经前期综合征与奖赏进程失调——来自脑电的证据

研究表明, 经前期综合征(Premenstrual syndromes, PMS)女性的情绪平衡性存在问题, 而现有研究多从负性情绪上升的角度考察PMS的发病机制, 而对其正性情绪缺损的关注不足。鉴于正性情绪与奖赏进程密切相关, 本研究试图从奖赏进程失调的角度考察PMS女性与健康女性的差异以及该差异是否存在阶段特异性的问题, 以期从正性情绪缺损的角度揭示其发病机制。具体而言, 分别选取PMS女性与健康女性23名和22名, 考察两组被试在黄体晚期(即经前期)和卵泡早期(即经后期)正性情绪以及完成赌博任务时的脑电数据时域和频域的差异。主观问卷结果显示, PMS女性的愉快和平静情绪低于健康女性, 并且情绪平衡性也低于健康女性, 但无明显的阶段特异性。时域分析结果显示, PMS组在经前期收到奖赏反馈后奖赏正波(reward positivity, RewP)的波幅和差异波(即奖赏条件和惩罚条件下的差值)的波幅均低于健康女性, 进一步的相关分析结果显示, 对于PMS组来说, 经前期奖赏条件下的RewP波幅和差异波波幅与经前期的情绪平衡性显著正相关。频域分析的结果则发现PMS组在经前期奖赏条件下的θ频段(4~7 Hz, 250~400 ms)能量低于健康组。研究表明, PMS女性在经前期的奖赏加工进程存在异常, 表现为对奖赏反馈的预期增强, 而在收到奖赏反馈后又出现了钝化反应, 且奖赏进程的失调与情绪平衡性相关。本研究为理解PMS女性奖赏进程失调的动态加工时程和神经震荡特征及其与情绪平衡性的关系提供了初步的神经生理证据。     

心理咨询热线在突发性公共卫生事件中的应用分析

2003年SARS在中国一些地区的流行给社会公众在心理上带来了一定程度的影响,在SARS流行期间期间及时开通了面向公众的心理咨询热线,成为了广大公众寻求心理支持的有效途径,为缓解社会压力、促进社会正常秩序恢复起到了积极作用。该文结合中国科学院心理研究所“非典心理咨询热线”的统计数据,进一步探讨了心理咨询热线在应对突发性公共卫生事件中的作用和工作特点。     

Visual attention skills of premature infants with and without intraventricular hemorrhage

The relation between two medical complications associated with prematurity (intraventricular hemorrhage (IVH) and respiratory distress syndrome (RDS)) and visual attention skills of very low birth-weight (VLBW) infants were examined. Fourteen preterm VLBW infants with IVH and RDS, 9 preterms with RDS and no IVH, and 10 full-term infants matched on SES, sex, and race were assessed at 7 months of age (after correction for prematurity) for their ability to show a decremental response to a familiar visual stimulus and an increment in response to a novel visual stimulus. Measures of attention getting (turning toward a stimulus) and attention holding (sustained fixation on the stimulus after turning) were taken. On the attention-getting measures, IVH-RDS preterms had longer latencies than both the RDS-no-IVH preterm group and the full-term group. There were no group differences on attention-holding measures. The three groups did not differ in habituation to the familiar visual stimulus or discrimination of the novel stimulus. This study indicates that the early visual attention skills of preterm infants are differentially affected by specific types of prenatal complications.     

Evidence for a Disturbance of the Body Schema in Neglect

Subjects with left neglect often fail to use and, in some instances, recognize the left side of the body. We performed a series of investigations to determine if this deficit is, at least in part, attributable to an impairment in the “body schema,” an internal three-dimensional, dynamic representation of the spatial and biomechanical properties of one's body. First, subjects were shown a series of pictures of a single hand and asked to determine if the stimulus was a right or left hand. Subjects with neglect but not other subjects with brain lesions identified pictures of left (contralesional) hands significantly less reliably than pictures of right hands. On the basis of evidence demonstrating that the identification of pictured hands involves the matching of the stimuli to an on-line mental representation of one's body, these data suggest that neglect may be associated with a disruption of, or failure to attend to, the body schema. Data from subsequent investigations contrasting patients with left neglect and Gerstmann's syndrome argue for a distinction between a body schema and a “body image,” or conceptual representation of the body which articulates with language.     

Coniunctio—in bodily and psychic modes: dissociation, devitalization and integration in a case of chronic fatigue syndrome

Three years of analytical psychotherapy with a professional woman in mid-life, suffering from chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS), is described. Gradual recovery merged into mid-life changes; marriage, along with a new balance of maternal and paternal imagos, enabled her to trust enough to become pregnant— coniunctio in the most primal bodily and psychic modes.
Her life-long, schizoid type pattern, 'the pendulum of closeness and isolation', with its extreme of psycho-physical collapse and devitalization, was replayed in therapy. The analyst's symbolic attitude is emphasized, containing the patient's initial affective explosion and validating the physicality of her condition. Mirroring and steady rhythmic attunement became a new, pre-verbal, source of trust—vitalization; differentiation and separation replaced defensive splitting and dissociation. Then the overwhelmingly powerful bodily/maternal could be counterbalanced by the masculine, and a transitional space emerged for symbolic work.
Both the regressive and the dynamic aspects of CFS are located in the earliest undifferentiated, archetypal, bodily/psychic modes, when the frustration of primary needs evokes the defences of the self. It is argued that our psychodynamic understanding can contribute to the stalemate in seeing chronic fatigue syndrome as either an organic illness or depression, and that a new linking of the somatic and psychic calls for a new professional collaboration.     

Neurocognitive functioning in chronic fatigue syndrome

Although substantial research has been conducted on chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) over the past decade, the syndrome remains poorly understood. The most recent case definition describes CFS as being characterized both by disabling fatigue and by subjective reports of difficulty with concentration and short-term memory. However, research into the neurocognitive and psychological functioning of individuals with CFS has provided mixed objective results. The current paper reviews studies that have examined the neurocognitive and/or psychological functioning of individuals with CFS. Changes in research design and instruments employed to study individuals with CFS are suggested.     

Impaired tactual perception in children with Down's syndrome

Using standardized neuropsychological tests, tactual finger discrimination, graphaesthesia and stereognosis were studied in a group of 11 children aged 7–11 years with Down's syndrome (DS). All tasks were solved without visual control. The performance was subnormal in each test and the results of the stereognosis test were particularly poor. It was ascertained that the DS children could understand test instructions. Moreover, under visual control all objects used in the stereognosis test were handled correctly. The results suggest that tactual perception is subnormal in children with DS. The pathogenesis of the somatosensory abnormalities should be explored.     

Cry analysis detects subclinical effects of prenatal alcohol exposure in newborn infants

The threshold, latency, and peak fundamental frequency (basic pitch) of crying were sensitive to the subclinical effects of prenatal alcohol exposure through the first month of postnatal life. Whereas infants with prenatal alcohol exposure showed a lower cry pitch and higher cry threshold at 2 days of age, higher pitched cries, typical of nervous system insult, were evident at 14 and 28 days. A longer latency was also evident at 14 days.     

The long-term outcome of a personal network-oriented HIV prevention intervention for injection drug users: The SAFE study

Social influence processes have been found to affect numerous drug and health-related behaviors. We postulated that by using a network-oriented intervention it may be possible to capitalize on social influence processes to reduce human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) risk behaviors. The present study used an experimental study design for delivering a psychoeducational acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) preventive intervention to injection drug sharing networks. Participants were recruited from the ALIVE study, an epidemiological study in Baltimore. In the present paper we examine the self-reported behavioral outcomes of 117 injection drug users 18 months after the baseline interview. HIV seronegative experimental participants reported significantly less frequent needle sharing and less injecting of heroin and cocaine than controls. In multiple logistic regression models of HIV seronegative participants, there was a significant negative association between assignment to the experimental group and the HIV-related behaviors of needle sharing and sharing of cookers in the prior 6 months; controls were 2.8 times more likely than experimentals to report needle sharing and were 2.7 times more likely to report sharing cookers. The results of this 18-month follow-up suggest that among injection drug users network-oriented interventions may be a promising approach to HIV prevention.