Involvement of reactive oxygen species in emotional stress: A hypothesis based on the immobilization stress-induced oxidative damage and antioxidant defense changes in rat brain,and the effect of antioxidant treatment with reduced glutathione

We examined the oxidative damage and antioxidant defense changes with immobilization-induced emotional stress in the rat brain. Though superoxide dismutase activity remained unchanged, brain peroxidation was significantly accelerated by the immobilization stress. Membrane fluidity study with spin labeling in brain cortical membrane showed that immobilization stress induced an increase in microviscosity of membrane layer near the surface and in the ordering of membrane proteins but a decrease in microviscosity at the core of the membrane bilayer. The Na, K-ATPase activity decreased whereas the levels of some monoamines and their metabolites increased along with their metabolic rate. The administration of reduced glutathione showed a protective effect on the immobilization stress-induced stomach bleeding, oxidative damage and abnormal changes in the brain antioxidant defenses. Based on these results and on previous reports, we hypothesize that immobilization stress may induce the formation of reactive oxygen species which weakens the brain antioxidant defenses and induces oxidative damage. The antioxidant administration of reduced glutathione provides further evidence to support the above hypothesis, and also may provide clues in the search for a rational therapy to emotional stress. A possible correlation of emotional stress to aging is also discussed.     

The extent of active processing of a long-duration stimulus modulates the scalp-recorded sustained potential

A long-duration stimulus will elicit a negative sustained potential (SP) that is maximum in amplitude over fronto-central areas of the scalp. This study examines how the duration of active attentional processing of the stimulus might also elicit a nonsensory contingent negative variation (CNV) that overlaps and summates to the SP. Subjects were presented with either a low- or high-pitched 1.4s duration stimulus. In different conditions, a 20 ms gap occurred either 300 or 1300 ms after stimulus onset in half the stimuli. The subject's task was to button press upon detection of the gap in the low-pitched stimulus. The subject was not required to respond to the gap occurring in the high-pitched tone. In a separate Ignore condition, subjects ignored all stimuli and read a book. In the Ignore condition, a SP was apparent to the long-duration stimuli. In the Attend condition, a large amplitude slow wave, probably the CNV, overlapped and summated with the SP. The extent of the overlapping CNV was dependent on whether the gap occurred early or late. The CNV was not apparent following presentation of the high-pitched tone, when the gap did not need to be detected. Consistent with previous studies, a SP was thus elicited even when active processing of the stimulus was not required. The morphology of the scalp-recorded SP was, nevertheless, much modified by an overlapping and summating CNV, depending on the extent to which active processing of the long-duration stimulus was required.     

自我不确定感:内涵、结构和理论

自我不确定感是个体在遇到认知、情感以及行为间的不一致或冲突,对重要的心理品质产生困惑和怀疑时体验到的一致性和连续性缺乏的状态。文章对自我不确定感的概念进行了梳理,然后提出了概念构想模型,认为其结构应包含认知、情绪和动机成分,再后则以自我不确定感的管理策略为线索对相关理论和模型进行了初步整合。未来研究需在明确界定自我不确定感的基础上开展跨文化比较,从多角度检验自我不确定感管理策略的效果,深入探讨自我不确定感的发生和作用机制,探索如何变自我不确定感的被动防御为主动预防与管理。     

Don't get stuck in the mother: regression in analysis

This paper was part of an afternoon workshop on regression. It re views the author's recollections of her own analysis and clinical work with the purpose of discovering the sources of her own ideas on regression. Two specific forms of regression are then delineated – negative therapeutic reaction as described by Rosenfeld and 'umbilical transference' as a possible future development.     

行为可见增加利他偏好及其社会规范机制

在不同社会偏好类型中,研究者较为关注利他偏好及其信号功能。本研究探究在独裁者游戏中,决策者的利他偏好如何受到分配方案对接受者可见性的影响。实验1采用行为实验结合计算建模的方法,发现无论在选择或评分条件下,相比于行为不可见,当分配者的行为能够为接受者所见时,分配者都表现出更大程度的利他偏好。此外,相比于评分条件,在选择时人们更加在意分配效率。实验2仅使用选择条件,并操纵社会规范,发现行为可见增加利他偏好的作用依赖于利他的社会规范,当存在非利他社会规范时,行为可见的影响减小。本研究结果表明,在利他社会规范下,当行为对接受者可见时,人们将表现出更多利他偏好。     

Stuttering and sensory gating: a study of acoustic startle prepulse inhibition

It was hypothesized that stuttering may be related to impaired sensory gating, leading to overflow of superfluous disturbing auditory feedback and breakdown of the speech sequence. This hypothesis was tested using the acoustic startle prepulse inhibition (PPI) paradigm. A group of 22 adults with developmental stuttering were compared with controls regarding the degree of PPI. No significant differences were found between the stuttering adults and the control group; the groups showed similar means and distribution. Likewise, no relation between the degree of PPI and the effect of altered auditory feedback on stuttering was found. In summary, the results of the study indicate that there is no relation between stuttering and PPI.     

Effects of NP type on the resolution of word-order ambiguities

Locally ambiguous NP₁ NP₂ V clauses in Dutch are preferably assigned a subject-object rather than an object-subject interpretation, presumably on the basis of structurally based principles such as the Active-Filler Strategy. The present study investigates whether this preference can be affected by a nonconfigurational factor, namely the nature of NP₂. The type of an NP (indefinite NPs, full definite NPs, pronouns) conveys information about the discourse status of the NP referent, which, in turn, is associated with a specific syntactic position. More specifically, pronouns are used to refer to given, salient entities in the discourse (topics); and NPs with such referents are generally encoded in subject position. A self-paced reading experiment shows that NP₁ NP₂ V relative clauses are preferably interpreted as subject-object when NP₂ is a full definite NP (e.g., de vrouwen the women), but not when NP₂ is the second person pronoun jullie (you-PL). This suggests that the structural bias for a subject-first order is not as strong as has been previously assumed, but is influenced by discourse information encoded in the NPs. Implications for parsing models are discussed.     

Sexual and aggressive play fighting of sibling Richardson’s ground squirrels

Play fighting in many species of squirrels can involve sexual play and aggressive play, both of which can lead to wrestling which appears superficially similar. Such convergence can make scoring of the relative frequencies of these two types of play difficult and can lead to the mistaken conclusion that they grade into one another. In this study, both staged laboratory encounters between sibling pairs and spontaneous encounters between siblings in free‐living litters of Richardson’s ground squirrels (Spermophilus richardsonii) were videotaped. Frame‐by‐frame analyses using the Eshkol‐Wachman Movement Notation were employed to record the correlated movements of attack and defense by the partners and to reveal the body areas targeted during each play bout. Whereas sexual play was organized around access to the rump, aggressive play was organized around the shoulders. Although in most cases the defender’s tactics blocked access to the respective target, when contact did occur, it involved mounting in sexual play and nosing or biting in aggressive play. Eighty‐six percent of play fights could be unambiguously categorized as either sexual or aggressive play. Of these, the majority (?80%) involved sexual play. The sex of the participants did not affect the frequency of aggressive play, but in sexual play, males initiated more attacks than females. Once initiated, each form of play fighting remained distinct—if a bout began as sexual play, it would end as sexual play. Furthermore, a counterattack following sexual play was significantly more likely to be sexual than aggressive, and vice versa for counterattacks following aggressive play. Therefore, all the evidence suggested that the two forms of play fighting were not intermixed in Richardson’s ground squirrels. Aggr. Behav. 27:323–337, 2001. © 2001 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.     

Aging and Visual Attention

ABSTRACT— Older adults are often slower and less accurate than are younger adults in performing visual-search tasks, suggesting an age-related decline in attentional functioning. Age-related decline in attention, however, is not entirely pervasive. Visual search that is based on the observer's expectations (i.e., top-down attention) is relatively preserved as a function of adult age. Neuroimaging research suggests that age-related decline occurs in the structure and function of brain regions mediating the visual sensory input, whereas activation of regions in the frontal and parietal lobes is often greater for older adults than for younger adults. This increased activation may represent an age-related increase in the role of top-down attention during visual tasks. To obtain a more complete account of age-related decline and preservation of visual attention, current research is beginning to explore the relation of neuroimaging measures of brain structure and function to behavioral measures of visual attention.     

The Effect of Response Cards on Participation and Weekly Quiz Scores of University Students Enrolled in Introductory Psychology Courses

Increasing student participation in college classrooms is an overlooked yet socially valid endeavor. The present study attempted to increase student participation, accuracy of responding, and weekly quiz scores, by incorporating student response-cards. Measures of social validity were also addressed. One hundred twenty university students in two sections of an introductory course served as participants. An augmented incomplete ABA reversal design was used to compare the effects of review questions with and without response-cards. Results suggest that response cards can increase participation as well as measures of learning, in this case quiz scores. Also, students rated the intervention positively on a consumer satisfaction rating scale. In addition to improving rates of student participation and quiz scores, response-cards positively impacted both students and the instructor's subjective experience in the classroom.