Effect of amino acid derivatives of β-carboline-3-carboxylate on behavior in rats

Brain Research Institute, All-Union Mental Health Research Center, Academy of Medical Sciences of the USSR, Moscow. (Presented by Academician of the Academy of Medical Sciences of the USSR O. S. Adrianov.) Translated from Byulleten' Éksperimental'noi Biologii i Meditsiny, Vol. 107, No. 5, pp. 586–587, May, 1989.     

An electronic open field

An electronic open field made with inexpensive, off-the-shelf materials is described. Its automatic operation frees the researcher from tedious and time consuming direct observations in experiments measuring exploratory behavior, goal preference, etc. Its numeric output can be read from the display or interfaced to printers, recorders, computers, etc. As an example of its operation, experimental results measuring sexual motivation (proceptivity) of female rats are reported.     

Effect of peptide Pro-Gly-Pro on stress-induced behavioral changes in rats

Tripeptide PGP in a dose of 1 mg/kg had a correcting effect on behavioral disorders in rats induced by stress exposure (forced swimming). PGP prevented the increase in anxiety and decrease in orientation and exploratory activity. Our results suggest that the effect of this peptide is realized via central nervous structures involved in organism’s response to stress factors. Translated fromByulleten’ Eksperimental’noi Biologii i Meditsiny, Vol. 138, No. 7, pp. 9–11, July, 2004     

Developmental aspects of children's behavior and safety while cycling

OBJECTIVE: To examine children's competence while cycling, as demonstrated in mistakes in performance and failure to comply with safety rules. METHODS: Children in three age groups (8, 10, and 12 years) participated in a realistic yet simulated traffic environment. RESULTS: The boys' cycling speed increased steadily with age, while that of the girls increased from 8 to 10 but decreased at age 12. Most children had adequate motor control by age 10, and the youngest compensated for their less developed skills by cycling slowly and braking early at junctions. Serious mistakes, often related to the children's age and gender, consisted of the children failing to stop at signals or stopping too late, especially at short stopping range. CONCLUSIONS: There are considerable individual differences in children's cycling competence that are related to biological factors, such as age and gender, and psychological factors, such as rule compliance and choice of cycling speed.     

Early recognition of newborn goat kids by their mother: II. Auditory recognition and evidence of an individual acoustic signature in the neonate

The vocal recognition of newborn kids by their mother at 2 days postpartum and the possible existence of interindividual differences in the voice structure of newborn kids were investigated in two separate studies. The ability of goats to discriminate between the bleats of their own versus an alien kid was tested at 2 days postpartum in mothers being prevented access to visual and olfactory cues from the young. Goats spent significantly more time on the side of the enclosure from which their own kid was bleating, looked in its direction for longer, and responded more frequently to the bleats of their own than to those of the alien kid (p < 0.05). In the second study, the sonograms of 13 kids, studied from Days 1 to 5, showed significant interindividual differences for the five variables taken into account and on each of the 5 days (duration of bleat, fundamental frequency, peak frequency, and numbers of segments and of harmonics). The potential for individual coding ranged between 1.1 and 4.1, indicating that for some variables variations between individuals were greater than intraindividual variations. Furthermore, when considering the five parameters together, the discriminating scores showed an average of 95% in the 78 combinations of any 2 kids for any given day. Finally, some significant intraindividual differences also were found between days, suggesting ontogenic changes in the characteristics of the kid's voice in early life. Therefore, mother goats are likely to recognize the vocalizations of their 48-hr-old kids, as they show sufficient interindividual variability to allow the existence of individual vocal signatures, even though some of the characteristics of the bleats change rapidly over time.     

Heart-focused anxiety,illness beliefs,and behavioral impairment: Comparing healthy heart-anxious patients with cardiac and surgical inpatients

Psychological features and complaints of persons presenting to medical settings with heart-focused anxiety and noncardiac chest pain are poorly understood. Comparing 20 healthy heart-anxious patients to cardiac and surgical inpatients and nonpatient controls, we found that healthy heart-anxious patients (a) were as afraid of chest pain and heart palpitations as inpatients with heart disease, (b) were as incapacitated by symptoms and using medical services as much as both inpatient groups; and (c) reported higher levels of cardiac disease conviction, heart awareness, and behaviors designed to protect their heart than surgical patients and nonpatients. Compared to all other groups, healthy heart-anxious patients reported more panic and other anxiety disorders, hypochondriacal beliefs, physical symptoms, obsessive-compulsive concerns, and negative affect. Following a hyperventilation test, heart-anxious patients also indicated more distressing symptoms and thoughts, and felt less safe and in control than surgical patients and nonpatients. Results support efforts for a timely recognition, diagnosis, and behavioral treatment of persons with heart-focused anxiety.     

Effects of melanotan II,a melanocortin agonist,on grooming and exploration in rats after repeated restraint/immobilization

2 mg/kg melanotan II (MTII, administered i.p.), a cyclic peptide analog of α-melanocyte stimulating hormone, at a single dose increased grooming in naive rats placed in an unfamiliar open-field device without changing locomotion or rearing. Male rats exposed to restraint/immobilization stress (IS) for 1 h on three consecutive days displayed increased grooming after the second stressor exposure, compared to pre-stress levels. MTII, administered to the rats after IS, enhanced the grooming response compared both to the pre- and post-stress values. The increase was greatest after the first dose and declined over the following two applications. As to the locomotion of rats in the entire experimental space, IS reduced the distance moved only after the first two stressor exposures; MTII did not influence these alterations. Locomotion in the central part of arena was not reduced by the stressor or by MTII, on the contrary, there was an increase in both groups after the third intervention. The only observed change in rearing was an increase in the MTII group after the third restraint exposure. Thus, MTII selectively increased grooming without markedly affecting the spatio-temporal structure of locomotor behavior in the open-field. The decline of MTII enhanced grooming over the three test days may be interpreted in terms of adaptation to the stressor and of the developing tolerance to the peptide.     

Flavor preferences,food intake,and weight gain in baboons (Papio sp.)

To evaluate the influence of flavor on ad lib consumption and on associated changes in body weight, female baboons, 7–15 years of age, served in two experiments with seven monkey chows which were identical except for flavor: lemon, orange, apple, sugar, fruit punch, chocolate, and unflavored. In the first experiment, two groups of animals (n=7 and 4) received five of the seven flavors, presented in daily pair-wise combinations. Analysis of quantities consumed demonstrated marked and consistent flavor preferences in individual baboons. Although specific preference varied between animals, total amounts consumed of the various flavors differed significantly, with rank ordering clearly evident. Overall food intake and body weights increased significantly over baseline values obtained with a standard, unflavored chow. In the second experiment, three baboons received chow of a preferred flavor for nine weeks. Amounts consumed and body weights increased significantly over baseline. These results indicate that flavored chows may be useful for producing a nonhuman primate behavioral model of obesity and for inducing animals to eat otherwise unpalatable diets.     

成年罪犯人格特征及父母教养方式的相关分析

目的：了解成年罪犯的人格特征及探讨父母教养方式与其人格的相关性。方法：对139名成年男性罪犯进行EPQ人格问卷,EMBU父母教养方式量表测试。结果：罪犯E、N、P分高于常模,L分低于常模,暴力型犯罪E分高于财产型犯罪。幼时家庭不完整者的“父母情感温暖、理解”、“父亲偏爱被试”因子分比幼时家庭完整者低。“父母情感温暖、理解”,“母亲过分干涉、过分保护”因子与E因子显著相关;“母子过分干涉、保护”及“母亲拒绝、否认”因子与N因子显著相关;“父母惩罚严厉、拒绝否认”因子与P因子显著相关。结论：罪犯的人格特征与父母教养方式显著相关。     

Effects of anonymity,gender, and erotophilia on the quality of data obtained from self-reports of socially sensitive behaviors

This study examined the effects of anonymity, gender, and erotophilia on the quality of self-reports of socially sensitive health-related behaviors. A sample of 155 male and 203 female undergraduate students was randomly assigned to an anonymous and a confidential (i.e., nonanonymous) assessment condition. Gender, erotophilia, self-reports (of substance use, sexual behaviors, illegal activity), and perceived item threat were assessed by questionnaire. Data quality was strongly affected by experimental condition and gender. Thus, terminations were more frequent in the confidential condition and among women. In the confidential condition, women were significantly more likely to prefer not to respond to sensitive items compared to men. Both female gender and confidential condition were associated with lower frequency reports of sensitive health behaviors, and greater perceived threat of the assessment questions. Self-reported engagement in sensitive behaviors was positively related to both perceived question threat and erotophilia. Path analyses suggest that question threat mediates the effects of anonymity manipulations and gender on data quality (item refusal, termination), and that erotophilia mediates the effects of gender on incidence and frequency self-reports. The results indicate that anonymous assessments as well as male gender are associated with better data quality.