Disturbed behavioural adaptability as related to reproductive hormones and emotional states during the menstrual cycle

The relationship between the incapacity to adapt behaviour to external requirements and biological irregularities of the menstrual cycle was investigated in 30 healthy females divided according to a questionnaire on behavioural adaptability into good (GAs) and bad (BAs) adaptors. Emotional states and blood samples for determination of hormones were obtained on ten defined days of the menstrual cycle, which were individually synchronized to six phases according to biological indicators. Comparison of GAs and BAs revealed that the incapacity of behavioural adaptation is associated with higher neuroticism related traits and states and that BAs exhibited higher cortisol and testosterone levels, lower luteal and follicular levels of estrogen, and lower luteal levels of progesterone. Furthermore, significantly more BA subjects suffered from corpus luteum deficiency. Results are discussed with respect to chronobiological biobehavioural mechanisms. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Personality and biological markers of creativity

The aim of the present study was to test (i) Eysenck's theory that psychoticism (P) should be related to creativity, (ii) whether testosterone (T), due to its association with P claimed in the literature, can be identified as a biological marker of creativity, and (iii) whether the SEEK dimension of the Affective Neuroscience Personality Scales (ANPS) was also related to creativity and to testosterone due to its relationship to Sensation Seeking. In a sample of N = 48 male and female subjects, test scores on figural, verbal, and numeric creativity were compared between high and low P‐scorers as well as between high and low SEEK‐scorers. Effects were controlled for fluid intelligence as measured by Cattell's CFT‐3 and crystallized intelligence as assessed by the Structure‐of‐Intelligence‐Test (Intelligenz‐Struktur‐Test, I‐S‐T 2000 R). Neither a main effect of P or T nor an interaction effect P×T on creativity could be obtained. Instead, SEEK was related to all components of creativity and explained more than 15% of the variance of total creativity. Moreover, significant differences in SEEK could be explained by differences in T, independently of gender. Furthermore, 39% of the variance of SEEK could be explained by the two uncorrelated indicators testosterone and creativity. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The human parahippocampal cortex subserves egocentric spatial learning during navigation in a virtual maze

BackgroundPresent evidence suggests that the hippocampus (HC) and the parahippocampal cortex (PHC) are involved in allocentric (world-centered) spatial memory. However, the putative role of the PHC in egocentric (body-centered) spatial learning has received only limited systematic investigation.MethodsTo examine the role of the PHC in egocentric learning, 19 healthy volunteers learned to find their way in a virtual maze during functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). The virtual maze presented a first-person view, lacked any topographical landmarks and could be learned only using egocentric navigation strategies.ResultsDuring learning, increased medial temporal lobe activity was observed in the PHC bilaterally. Activity was also observed in cortical areas known to project to the PHC and proposed to contribute to egocentric spatial navigation and memory.ConclusionsOur results point to a role of the PHC for the representation and storage of egocentric information. It seems possible that the PHC contributes to egocentric memory by its feedback projections to the posterior parietal cortex. Moreover, access to allocentric and egocentric streams of spatial information may enable the PHC to construct a global and comprehensive representation of spatial environments and to promote the construction of stable cognitive maps by translating between egocentric and allocentric frames of memory.     

Zur rückfallprognostischen Bedeutung des Tatverhaltens bei Sexualdelinquenz

The study examined the possibility of predicting sexual recidivism within a period of 5 years in a sample of 612 male sex offenders by means of behavioural crime scene variables. A total of 20 variables were selected based on a significant bivariate correlation with sexual recidivism. Multivariate analysis was conducted to determine combined predictive accuracy. Step-wise reverse logistic regression extracted 12 variables explaining 22% of total variance in sexual recidivism. The unweighted sum score of these variables showed considerable predictive power (AUC?=?0.76; r?=?0.34). Findings were robust not only for different subgroups of sexual offenders, but also when cross-validated on an independent sample. In addition, the unweighted sum score showed significant incremental validity above and beyond common risk measures [Static99, Sexual Violence Risk- (SVR-)20], both in the original and the cross-validation sample. Thus, the potential of crime scene analysis in predicting sexual recidivism has been clearly demonstrated. Future research should provide a more accurate access to psychologically meaningful interpretations of the risk immanent in crime scene actions by adapting risk scales to certain subgroups of perpetrators.     

Synchronizing movements with the metronome: nonlinear error correction and unstable periodic orbits.

The control of human hand movements is investigated in a simple synchronization task. We propose and analyze a stochastic model based on nonlinear error correction; a mechanism which implies the existence of unstable periodic orbits. This prediction is tested in an experiment with human subjects. We find that our experimental data are in good agreement with numerical simulations of our theoretical model. These results suggest that feedback control of the human motor systems shows nonlinear behavior.