Treadmill exercise enhances passive avoidance learning in rats: the role of down-regulated serotonin system in the limbic system

While serotonin (5-HT) may impair learning and memory, exercise has been reported to improve them. Whether chronic exercise can facilitate fear memory via regulating the serotonin system is unknown. We examined the effects of 4-week treadmill exercise training on levels of 5-HT and its metabolite 5-hydroxyindoleacetic acid (5-HIAA), the protein expression of its receptor 5-HT_1A and transporter in the amygdala, hippocampus and prefrontal cortex of male Sprague–Dawley rats. Our results demonstrated that treadmill exercise (1) improved the passive avoidance learning performance; (2) decreased the 5-HT level in the hippocampus; (3) decreased the expression of 5-HT_1A receptor in the amygdala without altering the transporter expression. Moreover, pretreatment with 0.1 mg/kg 8-hydroxy-di-n-propylamino tetralin, a selective 5-HT_1A receptor agonist, impaired the passive avoidance performance and completely abolished the exercise-enhanced fear memory. Our results suggest that down-regulation of the 5-HT system in the limbic system, i.e., the reduction of the hippocampus 5-HT content and the amygdala 5-HT_1A receptor expression, may be involved in the exercise-enhanced fear memory.     

Discussion of posthumous organ donation in Chinese families

Since family permission is necessary for organ procurement to occur in China, family discussions about posthumous organ donation are crucial for increasing the actual organ donation and transplant rate. However, this study found that among 298 Chinese young adults, most of them (88%) were reluctant to talk about organ donation with their families. Based on the Theory of Reasoned Action, this study investigated communication within families about organ donation. Psychological factors included intention, attitude, subjective norm, death anxiety, and knowledge. As expected, the subjective norm was more powerful than attitude in explaining family discussions among Chinese people. Death anxiety, but not misconception, also significantly lowered the likelihood of family discussion. It is concluded that future campaigns for lessening death anxiety and promoting the social norm for organ donation must be conducted in Chinese societies, in order to encourage family discussions and improve the donation rate.     

跨期选择和风险决策的认知神经机制

经济决策包含两个传统问题：跨期选择和风险决策。跨期选择分为冲动决策和自我控制,当冲动决策时,优先激活了与中脑多巴胺神经元相联系的旁边缘区域,包括伏隔核、眶额皮层中部和前额叶中部;自我控制即选择延迟决策时大脑双侧前额叶和后顶叶皮层神经活动增强。在风险和不确定性条件下,大脑皮层和杏仁核与风险决策联系密切。     

多元动机网格测验（MMG-S）中文版的修订报告

对Sokolowski等人编制的简版多元动机网格测验（MMG-S）作了中文版的修订。MMG-S的验证性因素分析表明：中文修订版MMG-S仍保持英文版的六因子结构,修订后六因子的α系数在0.70~0.84之间。中文修订版MMG-S具有良好的心理学测量指标,可用于测量企业管理人员的三种社会性动机。     

人性结构与理想主义政治的困境

人性不止自然属性和社会属性两个层面,还包括介于两者之间而相对不变的"人的本性".因此,人性是一个包含三个层次的结构体人的本能、人的本性和人的本质.现实的政治实践应主要以前两个层次为依据,以此为基础的政治实践将能够比较顺利地实现其预定的目标.相反,如果一厢情愿地固持一种理想主义的政治理念,将不仅实现不了这种理想主义,甚至可能适得其反."文化大革命"改造人性的失败试验就是一个不该被忘记的教训.     

Age differences in the prevalence of physical aggression among 5-11-year-old Canadian boys and girls

It has been proven extremely difficult in the past to estimate the prevalence of physical aggression in children for two main reasons: (a) a heterogeneous sampling of behaviors (i.e., mix between physically aggressive and non-physically aggressive antisocial behaviors), and (b) a lack of a "gold standard" to identify children who exhibit physically aggressive behaviors on a frequent basis. The goal of this study was to test for age differences in the prevalence of physical aggression in the Canadian population of school-aged boys and girls, using cross-sectional data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Children and Youth (NLSCY). The first wave of the NLSCY included a representative sample of 12,292 Canadian children aged 5-11 years. We used latent class analysis to identify children whose propensity to exhibit physically aggressive behaviors was much higher than that of other children of the same age and sex in the population. The prevalence of physical aggression was estimated at 3.7% in 5-11-year-old boys and ranged from .5% to 2.3% in 11 and 5-year-old girls, respectively. Hence, the results show a decreasing trend in the prevalence of physical aggression with age for girls, but not for boys. These findings suggest the importance of considering the developmental pathways of physical aggression for boys and girls separately.     

Claiming a large slice of a small pie: asymmetric disconfirmation in negotiation

Three studies show that negotiators consistently underestimate the size of the bargaining zone in distributive negotiations (the small-pie bias) and, by implication, overestimate the share of the surplus they claim (the large-slice bias). The authors explain the results by asymmetric disconfirmation: Negotiators with initial estimates of their counterpart's reservation price that are "inside" the bargaining zone tend to behave consistently with these estimates, which become self-fulfilling, whereas negotiators with initial "outside" estimates revise their perceptions in the face of strong disconfirming evidence. Asymmetric disconfirmation can produce a population-level bias, even when initial perceptions are accurate on average. The authors suggest that asymmetric disconfirmation has implications for confirmation bias and self-fulfilling-prophecy research in social perception.     

空间书写障碍的个案研究

根据书写加工理论,从异形字水平、图解动作模式水平和神经动作执行水平三个方面,综合考察一例空间书写障碍儿童的认知加工特点。结果表明：（1）个案QY的异形字水平出现选择性损伤,在视觉整体特征的知觉加工上存在困难,导致自发书写的汉字难以辨识,存在严重的间架结构问题。（2）个案QY在图解动作模式水平以及神经动作执行水平上表现正常     

The effect of information overlap on communication effectiveness

It makes sense that the more information people share, the better they communicate. To evaluate the effect of knowledge overlap on the effectiveness of communication, participants played a communication game where the "director" identified objects to the "addressee". Pairs either shared information about most objects' names (high overlap), or about the minority of objects' names (low overlap). We found that high-overlap directors tended to use more names than low overlap directors. High overlap directors also used more names with objects whose names only they knew, thereby confusing their addressees more often than low-overlap directors. We conclude that while sharing more knowledge can be beneficial to communication overall, it can cause communication to be locally ineffective. Sharing more information reduces communication effectiveness precisely when there is an opportunity to inform-when people communicate information only they themselves know.