Acute systemic fibroblast growth factor-2 enhances long-term memory in developing rats

Recent findings have provided much insight into the mechanisms underlying long-term memory formation, and it is now known that long-term memory depends on the activation of a molecular cascade that culminates with structural changes in the brain. However, little is known about the signals that give rise to or regulate these structural changes. In this article we propose that fibroblast growth factor-2 (FGF2), a mitogen for several cell types, may be one of the molecular signals critically involved in the structural changes underlying long-term memory. If FGF2 is part of the signalling cascade involved in long-term memory, then increasing the activation of FGF2 should facilitate memory. In Experiments 1 and 2, we demonstrated that systemic injection of FGF2 (20 ng/g of body weight) facilitated memory for contextual fear in 16, 19, and 22 day old male Sprague Dawley rats. Experiment 3 demonstrated that the observed facilitation of memory was not due to FGF2 increasing rats’ sensitivity to footshock. These results implicate FGF2 as a possible molecular signal in long-term memory, and further, illustrate a novel means of enhancing memory.     

情绪记忆的神经基础

情绪记忆具有强烈、持久的特点,在记忆中具有优势地位。杏仁核是情绪记忆的关键脑区,其外侧核被认为是情绪回路建立的中心部位。恐惧条件反射是情绪记忆,特别是情绪回路研究的有效手段。情绪记忆的编码,储存与提取受到杏仁核与各相关脑区共同影响,其中激素调节在这些过程中发挥重要作用。文中结合最新的研究成果对情绪记忆的神经机制进行讨论     

普高生与中职生的个人未来目标和担忧

以1995名普高生和中职生为被试,采用未来取向问卷(中文版),考察了普高生和中职生的个人未来目标和担忧的内容与时间广度。研究发现:普高生与中职生较多地关注未来教育、职业、婚姻/家庭、家庭安康和自我,预期重要生活事件发生在二三十岁左右。普高生更多地提及教育目标和担忧以及与家庭安康有关的担忧,而中职生更多地提及职业目标和担忧,并预期职业目标和担忧发生的年龄较早;农村学生更多地提及与未来教育和家庭安康有关的目标,而相对较少提及职业目标,并预期教育和职业目标以及职业担忧发生的年龄早于城市学生;男生更多地提及职业和婚姻/家庭目标以及与自我有关的担忧,而女生更多地提及与家庭安康有关的目标和教育担忧,并预期教育和职业目标发生的年龄较早。     

失败恐惧研究述评

失败恐惧（Fear of Failure,简写为FF）作为一种消极的情绪体验,近年来越来越多地受到研究者的关注。文章主要介绍了失败恐惧概念结构的演变、测量工具由单维到多维的发展过程、失败恐惧特质形成和预防的心理动力学探讨以及多维测量工具在失败恐惧干预方法中的作用。在此基础上,文章对未来研究进行了展望,比如失败恐惧是否存在跨文化、跨领域的差异,我国经济转型时期失败恐惧研究具有怎样的现实意义等     

Why Does Fear Override Hope in Societies Engulfed by Intractable Conflict,as It Does in the Israeli Society?

The question of why fear overrides hope in societies embarked on the road of peacemaking after years of intractable conflict is answered on the basis of accumulated knowledge in the psychology and sociology of emotions. This knowledge suggests that fear is an automatic emotion, grounded in the perceived present and often based on the memorized past (also processed unconsciously), that leads to freezing of beliefs, conservatism, and sometimes preemptive aggression. Hope, in contrast, involves mostly cognitive activity, which requires the search for new ideas and thus is based on creativity and flexibility. Because hope is based on thinking, it can be seriously impeded by the spontaneous and unconscious interference of fear. Both fear and hope can become collective emotional orientations that organize society's views and direct its forms of action. It is assumed that societies involved in intractable conflict are dominated by a collective emotional orientation of fear, which is functional in their coping with the stressful and demanding situation. But such an orientation serves as a psychological obstacle to a peace process once it starts. The Israeli Jewish case of collective fear orientation is offered as an example. The presentation includes the roots of this orientation, the ways in which it is reflected and disseminated, and its expressions among the Israeli Jewish public; it ends optimistically with the suggestion that societies can determine to overcome their fear and establish a collective orientation of hope for peace.     

恐惧发生与预防的实验研究：──Ⅰ、强烈噪音下恐具行为的动物模型

通过不同方法对ＳＤ型大鼠分四组进行实验处理,观察比较大鼠的行为,发现：在突然的高强度噪音条件下,大鼠出现恐惧的行为反应;强刺激组大鼠恐惧行为较控制组明显增多,行为的唤醒适应能力异常,并存在显著的个体差异;噪音脱敏训练对提高大鼠在高强噪音条件下的应激能力、减少恐惧具有良好的促进作用;在脱敏训练中尤以逐渐递增噪音强度、刺激时间与平均分配实验日结合的方法效果最为显著。     

Social fear and expressive reactions to social stimuli

This study explored whether subjects high as compared to low in social fear react with a more negative emotional response, measured as facial electromyographic (EMG) activity, when exposed to social stimuli (pictures of angry and happy facial expressions). It was found that subjects who rated themselves as relatively high in public speaking fear gave larger negative facial EMG responses (Corrugator supercilii muscle activity) to angry faces than did the low fear subjects. Low fear subjects, on the other hand, gave larger positive facial EMG responses (Zygomatic major muscle activity) to happy faces than did the high fear subjects. It was further found that happy stimuli were rated as more hostile and less friendly and happy by the high fear group. Consistent with earlier findings, it was concluded that the facial EMG technique is sensitive to detecting different reactions among subjects relatively high and low in social fear.     

Current and vestigial effects of overweight among women: Fear of fat,attitudinal body image,and eating behaviors

College females completed multiple, standardized measures of their fear of fat, attitudinal body image, and binge eating and dieting. Situational weigh-in measures were taken, including latency to get on the scale and anxiety while being weighed. Based on current weight and a structured weight history questionnaire, three groups were constructed: normal-weight subjects without an overweight history (NW; n=24), normal-weight subjects who were formerly overweight (FOW; n=16), and those currently overweight (OW; n=24). Group comparisons revealed, as expected, that OW females, relative to their NW peers, had more weight-related anxieties, more negative body experiences, and more frequent past-year dieting. Consistent with Stunkard's original proposition, the FOW group regarded their bodies as fatter and less affectively satisfying and expressed more weigh-in anxiety than NW participants. Currently normal-weight FOW subjects seldom differed from the currently OW individuals. Clinical and research implications are considered, particularly with regard to the psychological sequelae of weight loss.     

An investigation of children's fears and their mothers' fears

Children (75 female, 52 male) in grades 2 through 8 completed the Fear Survey Schedule for Children (FSS-FC). Their mothers completed the same questionnaire twice: once for themselves and a second time to estimate their children's fears. Spearman's rhos indicated that there was a high degree of correspondence between the mothers' rank-ordered estimates of their children's fears and the children's rank-ordered self-reports (=.86 for males, =.96 for females.However, mothers' overall estimates of their children's general fearfulness were significantly correlated only with their daughters' fearfulness, not with their sons'. Further analyses showed that mothers could generally identify their children's highest-rated fears. All test-retest measures were significant. In summary, these results suggest that mothers may provide useful clinical information about their children's specific fears and that the FSS-FC is a reliable instrument with which to assess children's fears.