requirements, both regulatory and developed by court decisions that have to be fulfilled by expert witnesses in criminal cases. It emphasizes the borderline between (psycho) science and law, names sources of mistakes made by experts and the reasons and shows some results caused by bad expertise. A much better basic and advanced training of experts is demanded for experts as well as for judges, prosecutors and prison officers and calls for a new culture for a mutual exchange of dialogue.