轻型孤独症患儿行为特征的探讨

儿童孤独症是以社交障碍、语言障碍和重复刻板行为为特征的广泛性发育障碍 ,近年来发病率呈上升的趋势 ,其中轻型患儿占有相当的比例[1] 。因病因尚不清楚 ,因此尚无特异性的诊断手段 ,主要依靠临床症状和表现。而轻型孤独症患儿由于症状较轻或不典型 ,因此增加了临床诊断的困难 ,易被漏诊或误诊而使患儿失去获得早期干预的机会。目前国内有关孤独症的研究主要限于典型孤独症患儿 ,而有关轻型患儿的研究尚未见报道。我们对轻型孤独症患儿的临床表现及行为特征进行了探讨 ,旨在为轻型孤独症患儿的正确诊断提供依据。1　对象和方法1.1　研究对…     

Behavioral insensitivity to progesterone during lactation in female rats

Lactating female rats failed to display sexual receptivity after receiving 50 μg of estradiol benzoate followed by 1 mg of progesterone. Lactating rats appear to be insensitive to progesterone, based on several experiments. In ovariectomized control rats receiving moderate estrogen priming (1 μg EB for 3 days), progesterone greatly facilitated sexual receptivity; similarly estrogen-primed lactating females showed no responsiveness to progesterone injections, even at a high dose of progesterone (10 mg). Consistent with this reduced behavioral responsiveness to progesterone, lactating females had significantly reduced nuclear progestin receptor levels after an injection of 1 mg progesterone compared to ovariectomized controls. On the other hand, both ovariectomized controls and lactating rats responded with high levels of receptivity to 3 days of priming with 10 μg of estradiol benzoate (without progesterone). Lactating females treated for 3 days with a moderate dose (1 μg) of estradiol benzoate showed slightly reduced receptivity compared to ovariectomized controls; this result could reflect a reduced sensitivity to estrogen but is more likely related to the somewhat lower serum levels of estradiol and consequently lower nuclear estrogen receptors in lactating females compared to ovariectomized controls. The possibility of reduced sensitivity to estrogen leading to a reduced sensitivity to progesterone cannot be eliminated (since animals respond to progesterone only after estrogen priming); however, the reported results favor the idea that lactating females are primarily refractory to progesterone and do not have a generalized insensitivity to estrogen.     

Effects of Beta-Adrenergic Activity on T-Wave Amplitude

This study addresses the hypothesis that electrocardiographic T-wave amplitude is influenced by beta-adrenergic stimulation of the heart. Beta-adrenergic activity was manipulated both pharmacologically and through behavioral challenge. Under resting conditions, 12 healthy men underwent infusion of placebo and then the beta-agonist, isoproterenol, and the beta-blocker, propranolol, in a counterbalanced, crossover design. During infusion of placebo, subjects also underwent two behavioral challenges, a structured interview and mental arithmetic. Analysis of the resting data indicated that propranolol produced a significant increase in T-wave amplitude, and isoproterenol produced significant T-wave amplitude attenuation. As previously reported, drug effects were also in evidence for heart rate. Behaviorally-induced reduction of T-wave amplitude was observed for mental arithmetic but not structured interview, which again paralleled heart rate data. Both pharmacological and behavioral data reported in this study support the hypothesis that the T-wave is significantly affected by beta-sympathetic influence on the heart. However, a nonspecific effect of heart rate change on T-wave amplitude would also account for these results. The findings are discussed in terms of their implications for the utility of T-wave amplitude in psychophysiological research.     

Duration and Placement of Sleep in a "Disentrained" Environment

Sleep/wake cycles of 9 young adults were electrographically recorded during 60 hrs of enforced bedrest. During this period subjects were required to lie quietly, with no time cues and minimal exogenous stimulation. Sleep and wakefulness patterns were clearly modified under these conditions. There was an alternation of waking periods with an average length of 2.7 hrs and sleep episodes with a mean duration of 2.99 hrs. Eighty percent of both sleep and waking periods were less than 4 hrs duration. The circadian pattern of sleep period duration persisted in disentrainment, but temporal organization of sleep episodes was substantially disrupted; sleep episodes occurred throughout the 24-hr day. The results suggest the presence of two distinct components of the human sleep system–one, sleep duration, is controlled by an endogenous circadian oscillatory system; another, sleep placement, is controlled primarily by behavioral controls, in the form of social and occupational pressures, and self-imposed behavioral alternatives to sleep.     

Responses of calves to acute stress: individual consistency and relations between behavioral and physiological measures

The present study examined the consistency over time of individual differences in behavioral and physiological responsiveness of calves to intuitively alarming test situations as well as the relationships between behavioral and physiological measures. Twenty Holstein Friesian heifer calves were individually subjected to the same series of two behavioral and two hypothalamo-pituitary-adrenocortical (HPA) axis reactivity tests at 3, 13 and 26 weeks of age. Novel environment (open field, OF) and novel object (NO) tests involved measurement of behavioral, plasma cortisol and heart rate responses. Plasma ACTH and/or cortisol response profiles were determined after administration of exogenous CRH and ACTH, respectively, in the HPA axis reactivity tests. Principal component analysis (PCA) was used to condense correlated measures within ages into principal components reflecting independent dimensions underlying the calves' reactivity. Cortisol responses to the OF and NO tests were positively associated with the latency to contact and negatively related to the time spent in contact with the NO. Individual differences in scores of a principal component summarizing this pattern of inter-correlations, as well as differences in separate measures of adrenocortical and behavioral reactivity in the OF and NO tests proved highly consistent over time. The cardiac response to confinement in a start box prior to the OF test was positively associated with the cortisol responses to the OF and NO tests at 26 weeks of age. HPA axis reactivity to ACTH or CRH was unrelated to adrenocortical and behavioral responses to novelty. These findings strongly suggest that the responsiveness of calves was mediated by stable individual characteristics. Correlated adrenocortical and behavioral responses to novelty may reflect underlying fearfulness, defining the individual's susceptibility to the elicitation of fear. Other independent characteristics mediating reactivity may include activity or coping style (related to locomotion) and underlying sociality (associated with vocalization).     

强迫症疾病行为的精神病理机制研究

目的对研究获得的强迫症疾病行为特征探索其精神病理学机制。方法以符合CCMD-Ⅱ的门诊强迫症患者50例为对象，选取非精神科病人50例组成对照，应用“强迫症疾病行为特征量表（OBPS）”，确定其有无强迫症疾病行为。同时调查研究组与对照组的人格特质、偶发事件、应对策略等方面，研究这些因素在疾病发生、发展中的作用。结果①研究组全部符合李一高量表的疾病行为特征，积分明显高于对照组（t=26．480，P〈0．01）；②强迫症患者人格当中的强迫质偏高，积分明显高于对照组（t=15．93，P〈0．01）；③研究组中绝大多数患者存在偶发事件，而对照组中偶发事件的发生率低于研究组（X^2=21．374，P〈0．01）；④应对策略特征方面研究组不成熟应对方式的应用明显多于对照组。结论强迫神经症形成中人格特质作为基础，偶发事件起到启动对“不完全的恐怖”，错误的应对策略不断强化病感，促进疾病形成。李一高强迫症疾病行为理论的3项内容，特征性的反映了强迫症的疾病行为。     

Effects of 9 -tetrahydrocannabinol and ethyl alcohol on adjunctive behavior and the lateral hypothalamus

The fact that electrical stimulation of the lateral hypothalamus (LH) can be substituted for the delivery of a food pellet in typical schedule induced polydipsia was established and demonstrated the role of this part of the brain in the mediation of adjunctive behavior. The assumption that Δ⁹-tetrahydrocannabinol (Δ⁹-THC) and ethyl alcohol affect behavior because of a differential effect on the same LH mechanism was supported by the following evidence. Relatively small doses of Δ⁹-THC, 0.25, 0.375, and 0.50 mg/kg, enhanced adjunctive drinking; whereas, larger quantities of 0.625 and 0.75 mg/kg had no appreciable effects. The effect is somewhat specific, as it did not occur with strychnine sulfate, and rate dependent within limits as it was most pronounced in animals with low rates of responding or in animals when responding at a low rate. The effect of rate dependency was also apparent with fixed interval schedules of 2 and 4 min and a multiple schedule of a fixed interval and a signalled timed out period of nonreinforcement. Low rates of responding were enhanced by all doses of Δ⁹-THC, 1.0, 1.5, 2.0, 2,5, and 3.0 mg/kg, and there was an obvious dose related decrease in high rates. A similar effect was observed with low and high rates of electrical self-stimulation through implanted LH electrodes. The hypothesis that some drugs such as Δ⁹-THC and ethyl alcohol can enhance the positive feedback in an LH mediated motor control system by the facilitation of the same mechanism which initially generated the behavior was confirmed. Oral self administration of ethyl alcohol in a saccharin sweetened fluid enhanced recovered adjunctive drinking of the solution in quantities which should be sufficient to produce physical dependence if continued for relatively long periods. Recovered adjunctive drinking occurs in animals without food or water deprivation and it is an intense and persistent phenomenon.     

Behavioral and neurochemical effects induced by subchronic combined exposure to toluene at 40 ppm and noise at 80 dB-A in rats

We investigated whether exposure to noise, in addition to its well-known potentiating effect on toluene-induced ototoxicity, may also exacerbate behavioral disturbances and brain neurochemical alterations produced by subchronic exposure to low toluene concentration. To test this hypothesis, we evaluated whether subchronic combined exposure (16 weeks, 104 h per week) to noise at 80 dB-A and toluene at 40 ppm potentiates the recently reported neurotoxic effects of subchronic exposure to 40 ppm toluene. Locomotor and rearing activities, sensitization to narcosis induced by acute toluene at high concentration, and tyrosine and tryptophan hydroxylase activities in the caudate-putamen and hippocampus were investigated in both male and female rats. Our results confirm that subchronic exposure to 40 ppm toluene significantly decreases rearing activity and leads to a sensitization to toluene-induced narcosis, as evaluated by loss of righting reflex, but fails to demonstrate any adverse effect of noise, alone or in combination with toluene. Given that toluene has addictive properties, the lack of potentiating behavioral and neurochemical effect of noise is discussed with regards to a recent study that has shown that methamphetamine neurotoxicity is potentiated by exposure to loud noise.     

Effect of maternal cadmium exposure on postnatal development and tissue cadmium,copper and zinc concentrations in rats

Administration of 60 ppm cadmium (Cd) in drinking water from the 1^st to the 20^th day of gestation to female rats did not affect the viability, body weight gain, food, and water consumption of offspring. The blood hemoglobin level was reduced in 2-week-old females and males but not in 16-week-old offspring. Hematocrit and serum glucose level were not affected at either age. Cadmium concentration in the intestinal wall was increased in both age groups, with marginal uptake in other organs. A decrease in copper (Cu) concentration was found in the brain of 2-week-old offspring of both sexes and of 16-week-old females. The brain zinc (Zn) concentration was decreased only in 16-week-old animals. The physical and neuromuscular development of offspring before weaning was not impaired by maternal Cd treatment. The alterations in Cu and Zn metabolism were associated with reduced locomotor activity and affected open-field behavior in adult offspring of either sex and with decreased avoidance acquisition in adult female offspring.The results obtained suggest a relationship between the reduced brain Cu and Zn levels and CNS dysfunction in adult offspring of female rats exposed to Cd during gestation.