The effects of intrahypothalamic injections of norepinephrine upon affective defense behavior in the cat

The effects of norepinephrine microinjected into the anterior hypothalamus were examined in feline affective defense behavior elicited by electrical stimulation of the region of the ventromedial nucleus. Anterior hypothalamic sites from which affective defense behavior could also be elicited by electrical stimulation and which are known to receive inputs from both the ventromedial nucleus and brainstem noradrenergic neurons were selected for pharmacological analysis. Intracerebral injections of 250 ng (1 nM) and 500 ng (2 nM) quantities of norepinephrine placed into the anterior hypothalamus resulted in a significant lowering of the attack thresholds. These reductions in response thresholds which were reversed by either pre- or post-treatment with yohimbine, indicate that the noradrenergic system may play an important role in the regulation of affective defense behavior.     

Current research overstates American support for political violence

Political scientists, pundits, and citizens worry that America is entering a new period of violent partisan conflict. Provocative survey data show that a large share of Americans (between 8% and 40%) support politically motivated violence. Yet, despite media attention, political violence is rare, amounting to a little more than 1% of violent hate crimes in the United States. We reconcile these seemingly conflicting facts with four large survey experiments (n = 4,904), demonstrating that self-reported attitudes on political violence are biased upward because of respondent disengagement and survey questions that allow multiple interpretations of political violence. Addressing question wording and respondent disengagement, we find that the median of existing estimates of support for partisan violence is nearly 6 times larger than the median of our estimates (18.5% versus 2.9%). Critically, we show the prior estimates overstate support for political violence because of random responding by disengaged respondents. Respondent disengagement also inflates the relationship between support for violence and previously identified correlates by a factor of 4. Partial identification bounds imply that, under generous assumptions, support for violence among engaged and disengaged respondents is, at most, 6.86%. Finally, nearly all respondents support criminally charging suspects who commit acts of political violence. These findings suggest that, although recent acts of political violence dominate the news, they do not portend a new era of violent conflict.

Provocative recent work (1–3)—cited in PNAS (4, 5), The American Journal of Political Science (6), 60 other articles and books, and 40 news articles that, together, have garnered over 2,281,133 Twitter engagements—asserts that large segments of the American population now support politically motivated violence. These studies report that up to 44% of Americans would endorse hypothetical violence in some undetermined future event (1–3, 7). This survey work fits within a media landscape that regularly raises the specter of political violence. Since 2016, we counted 2,863 mentions of political violence on news television, more than 630 news stories about political violence, and over 10 million tweets on the topic of the January 6 riot alone (see SI Appendix, section 1 for details for all counts in this paragraph). Political violence, however, remains exceedingly rare in the United States, amounting to 48 incidents (8) in 2019 (the most recent year for which data are available) compared to 4,526 incidents of nonpolitical violent hate crimes (9) and 1,203,808 total violent crimes (10) documented by the Department of Justice.In this paper, we reconcile supposedly significant public support for political violence with minimal actual instances of violent political action. To do this, we use four survey experiments that assess respondents’ reactions to specific acts of violence, where we experimentally manipulate whether partisanship motivated the activity and the severity of the violence. Using these studies, we identify two reasons why current survey data overestimate support for political violence in the United States.First, ambiguous survey questions cause overestimates of support for violence. Prior studies ask about general support for violence without offering context, leaving the respondent to infer what “violence” means. Using detailed treatments and precisely worded survey questions, we resolve this ambiguity and reveal that support for violence varies substantially depending on the severity of the specific violent act. With our measures, assault and murder attract minimal support, while low-level property crimes gain higher (although still low) support. Moreover, even though segments of the public may support violence or report that it is justified in the abstract, nearly all respondents still believe that perpetrators of well-defined instances of severe political violence should be criminally charged.Second, disengaged survey respondents cause an upward bias in reported support for violence. Prior survey questions force respondents to select a response without providing a neutral midpoint or a “don’t know” option. This causes disengaged respondents—satisficers (11)—to select an arbitrary or random response (12). Current violence support scales are coded such that four of five choices indicate acceptance of violence. In the presence of arbitrary responding, such a scale will overstate support for violence. Across all four studies, we show that disengaged respondents report higher support for violence.Accounting for these sources of error, our four studies show that American support for political violence is less intense than prior work asserts (Fig. 1) and is contingent on the severity of the violent act. Depending on how the question is asked, we show that the median of existing estimates of the public’s support for partisan violence is nearly 6 times larger than the median of our estimates (18.5% versus 2.9%). While recent political events show that extreme political groups are willing to engage in violence, these groups are likely to overlap with the narrow segment of the population who already support political violence. As policy makers consider interventions designed to dampen support for violence, our results demonstrate that support for violence is not a mass phenomenon, indicating that antiviolence measures should be appropriately tailored to match the scale of the problem.Open in a separate windowFig. 1.We created a census of all reported estimates of support for violence using the Kalmoe–Mason measure in the media (this includes work done by authors other than Kalmoe and Mason). This figure shows their distribution. We report this in the full sample (A), for Republicans (B), and for Democrats (C). To contextualize the problems, in these estimates, we overlay the largest estimates (orange line) and smallest estimates (blue line) from the studies that follow. There is large variation in the reported values, but all are significantly larger than our preferred estimate. See SI Appendix for additional details.     

The impact of sleep deprivation on visual perspective taking

Total sleep deprivation (TSD) is known to alter cognitive processes. Surprisingly little attention has been paid to its impact on social cognition. Here, we investigated whether TSD alters levels‐1 and ‐2 visual perspective‐taking abilities, i.e. the capacity to infer (a) what can be seen and (b) how it is seen from another person's visual perspective, respectively. Participants completed levels‐1 and ‐2 visual perspective‐taking tasks after a night of sleep and after a night of TSD. In these tasks, participants had to take their own (self trials) or someone else's (other trials) visual perspective in trials where both perspectives were either the same (consistent trials) or different (inconsistent trials). An instruction preceding each trial indicated the perspective to take (i.e. the relevant perspective). Results show that TSD globally deteriorates social performance. In the level‐1 task, TSD affects the selection of relevant over irrelevant perspectives. In the level‐2 task, the effect of TSD cannot be unequivocally explained. This implies that visual perspective taking should be viewed as partially state‐dependent, rather than a wholly static trait‐like characteristic.     

Biogenic amine metabolites in cerebrospinal fluid of patients with affective disorders

Concentrations of homovanillic acid (HVA), 5-hydroxyindoleacetic acid (5-HIAA) and 3-methoxy-4-hydroxyphenylglycol (MHPG) were measured in lumbar CSF from 33 patients with affective illnes and from 23 neurological controls. The group of patients with affective illness comprised 29 depressed and four manic patients. During illness, the concentration of HVA was higher in the depressed patients (P >0.001) than in the controls. Both unipolar and bipolar depressed patients had increased HVA levels (P >0.001 and P >0.05, respectively). The concentration of MHPG was greater than control values in the unipolar (P < 0.001) and bipolar (P < 0.002) subgroups but did not differ from control values in the depressed group as a whole. The concentration of 5-HIAA in the depressed patients as a whole and in the unipolar and bipolar subgroups did not differ from control concentrations. During illness the manic patients had increased levels of HVA (P >0.01) and normal levels of 5-HIAA and MHPG. Sixteen of the 29 depressed patients had a second lumbar puncture after they had recovered. Compared with the pre-recovery values, the concentration of HVA was reduced in the unipolar depressives (P < 0.01) and the concentration of 5-HIAA lowered in the depressed group as a whole (P >0.02). The present findings suggest involvement of catecholamines in affective disorders.     

Predicting the long-term outcome of affective disorders

Factors influencing the long-term outcome of affective disorders were investigated in 106 patients with an average length of course of 28 years. Univariate statistical analyses, stepwise multiple discriminance analyses and path analysis were applied. A direct unfavourable influence on the frequency of persisting alteration (evaluated according to the Global Assessment Scale) was found to have the low self-confident premorbid personality and a higher number of episodes during course, whereas only the variable “male” had such an influence on the social consequences of the illness. The variable “manic episode” (bipolarity) and “age at onset” had only an indirect influence, in that bipolar patients had more episodes, and younger patients more frequently had a bipolar course and therefore had more episodes. The unfavourable long-term outcome was due in those cases to the higher number of episodes.     

Relationship among affective commitment,occupational stressors,and calling of psychiatrists in Shanghai

The aim of the study is to investigate the levels of affective commitment, occupational stressors and calling in psychiatrists in Shanghai and try to find the relationship among 3 variables in the participants.We enrolled 81 participants using a survey with a combination of demographic information, affective part of organizational commitment questionnaire, portion of the scale for occupational stressors on clinicians and the calling and vocation questionnaire. Correlation analysis and multiple linear regression analysis were applied to probe into the relationship among the three variables. t Test and nonparametric test were utilized to compare the differences between the groups of individuals who were divided according to the demographic information.The mean score of the affective commitment, occupational stressors and calling of Shanghai psychiatrists were all at a moderate level. The scores in affective commitment had a significantly negative relationship with that of the occupational stressors, especially in the respect of organization and management, occupational interest, and development of work. Whereas the scores of calling revealed a remarkably positive connection with affective commitment. In addition, demographic groups under comparison, individuals who were >35 years’ old, male, or have worked for >10 years are more likely to suffer from higher occupational development and interpersonal relationship stress.We found that the levels of affective commitment, occupational stressors and calling in psychiatrists in Shanghai were all moderate. These people who were men, >35 years’ old, and had >10 years of work experiences had suffered from higher levels of occupational stressors, especially occupational development and interpersonal relationship stress. The affective commitment was positively correlated to the calling while negatively associated to the occupational stressors in Shanghai psychiatrists. For stronger bond for the psychiatrists, strengthen the calling and lessen the occupational stressors are required. These results provide some ideas for enhancing the occupational commitment of psychiatrists and conducting psychological interventions in a timely manner henceforth more effectively.     

Precepting Challenge: Helping the Student Attain the Affective Skills of a Good Midwife

Preparing students for a career in midwifery is a rewarding venture. The knowledge and techniques necessary to meet the requirements of a safe, beginning‐level practitioner are familiar to experienced midwives. It is common for students to achieve learning outcomes in the classroom (actual or virtual) but struggle in the clinical setting. Other students may struggle academically but perform smoothly and comfortably when they apply knowledge and skills in the clinical setting. The cognitive and psychomotor domains of learning are represented by a student's application of knowledge and performance of skills. Affective skills of caring and professionalism are equally important. Research that describes characteristics of what is considered a good midwife identifies affective characteristics associated with effective midwifery practice. By attending equally to all domains of learning, the preceptor can more effectively support the student in attainment of the skills, values, and beliefs that make a good midwife. This article focuses on the acquisition of affective skills by students in the clinical setting. When affective skills are well developed, they require little attention, but if they are not, the recognition and remediation can be a difficult task for the preceptor. Acquisition of affective skills in the realms of caring and professionalism are necessary for midwifery practice. Effective teaching techniques and knowledge of the affective domain enhance the preceptors’ ability to evaluate and remediate deficiencies.     

国际情绪图片系统在116名中国老年人中的试用

目的:对美国NIMH情绪与注意研究中心编制的国际情绪图片系统在中国老年人群中进行试用,将结果与NIMH常模进行比较,探讨其异同.方法:在大连市三个社区的老年活动中心选取老年人116名(男:51人,女:65人),年龄60-80岁之间,对从国际情绪图片系统中选取的60幅图片(负性:23幅.中性:12幅,正性:25幅)进行愉悦度、唤醒度、优势度的9点量表评分,结果与NIMH常模进行比较.结果:中国老年人三个维度的评分与NIMH常模的相关系数分别为:0.92,0.54,0.88(P均＜0.001).中国老年人群的唤醒度和优势度评分高于NIMH常模[(5.33±0.93)V8.(4.83±1.25),(5.60±1.20)vs.(5.19±1.21),P＜0.001],而愉悦度评分低于NIMH常模[(4.99±2.28)vs.(5.28±1.85),P=0.020].男女老年人群对大多数图片的情绪感受相近,但女性老年人愉悦度评分高于男性老年人[(5.05±2.33)vs.(4.93±2.24),P=0.002].在愉悦度一唤醒度二维情感空间中,60幅图片呈"＜"形分布.正性图片愉悦度和唤醒度呈线性相关(r=0.71,P＜0.001),负性图片两者的相关性不显著(r=-0.35,P＞0.05).结论:国际情绪图片系统具有较好的国际通用性.但由于中国老年人与NIMH常模在文化、生活、年龄等方面存在差异,故对部分图片的情绪感受不同,提示国际情绪图片系统应用于中国老年人群之前有必要进行本土化的修订.     

Symptoms and behaviors prior to the first major affective episode of bipolar II disorder. An exploratory study

Background

Few studies have investigated the initial prodrome of bipolar disorders, and none has explicitly addressed bipolar II disorder (BD-II). We explored symptoms and behaviors preceding the first major affective episode (FMAE) of BD-II to generate hypotheses concerning possible clinical targets for early intervention.

Methods

In-depth interviews of 15 BD-II patients and 22 family informants were carried out. Clinical diagnoses were reassessed. The textual data of transcribed interviews were analyzed utilizing qualitative methodology supplemented by quantitative analyses.

Results

All patients experienced clinically significant symptoms and behaviors at an average of more than a decade before the FMAE. Anxiety and depression-type symptoms were the most common. Two distinct subgroups were identified based on prominent and enduring personal characteristics prior to the FMAE. The individuals in one of the subgroups were described as very well-functioning, whereas the individuals in the other subgroup were characterized by neurocognitive deficits, relatively low academic and social functioning, and pronounced irritability and aggressiveness. Furthermore, it is possible that these individuals experience earlier prodromal symptom onset, earlier FMAEs, and more symptoms than individuals without these characteristics.

Limitations

This is a retrospective and hypothesis-generating qualitative study. The hypotheses generated need to be tested in future studies.

Conclusions

Prodromal clinical phenomenology is too nonspecific to predict the occurrence of the FMAE of BD-II. However, identifiable subgroups may exist. We hypothesize that neurocognitive deficits together with pronounced irritability and aggressiveness may constitute a vulnerability marker for a subgroup of individuals who subsequently develop BD-II. This subgroup may be of potential interest for early identification.