Correction to: Effects of reward magnitude and training frequency on the learning rates and memory retention of the Port Jackson shark Heterodontus portusjacksoni

Animal Cognition - In the original publication of the article, the Fig. 4 was erroneously published.     

Frontal Lobes and Ageing Effect on the P300 Component of the Auditory Event—Related Potentials

Dans cette étude, on a comparé le temps de latence et l'amplitude du P300 dans un échantillon de dix jeunes gens (moyenne d'âge: 20 ans) et de dix personnes plus âgées (moyenne d'âge: 68 ans). Comme prévu, le temps de latence augmente avec l'âge, mais le taux de croissance varie avec l'aire corticale prise en considération. L'amplitude baisse avec l'âge pour presque toutes les localisations cérébrales, sauf pour l'aire frontale où elle augmente. Nous avons aussi montré l'importance de ces découvertes pour la mesure du vieillissement du cerveau et pour le diagnostic des maladies cérébrales qui apparaissent avec l'âge.
In the present investigation we compared the latency and amplitude of the P300 in a sample of 10 young people (mean age = 20) and 10 elderly people (mean age = 68). As expected, latency increases with age, but this increasing rate varies depending on the cortical area analysed. The amplitude decreases with age over nearly all areas of the scalp, except for the frontal areas, where it increases. We also establish the importance of these findings in the evaluation of brain ageing and in the diagnosis of cerebral diseases that appear with age.     

Catholicism,Protestantism, and Mexicanness on the US–Mexico border: discourses,narrative identities,habits, and affect

ABSTRACT

In Mexico, Catholicism and national identity are deeply intertwined through what we call a process of articulation. Thus, not surprisingly, despite the recent impressive growth of Protestantism in the nation, most people still believe that being Mexican and being Catholic are almost synonymous. Additionally, because the two identifications do not ‘cross each other’ (as the metaphor of intersectionality posits) but, instead, enter a very complex process of articulation in which each modifies the other, there is a particular way in which many Mexicans experience and perform their Catholicism, in the same vein that there is a particular way in which Catholics experience and perform their Mexicanness. Simultaneously, because neither nationality nor religion is narrated and/or performed in isolation to other forms of identification (e.g. race, ethnicity, region, gender) other possible identifications are also articulated or co-inform (in different ways) nationality and religion in the identitarian encounters that occur on the border. In the way people build their identifications around religion, narratives, practices, habits, affect, and emotions are continuously interrelated. We show that having an altar outside one’s house or making the sign of the cross on one’s body is both (depending on the unfolding of the social interactions and their patterns of relations) a non-linguistic discourse and a habit. We also show that their mere presence (in the case of altars) or performance (in the case of the sign of the cross) affect the people around the site or the performance, triggering complex emotions. That altar and sign of the cross can potentially be all these things simultaneously highlights their importance as ‘affective conductors’—stressing their significance as central objects in the intensification of relations that give new capacities to the entities involved in the patterns of relationship at play in the identitarian encounter at stake.     

Responsividad y condicionamiento semántico en relación con el ciclo menstrual

Resumen

El trabajo examina el efecto de cambios internos atribuibles al ciclo menstrual en la responsividad y condicionamiento psicofisiológico de un grupo de mujeres normales con ciclos naturales. Los sujetos fueron examinados Premenstrualmente (PM) o Intermenstrualmente (IM), utilizando como variables dependientes medidas psicofisiológicas (Conductancia de la Piel y Tasa Cardíaca) y cuestionarios. Los sujetos IM mostraron mayor responsividad y habituación en la actividad cardíaca y menores latencies de recuperación en la conductancia de la piel ante estimulación auditiva intensa, así como mayor condicionamiento en la conductancia de la piel (respuestas al segundo intervalo) que los sujetos PM. Las medidas actuales y retrospectivas de estados emocionales mostraron mayor afecto negativo (fatiga y tensión) en los sujetos PM y en l a fase premenstrual. Estos resultados son comparados con los de estudios similares realizados con pacientes fóbicas y son discutidos en términos de diferentes estados emocionales y de activación fisiológica asociados a las fases menstruales examinadas.     

When head is tempered by heart: Heart rate variability modulates perception of other-blame reducing anger

This study examined the relationship between heart rate variability (HRV), as an index of individual differences in emotion regulation, and perception of other-blame, as a mechanism of anger induction. The physiological responses were recorded while subjects read a story from a computer screen. The story narrated a negative event in self-referred way -dismissal from a job as the result of a colleague’s action- under conditions of intentionality versus non-intentionality. Cognitive and emotional variables were assessed by questionnaire immediately after the physiological test. The resulting structural model supports the conclusion that HRV exerts its regulatory influence directly on perception of other-blame rather than on emotion. In situations of intentionality, individuals with higher HRV make less extreme evaluation of the offender’s blame, versus those with lower HRV, thus leading to a reduction in anger reaction. These results suggest that HRV is a direct index of cognitive rather than emotional regulation.     

The Aggression Questionnaire: a validation study in student samples

The goal of this study was to examine the psychometric properties of the Aggression Questionnaire (AQ) in Spain. The AQ is a 29-item instrument designed to measure the different dimensions of the hostility/anger/aggression construct. It consists of 4 subscales that assess: (a) anger, (b) hostility, (c) verbal aggression, and (d) physical aggression. In Study 1, reliability, construct validity, and convergent validity were evaluated in a group of 384 male and female university students. Test-retest reliability was evaluated using a group of 154 male and female university students. The results of the factor analysis were similar to the scale structure claimed for this instrument. The subscales also showed internal consistency and stability over time. The AQ and its subscales were also compared with the scales and subscales of the Spielberger State-Trait Anger Expression Inventory (STAXI), the Cook-Medley Hostility Scale (Ho), the Buss-Durkee Hostility Inventory (BDHI), and the Jenkins Activity Survey-Form H (JASE-H). The results show that the AQ evaluates some aspects of anger, such as Anger-Trait and Anger-Out, rather than other elements, such as Anger-In or Anger-State. In Study 2, two new male groups were used to evaluate the criterion validity of the AQ: 57 prison inmates and 93 university students, finding that this instrument discriminated between the scores obtained by common offenders and university students.     

Food approach conditioning and discrimination learning using sound cues in benthic sharks

The marine environment is filled with biotic and abiotic sounds. Some of these sounds predict important events that influence fitness while others are unimportant. Individuals can learn specific sound cues and ‘soundscapes’ and use them for vital activities such as foraging, predator avoidance, communication and orientation. Most research with sounds in elasmobranchs has focused on hearing thresholds and attractiveness to sound sources, but very little is known about their abilities to learn about sounds, especially in benthic species. Here we investigated if juvenile Port Jackson sharks could learn to associate a musical stimulus with a food reward, discriminate between two distinct musical stimuli, and whether individual personality traits were linked to cognitive performance. Five out of eight sharks were successfully conditioned to associate a jazz song with a food reward delivered in a specific corner of the tank. We observed repeatable individual differences in activity and boldness in all eight sharks, but these personality traits were not linked to the learning performance assays we examined. These sharks were later trained in a discrimination task, where they had to distinguish between the same jazz and a novel classical music song, and swim to opposite corners of the tank according to the stimulus played. The sharks’ performance to the jazz stimulus declined to chance levels in the discrimination task. Interestingly, some sharks developed a strong side bias to the right, which in some cases was not the correct side for the jazz stimulus.