A measurement model of women's behavioral risk taking.

The current study was designed to gain a better understanding of the nature of the relationship between substance use and sexual risk taking within a community sample of women (N = 1,004). Using confirmatory factor analysis, the authors examined the factor structure of sexual risk behaviors and substance use to determine whether they are best conceptualized as domains underlying a single, higher order, risk-taking propensity. A 2 higher order factor model (sexual risk behavior and substance use) provided the best fit to the data, suggesting that these 2 general risk domains are correlated but independent factors. Sensation seeking had large general direct effects on the 2 risk domains and large indirect effects on the 4 first-order factors and the individual indicators. Negative affect had smaller, yet still significant, effects. Impulsivity and anxiety were unrelated to sexual health risk domains.     

Panic disorder: cognitive-behavioral treatment

The effectiveness of an integrated treatment program utilizing cognitive-behavioral therapies for Panic Disorder was examined. Treatment was comprised of Cognitive Model of Panic-derived procedures, Cognitive Therapy and Applied Relaxation Training. Subjects meeting DSM-III-R criteria for Panic Disorder received thirteen 2.5-hr sessions of outpatient therapy in small groups, over a 12-week period. Subjects were given an extensive rationale of the etiology, development and maintenance of Panic Disorder, within the framework of the Cognitive Model of Panic, and controlled behavioral experiments in panic evocation to internal panicogenic cues, cognitive reappraisal of somatic and ideational cues, breathing retraining, Applied Relaxation Training and Cognitive Therapy to identify and remediate maladaptive beliefs and dysfunctional cognitive schemas. A comprehensive assessment battery was given at pre-mid-post-treatment which included measures of tripartite functioning, global severity, panic, fear, anxiety, depression and psychiatric symptomatology. Analyses indicated statistically significant improvements across all outcome domains. All subjects were free of spontaneous (uncued) panic attacks at post-treatment, and all met operationalized criteria for high endstate functioning. These findings are discussed, with recommendations for future research.     

Psychophysiological outcome of cognitive, behavioral and psychophysiologically-based treatments of agoraphobia

Psychophysiological process and outcome phenomena were analyzed to examine differential temporal patterns within and across cognitive, behavioral and physiologically-based treatments of agoraphobia. Eighty-eight severe and chronic agoraphobics with panic attacks (DSM-III) were randomly assigned to one of three treatments: Paradoxical Intention, Graduated Exposure or Progressive Deep Muscle Relaxation Training. Protocol therapists, whose treatment integrity was objectively monitored, conducted 12 two-hour weekly sessions. All subjects received programmed practice instructions concurrent with their primary treatment. Analyses revealed numerous significant reductions on in vivo psychophysiological measures for the relaxation condition, a few improvements for the exposure treatment and no effects for the paradoxical intention modality. The mediating role of pretreatment physiological reactivity in treatment outcome and follow-up status was examined and revealed no significant associations. Synchrony-desynchrony patterns were found to vary widely according to both treatment phase and the time interval between assessments. No between-group differences were observed on the proportion of synchronizers. However, synchronizers exhibited superior outcome and follow-up compared to desynchronizers on all domains except the physiological measures. Conceptual, methodological and clinical implications of these findings are discussed with recommendations for future research.     

Reversal of Relative Thresholds for Synaptic Facilitation and Increased Excitability Induced by Serotonin and Tail Nerve Stimulation inAplysiaSensory Neurons

Tail shock induces reflex sensitization inAplysiaand, in parallel, induces a number of modulatory effects in central neurons, such as increased excitability in tail sensory neurons (SNs) and facilitation of synaptic transmission from SNs to motor neurons. Both of these modulatory effects are mimicked by exogenous application of serotonin (5HT) or electrical stimulation of the tail nerve P9. In the present study we examined the activation thresholds for increased excitability and synaptic facilitation induced by either 5HT or P9 stimulation. We found that the concentration of 5HT sufficient to produce a significant increase in excitability produced no significant synaptic facilitation and, conversely, that the intensity of nerve stimulation sufficient to produce significant synaptic facilitation produced no excitability changes. This reversal of relative thresholds for these modulatory effects may reflect the differential access of exogenous 5HT and endogenous 5HT (released by tail nerve stimulation) to the SN cell body and synaptic terminals, respectively.     

Input- and output-monitoring in implicit and explicit memory

Previous experiments have shown that the procedure of questioning subjects retrospectively about the input and output status of information (input and output monitoring) is a useful method for assessing the awareness states of subjects during implicit and explicit memory tasks. The main purpose of the present study was to investigate whether the previous findings could be extended to other implicit and explicit memory tasks. We were especially interested in whether differences in input- and output-monitoring performance can be observed when both the implicit and explicit memory tasks are conceptual ones. In a final test phase, the target items from the study phase and new distractor items were presented. In a recognition-like situation, subjects had to decide whether an item had been presented in the study phase (input status), as well as whether they had produced the item in the memory-test phase (output status). In all three experiments judgments about the input status - but only for those items that had been produced in the implicit or in the explicit memory test - were more precise after explicit than after implicit memory testings. This finding was not influenced by the distinction between perceptual and conceptual-memory tasks (Exp. 1), and was obtained under conditions in which the implicit and the explicit memory tasks were both conceptual and differed only in test instructions (Exps. 2 and 3). These results suggest that not only subjects performing a perceptual test of implicit memory, but also subjects in a conceptual implicit test were less aware of using information from a previous study episode than subjects who received memory instructions. It is concluded that requiring judgments about the input status of information is a good method for assessing subjects test awareness and is preferable to the use of a questionnaire (Exp. 3). In contrast, in all three experiments no differences were found with the output-monitoring measure between implicit and explicit test conditions.     

Enhancement of the Post-training Cholinergic Tone Antagonizes the Impairment of Retention Induced by a Nitric Oxide Synthase Inhibitor in Mice

The present experiments examined the role of the central cholinergic system in the memory impairment induced by post-training administration of a nitric oxide synthase (NOS) inhibitor in mice. Male Swiss mice received a one-trial inhibitory avoidance training (0.8 mA, 50 Hz, 1-s footshock) followed immediately by an ip injection of the NOS inhibitor -N^G-nitroarginine methyl ester ( -NAME; 100 mg/kg). Retention (cut-off time, 300 s) was tested 48 h after training. The administration of -NAME results in memory impairment for the inhibitory avoidance task. The effects of -NAME (100 mg/kg, ip) on retention were reversed in a dose-related manner by the centrally acting anticholinesterase physostigmine (35, 70, or 150 μg/kg, sc) administered 30 min after the NOS inhibitor. Further, -NAME (100 mg/kg, ip)-induced memory impairment was completely antagonized by the centrally acting muscarinic cholinergic agonist oxotremorine (OTM; 25, 50, or 100 μg/kg, sc) when given 30 min after -NAME. The peripherally acting anticholinesterase neostigmine (150 μg/kg, sc) did not modify the memory-impairing effects of -NAME. These findings suggest that the memory impairment following post-training administration of a NOS inhibitor is mediated, at least in part, by a reduction of the activity of central muscarinic cholinergic mechanisms and are consistent with our previous view that nitric oxide may be involved in post-training neural processes underlying the storage of newly acquired information.     

Effects of Posttraining Administration of Glucose on Retention of a Habituation Response in Mice: Participation of a Central Cholinergic Mechanism

Male Swiss mice were allowed to explore a novel environment, provided by an open-field activity chamber, for 10 min. The procedure was repeated twice with a 24-h interval. The difference in the exploratory activity between the first (training) and the second (testing) exposures to the chamber was taken as an index of retention of this habituation task. Posttraining intraperitoneal administration of glucose (10–300 mg/kg) enhanced retention in a dose-related manner, although only the dose of 30 mg/kg of glucose produced significant effects. Thus, the dose–response curve adopted an inverted U-shaped form. Glucose (30 mg/kg) given to untrained mice did not modify their exploratory performance when recorded 24 h later. The effects of glucose on retention were time-dependent, suggesting an action on memory storage. The memory-improving actions of glucose were prevented by the simultaneous administration of both the central acting muscarinic cholinergic antagonist atropine (0.5 mg/kg) and by the central acting nicotinic cholinergic antagonist mecamylamine (5 mg/kg). In contrast, neither methylatropine (0.5 mg/kg), a peripherally acting muscarinic receptor blocker, nor hexamethonium (5 mg/kg), a peripherally acting nicotinic receptor blocker, prevented the effects of glucose on retention. Low subeffective doses of glucose (10 mg/kg) and the central anticholinesterase physostigmine (35 μg/kg), but not neostigmine (35 μg/kg), given together, act synergistically and facilitated retention. We suggest that glucose modulates memory storage of one form of learning elicited by stimuli repeatedly presented without reinforcement, probably through an enhancement of brain acetylcholine synthesis and/or its release.     

The subjective vertical under ‘dry’ and ‘wet’ conditions at clockwise and counterclockwise changed positions and the effect of a parallel-lined background field

Summary The dependence of the subjective vertical (SV, the angle between a subjective vertical line and body median plane) on the gravity vertical (body tilt position, angle ) and on the optical vertical (i.e., a field of parallel lines seen as background to the line to be adjusted) was investigated. The SV was measured under dry and wet conditions at different degrees of body tilt attained in either clockwise (CW) or counterclockwise (CCW) progression.The measured difference in between field-of-lines left and right of the line is smallest at the upright position (=O°) and largest at =150°/165°. All body positions show a -difference between CW and CCW attainment (hysteresis), this too being least at upright and greatest at inverted body positions.These results, and changes of with test time, are discussed relative to the hypothesis that efficiency of the statolith organs decreases with body tilt increase, favouring increase of interference of somatoreceptors and the optical reference.