Emotion and psychopathy: startling new insights

Abnormal affective response in psychopaths is conceptualized within a broad theory of emotion that emphasizes reciprocal appetitive and defensive motivational systems. The startle response is proposed as a specific measure of the directional component of emotional activation. I review the literature that indicates that criminal psychopaths do not show the expected potentiation of the startle reflex that normally occurs during processing of aversive stimuli such as unpleasant photographs or punishment cues. Evidence is presented to demonstrate that this deviant response pattern is specific to individuals who display the classic affective symptoms of psychopathy. The core emotional deviation in psychopathy could be a deficit in fear response, which is defined as a failure of aversive cues to prime normal defensive actions. This emotional deficit may represent an extreme variant of normal temperament.     

耳穴静态电测量中的瞬变响应

耳穴电参数时变关系实验表明，在测量起始ｔ＜２τ时，因瞬变作用，电位Ｅ（ｔ）和压降Ｕ（ｔ）为瞬态响应，响应函数呈指数关系，特征参数为弛豫时间τ，τ≈ＲＣ；ｔ＞２τ时，为时变间期。电路分析给出数学描述，并与耳穴和模拟实验结果较相符。提示，时变特征应以ｔ＞２τ后提取，静态电测量时，采样应避开瞬变期，可提高准确性。该工作对正确鉴别时变性和特征提取，全面认识耳穴电特性具有重要意义。     

Evaluation of a rapid passive hemagglutination assay for anti-rubella antibody: comparison to hemagglutination inhibition and a vaccine challenge study

A rapid passive hemagglutination assay (Rubaquick) was developed that detects antibody to rubella virus in serum specimens. The test result is read visually after an incubation period of 15-30 minutes. When compared with a hemagglutination inhibition assay, the Rubaquick assay results obtained from 1,470 sera were greater than 99% specific, sensitive, and accurate. Studies of 179 paired serum specimens obtained before and 27 days after rubella vaccination showed that if antibody was detectable by the Rubaquick assay in the prevaccination specimens, the vaccine induced a secondary response consisting of increasing IgG antibody reactivity in the absence of a positive IgM response. In contrast to the positive prevaccination specimens, a negative prevaccination result was associated with IgM antibody in 98 of the 133 postvaccination specimens. Seroconversion was noted in all cases in which the prevaccination specimen was negative by the Rubaquick assay.     

Sensation Seeking and Cortical Augmenting-Reducing

The experiment was designed to establish the relationship between the Sensation Seeking Scales (SSS) and cortical augmenting-reducing. Forty-nine male undergraduate Ss were used. Ss were presented with five intensities of light flashes in randomly presented blocks of trials at each intensity. Averaged evoked response (AER) amplitudes were measured at each intensity of light. Augmenting-reducing was measured for each S as the slope of the relationship between stimulus intensity and amplitude of response. This slope measure correlated very significantly (r= .59) with the Disinhibition subscale of the SSS and positively, but not significantly, with other subscales. Comparing the low and high scorers on the Disinhibition scale, a significant interaction between groups and stimulus intensities was found but no main effects of stimulus intensity or groups were found. The high Disinhibitors did not differ from the lows at the low stimulus intensities but did differ significantly at the highest intensity where the lows showed a marked reducing tendency. The results show an interesting convergence between the Disinhibition type of sensation seeking, manic tendencies, and the AER.     

A biological context for the self-nonself discrimination and the regulation of effector class by the immune system

An effective immune response to an antigen requires two sets of decisions: Decision 1, the sorting of the repertoire, and Decision 2, the regulation of effector class. The repertoire, because it is somatically generated, large, and random, must be sorted by a somatic mechanism that subtracts those specificities (anti-self) that, if expressed, would debilitate the host, leaving a residue (anti-nonself) that, if not expressed, would result in the death of the host by infection. The self-nonself discrimination is the metaphor used to describe Decision 1, the sorting of the repertoire. In order to be functional, the sorted repertoire must be coupled to a set of biodestructive and ridding effector functions, such that the response to each antigen is treated in a coherent and independent manner. Although a reasonably complete framework for Decision 1 exists, Decision 2 lacks conceptualization. The questions that must be considered to arrive at a proper framework are posed. It should be emphasized that manipulation at the level of Decision 2 is where clinical applications are likely to be found.     

Responses to moving slits by single units in cat striate cortex

Summary A quantitative study has been made of the responses to moving slit stimuli by single units in the cat striate cortex whose receptive fields lay within 5° of the visual axis. Special attention was given to finding the optimal stimulus parameters including slit width, length, orientation and speed. The analysis was largely based on averaged response vs. time histograms. Using the classification of simple and complex responses types, the units were further subdivided on the basis of the number of modes in the response and on the presence or absence of directional selectivity. Simple unimodal units with directional selectivity (SUDS) had the most specific stimulus requirements and nearly always had zero background activity. Complex units usually had a high level of background activity. SUDS units also showed a preference for horizontally- and vertically ****-orientated stimuli. Whenever the response survived reversal of contrast the directional selectivity remained independent of the change. Optimal stimulus speeds varied widely from unit to unit with a mean at 4°/sec: simple bimodal units and complex units tended to have higher optimal stimulus speeds and responded over a wider range of speeds than did simple unimodal units. While SUDS units with very small receptive fields tended to prefer slowly moving stimuli, in general there was no correlation between receptive field size and optimal stimulus speed.Selby Fellow of the Australian Academy of Sciences.     

Stress-induced impairment of inhibitory avoidance learning in female neuromedin B receptor-deficient mice

Neuromedin B (NMB) is a mammalian bombesin (BN)-like peptide that exerts its function via the neuromedin B receptor (NMB-R). The NMB/NMB-R system is involved in stress response, and therefore we examined behavioral properties in female mice lacking NMB-R using a restraint-induced stress paradigm. Thirty minutes of restraint in a wire mesh cage constituted a sufficient stress stimulus for mice as evidenced by elevated blood glucose concentrations in stressed wild-type and NMB-R-deficient mice. Using a one-trial passive avoidance test, stressed NMB-R-deficient mice exhibited a marked reduction in memory performance. NMB-R-deficient mice exhibited elevated spontaneous activity in a novel environment compared to non-stressed mutant mice after 30-min stress, and a similar difference was also observed between stressed/non-stressed wild-type mice. An elevated plus maze test showed that the stress stimulus had no effect on anxiety in either wild-type or NMB-R-deficient mice. Furthermore, pain response of wild-type and NMB-R-deficient mice induced by electric foot shock was not affected under either stressed or non-stressed conditions. These results indicate that impaired memory performance in stressed NMB-R-deficient mice is not a consequence of changes in spontaneous activity, anxiety, or pain response, and suggest that the NMB/NMB-R pathway may play a role in regulating the stress response via the neural system that controls learning and memory.     

Absolute pitch and pupillary response: effects of timbre and key color

The pitch identification performance of absolute pitch possessors has previously been shown to depend on pitch range, key color, and timbre of presented tones. In the present study, the dependence of pitch identification performance on key color and timbre of musical tones was examined by analyzing hit rates, reaction times, and pupillary responses of absolute pitch possessors (n = 9) and nonpossessors (n = 12) during a pitch identification task. Results revealed a significant dependence of pitch identification hit rate but not reaction time on timbre and key color in both groups. Among absolute pitch possessors, peak dilation of the pupil was significantly dependent on key color whereas the effect of timbre was marginally significant. Peak dilation of the pupil differed significantly between absolute pitch possessors and nonpossessors. The observed effects point to the importance of learning factors in the acquisition of absolute pitch.     

Autonomic Nervous System Function and Essential Hypertension: Individual Response Specificity With and Without Beta-Adrenergic Blockade

The aim of the present research was to study individual response specificity in 22 male patients having essential hypertension (HT) and to compare these patients with age-matched male normotensive controls (NT). Four stimuli, letter identification, mental arithmetic, cold pressor and isometric exercise, were administered while recordings were made of: systolic and diastolic blood pressures, heart rate, respiration, forearm and hand blood flows, and skin conductance level and fluctuations. After each session urine samples were collected and epinephrine and norepinephrine levels were analyzed. Twelve subjects in the HT group were given beta-adrenergic blocking agents and retested 1 to 21 months (X?= 12 months) after the first session. Each response was standardized, using NT as the reference group. Intraclass correlations were computed to evaluate whether HT males reacted with a more consistent hierarchy of responses than did NT. Intraclass correlations were significantly higher among the patients than in the control group, regardless of whether the blood pressure response was included or excluded in the computation of the intraclass correlations. Thus, we conclude that male HT patients show more individual response specificity than NT controls. Beta-adrenergic receptor antagonists reduced levels of cardiovascular activity and attenuated reactivity but did not affect amount of specificity. Thus, intraclass correlations provide unique and useful information, since they are not related to blood pressure reactivity or to urinary catecholamine levels, nor affected by beta-adrenergic blockade.     

The Effects of Discrimination Training on Voluntary Control of Cephalic Vasomotor Activity

The present study was conducted to test Brener's calibration theory of visceral learning. It was hypothesized that training in discrimination of cephalic vasomotor responses would enhance acquisition of voluntary and biofeedback control of cephalic vasomotor response. Four groups were given discrimination training to detect either constriction, dilation, both constriction and dilation, or given false feedback. All groups were then given biofeedback training in constriction. All groups were assessed on discrimination accuracy, acquisition of biofeedback control of constriction, and voluntary control of dilation and constriction. The results indicated that discrimination of cephalic vasomotor responses can be learned and that this skill facilitates the acquisition of biofeedback and voluntary control of vasomotor responses. This facilitation occurs only if discrimination training is given for the specific response to be learned. The data suggest that discrimination of the relevant response is a necessary but not sufficient condition for acquisition of voluntary control in biofeedback learning.