情绪生理机制研究的外周与中枢神经系统整合模型

阐明人类情绪的生理机制是心理学家和神经科学家所面临的巨大挑战。以往研究倾向于分别考察情绪的外周反应模式和脑机制。近年来,随着情绪电生理学和认知神经科学的发展,许多研究者从外周与中枢神经系统相互作用的角度,提出了一些解释情绪生理机制的整合模型。其中,以情绪环路模型和神经内脏整合模型为典型代表。前者强调由外周到中枢的自下而上的加工方式,试图说明情绪经验形成的机制;后者则采取由中枢到外周的自上而下的加工方式,试图阐明情绪调控的机制。今后的研究有必要借鉴这两个模型,并结合近期有关情绪信息加工神经机制的新成果,以便构建能够更为全面解释人类情绪的生理模型。     

Evaluation of resistance to change under different disrupter conditions in children with autism and severe intellectual disability

Translational research inspired by behavioral momentum theory in the area of developmental disabilities has shown effects in individuals over a range of functioning levels. In the current study, behavioral momentum was assessed in 6 children diagnosed with autism and severe intellectual disability. In a repeated measures design, participants were exposed to relatively rich versus lean reinforcement contingencies in a multiple schedule with food reinforcers. This was followed by exposure to each of four disrupting conditions: prefeeding, presentation of a concurrent alternative stimulus, presentation of a movie, and the presence of a researcher dispensing response-independent reinforcers on a variable-time schedule. Consistently greater resistance to disruption in the component with the richer schedule occurred with the alternative stimulus disrupter but not with the other disrupters. These results suggest parameters that may be more (or less) effective if behavioral momentum inspired techniques are to be exploited in therapeutic environments.     

Touch Precision Modulates Visual Bias

The sensory precision hypothesis holds that different seen and felt cues about the size of an object resolve themselves in favor of the more reliable modality. To examine this precision hypothesis, 60 college students were asked to look at one size while manually exploring another unseen size either with their bare fingers or, to lessen the reliability of touch, with their fingers sleeved in rigid tubes. Afterwards, the participants estimated either the seen size or the felt size by finding a match from a visual display of various sizes. Results showed that the seen size biased the estimates of the felt size when the reliability of touch decreased. This finding supports the interaction between touch reliability and visual bias predicted by statistically optimal models of sensory integration.     

Past and present experiences with maternal touch affect infants’ attention toward emotional faces

Maternal touch is considered crucial in regulating infants’ internal states when facing unknown or distressing situations. Here, we explored the effects of maternal touch on 7-month-old infants’ preferences towards emotions. Infants’ looking times were measured through a two-trial preferential looking paradigm, while infants observed dynamic videos of happy and angry facial expressions. During the observation, half of the infants received an affective touch (i.e., stroke), while the other half received a non-affective stimulation (i.e., fingertip squeeze) from their mother. Further, we assessed the frequency of maternal touch in the mother-infant dyad through The Parent-Infant Caregiving Touch Scale (PICTS). Our results have shown that infants’ attention to angry and happy facial expressions varied as a function of both present and past experiences with maternal touch. Specifically, in the affective touch condition, as the frequency of previous maternal affective tactile care increased (PICTS), the avoidance of angry faces decreased. Conversely, in the non-affective touch condition, as the frequency of previous maternal affective tactile care increased (PICTS), the avoidance of angry faces increased as well. Thus, past experience with maternal affective touch is a crucial predictor of the regulatory effects that actual maternal touch exerts on infants’ visual exploration of emotional stimuli.     

催产素对产后抑郁症患者母性行为的调节作用

产后抑郁症是指女性分娩后一段时间内出现的严重抑郁发作现象。研究表明, 催产素不仅参与分娩过程和正常的母性行为表达, 也在调节产后抑郁的发病及患者的母性行为中起到了重要的作用。产后抑郁症患者的情绪和认知功能受损, 这可能导致了母性行为表达质量的下降; 催产素可以通过中脑边缘多巴胺系统来调控母性行为, 作用于内侧视前区(MPOA)来激活中脑腹侧被盖区(VTA)-伏隔核(NAc)环路从而影响伏隔核内多巴胺的分泌; 催产素对产后抑郁症中母性行为的调节机制可能是通过调节五羟色胺系统的功能来发挥抗焦虑作用, 也可能是通过与其它激素的交互作用来加速母性行为的表达。未来研究进一步明确催产素在中枢神经环路中的功能差异, 以及社会支持对产后抑郁症患者催产素的使用带来的影响。     

精神分裂症的潜伏抑制动物模型

精神分裂症动物模型的建立,是当前研究精神分裂症的神经生物学机制以及开发新的抗精神病药物的一个重要课题。文章系统地阐述了以潜伏抑制为行为模式的精神分裂症动物模型的理论以及神经机制,并重点介绍了精神分裂症的潜伏抑制动物模型的建立方法,包括（1）调节某些与精神分裂症相关的中枢神经递质的传递活动;（2）对与精神分裂症有关的中脑-伏隔核神经环路进行结构损伤或药物性干预;（3）在发育早期给予免疫刺激或环境应激     

Concept learning by monkeys with video picture images and a touch screen.

Two rhesus monkeys were trained in a same/different task to discriminate digitized computer-stored picture stimuli. The pictures were digitized from 35-mm slides and presented in pairs on a computer monitor. The monkeys were required to touch the pictures and then make a choice response to indicate whether the pictures were identical or nonidentical. The response areas and stimuli were located to the sides of the picture stimuli. Responses were defined and monitored by an infrared matrix touch screen. After learning the same/different task, both monkeys showed performance accuracy with novel picture stimuli similar to that with training picture stimuli. This accurate novel-picture transfer indicates that a same/different concept had been learned, a concept similar to the one they had previously demonstrated in a different apparatus with rear-projected slide stimuli and a response lever.     

Conditional discrimination and equivalence relations: Control by negative stimuli

Three adult subjects were taught the following two-sample, two-comparison conditional discriminations (each sample is shown with its positive and negative comparison, in that order): A1-B1B2, A2-B2B1; B1-C1C2, B2-C2C1; and C1-D1D2, C2-D2D1. A teaching procedure was designed to encourage control by negative comparisons. Subjects were then tested for emergent performances that would indicate whether the baseline conditional discriminations were reflexive, symmetric, and transitive. The tests documented the emergence of two classes of equivalent stimuli: A1, B2, C1, D2 and A2, B1, C2, D1. These were the classes to be expected if the negative comparisons were the controlling comparisons in the baseline conditional discriminations. The negative comparisons, however, were not the comparisons that subjects were recorded as having chosen in the baseline conditional discriminations. Differential test results confirmed predictions arising from a stimulus-control analysis: In reflexivity tests (AA, BB, CC, DD), subjects chose comparisons that differed from the sample; one-node transitivity (AC, BD) and "equivalence" (CA, DB) tests also yielded results that were the opposite of those to be expected from control by positive comparisons; symmetry tests (BA, CB, DC), two-node transitivity (AD) tests, and two-node "equivalence" (DA) tests yielded results that were to be expected from control by either positive or negative comparisons.     

TESTS FOR CONTROL BY EXCLUSION AND NEGATIVE STIMULUS RELATIONS OF ARBITRARY MATCHING TO SAMPLE IN A “SYMMETRY-EMERGENT” CHIMPANZEE

In the present experiments, controlling relations in arbitrary matching-to-sample performance were tested in a 9-year-old female chimpanzee who showed statistically significant emergence of symmetry in previous two-choice conditional discrimination experiments. In Experiment 1, a novel (undefined) sample stimulus was followed by a pair of trained (defined) and undefined comparison stimuli to assess the control by exclusion in arbitrary matching. The chimpanzee selected the undefined shape comparison, excluding the defined one, in color-sample-to-shape-comparison probe trials, although stimulus preferences were relatively stronger than control by exclusion in shape-sample trials. An additional test for control by relations of the sample to the positive comparison (S+ control) showed that her behavior was also under the control of relations of the sample to the positive comparison. In Experiment 2, a defined sample was followed by a pair of negatively defined and undefined comparisons to test control by the relations of the sample to the negative comparison. (S- control). The subject selected undefined comparisons in both color-shape and shape-color test trials. These results clearly indicate that the conditional discrimination behavior of this “symmetry-emergent” chimpanzee was under both S+ and S- control. Furthermore, her performance was also under control by exclusion in color-shape arbitrary matching, unlike other chimpanzees who showed no evidence of symmetry but only S+ control of arbitrary matching.