心理训练对高特质焦虑新兵生理指标和考核成绩的影响

目的研究心理训练对高特质焦虑新兵考核时生理指标和成绩的影响。方法采用个人评价问卷（PEI）、状态．特质焦虑问卷（STAI）和简易应对方式问卷对参加考核的新兵实施团体测试。将被试者分为对照组、低特质焦虑组、高特质焦虑组和干预组，对干预组进行自我评价、潜能开发、团队精神强化、应对方式的心理训练。测试考核前后生理指标差值及考核成绩的变化。结果干预组新兵军事考核前后收缩压、舒张压和脉搏三项生理差值与考核成绩明显优于高特质焦虑组（P〈0．05）。结论系统的心理训练可有效改善新兵对应激情景的生理和心理反应，提高作业绩效。     

A simple method for computer quantification of stage REM eye movement potentials

We describe a simple method for computer quantification of eye movement (EM) potentials during REM sleep. This method can be applied by investigators using either period-amplitude (PA) or Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) spectral EEG analysis without special hardware or computer programming. It provides good correlations with visual ratings of EM in baseline sleep and after administration of GABAergic hypnotics. We present baseline data for both PA and FFT measures for 16 normal subjects, studied for 5 consecutive nights. Both visually rated and computer-measured EM density (EMD) showed high night-to-night correlations across baseline and drug nights and the computer measures detected the EMD suppression that is produced by GABAergic drugs. Measurement of EM in addition to stage REM provides biologically significant information and application of this simple computer method, which does not require pattern recognition algorithms or special hardware, could provide reliable data that can be compared across laboratories.     

Association between variation in the vesicular monoamine transporter 1 gene on chromosome 8p and anxiety-related personality traits

Vesicular monoamine transporters are involved in the presynaptic packaging of norepinephrine, dopamine and serotonin into storage vesicles. The vesicles release their content upon arrival of an action potential into the synaptic cleft. Dysregulation of monoaminergic neurotransmission has been long postulated to play a relevant role in the etiology of neuropsychiatric disorders. The gene encoding the vesicular monoamine transporter 1 (VMAT1/SLC18A1) maps to chromosome 8p21, a region where several linkage peaks overlap between schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and anxiety-related personality traits. In this study, we tested the hypothesis that the missence variation Thr136Ile in the VMAT1/SLC18A1 gene is associated with anxiety-related personality traits. We tested a total of 337 unrelated subjects of German descent (167 male, 170 female). All participants were carefully screened for psychiatric disorders. The self-report State–Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI) was completed by all subjects. Genotypes were obtained for the Thr136Ile (rs1390938) variation in the VMAT1 gene for all subjects. Genotype effects on personality variables were computed with MANOVA including age as a co-variant and gender as independent factor (MANCOVA). Results show that STAI scores were significantly affected by genotype (F = 3.108; d.f. = 4,331; p = 0.015) and age (F = 7.233; d.f. = 2,331; p = 0.001) but not by gender. A gender-by-genotype effect was observed for both the STAI state (p = 0.052) and trait score (p = 0.035). Dissection of the group by gender and subsequent contrast analysis of the genotype effects performed within the female group showed significant results (STAI state: Thr/Ile vs. Ile/Ile: T = 4.408, p = 0.0004; STAI trait: Thr/Ile vs. Ile/Ile: T = 3.074, p = 0.009) but not in the male group. Our findings support the hypothesis that anxiety-related personality traits are associated with variation in the VMAT1/SLC18A1 gene.     

Sensation Seeking, Trait and State Anxiety, and the Electrodermal Orienting Response

The relationship between sensation seeking and the orienting reflex (OR) using skin conductance change is investigated in two experiments. In Experiment I, high sensation seekers gave a greater initial OR In novel visual stimuli while not differing in habituation on subsequent trials. In Experiment II. the paradigm was extended to include auditory as well as visual stimuli. Again, high sensation seekers were found to be more arousable with respect to initial ORs while not differing in habituation rates. The results suggest that sensation seekers may be characterized as having strong excitatory CNS processes. In Experiment II, anxiety (trait and state) was also related to the OR. There were no effects due to trait anxiety but state anxiety did yield significant differences. The more highly anxious (state) subjects had weaker initial ORs than lows in both novel tones, but not to repeated tones. The findings with state anxiety are consistent with findings by others using anxiety neurotics as subjects.     

Spontaneous and intentional trait inferences recruit a common mentalizing network to a different degree: Spontaneous inferences activate only its core areas

This fMRI study analyzes inferences on other persons' traits, whereby half of the participants were given spontaneous (“read”) instructions while the other half were given intentional (“infer the person's trait”) instructions. Several sentences described the behavior of a target person from which a strong trait could be inferred (trait diagnostic) or not (trait nondiagnostic). A direct contrast between spontaneous and intentional instructions revealed no significant differences, indicating that the same social mentalizing network was recruited. There was, however, a difference with respect to different brain areas that passed the significance threshold, suggesting that this common network was recruited to a different degree. Specifically, spontaneous inferences significantly recruited only core mentalizing areas, including the temporo-parietal junction and medial prefrontal cortex, whereas intentional inferences additionally recruited other brain areas, including the (pre)cuneus, superior temporal sulcus, temporal poles, and parts of the premotor and parietal cortex. These results suggest that intentional instructions invite observers to think more about the material they read, and consider it in many ways besides its social impact. Future research on the neurological underpinnings of trait inference might profit from the use of spontaneous instructions to get purer results that involve only the core brain areas in social judgment.     

Anger Proneness,Gender, and the Risk of Heart Failure

BackgroundEvidence regarding the association of anger proneness with incidence of heart failure is lacking.Methods and ResultsAnger proneness was ascertained among 13,171 black and white participants of the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities (ARIC) study cohort with the use of the Spielberger Trait Anger Scale. Incident heart failure events, defined as occurrence of ICD-9-CM code 428.x, were ascertained from participants' medical records during follow-up in the years 1990–2010. Relative hazard of heart failure across categories of trait anger was estimated with the use of Cox proportional hazard models. Study participants (mean age 56.9 [SD 5.7] years) experienced 1,985 incident HF events during 18.5 (SD 4.9) years of follow-up. Incidence of HF was greater among those with high, as compared to those with low or moderate trait anger, with higher incidence observed for men than for women. The relative hazard of incident HF was modestly high among those with high trait anger, compared with those with low or moderate trait anger (age-adjusted hazard ratio for men: 1.44 (95% confidence interval [CI] 1.23–1.69). Adjustment for comorbidities and depressive symptoms attenuated the estimated age-adjusted relative hazard in men to 1.26 (95% CI 1.00–1.60).ConclusionsAssessment of anger proneness may be necessary in successful prevention and clinical management of heart failure, especially in men.     

Influence of age on reactivity to diverse emotional challenges in low- and high-anxiety rats

Studies have revealed that the extent of reactivity of high-anxiety rats to diverse challenges is different than low-anxiety rats and have provided important insights into the psychopathology of anxiety. Various factors intervene to allow defensive mechanisms to react to diverse threatening challenges, including ontogeny and the nature of the emotional challenge (e.g., conditioned vs. unconditioned). The present study investigated the extent to which a particular type of fear extrapolates to other emotional responses to diverse threatening challenges. Groups of 30- and 60-day-old rats were assigned to low freezing behavior (LFB) and high freezing behavior (HFB) groups using the contextual fear conditioning paradigm and subjected to either the fear-potentiated startle (FPS) test, novelty-induced ultrasound vocalizations (USVs) or elevated plus-maze (EPM) tests. At 30 days of age, HFB rats exhibited greater FPS than LFB rats. In contrast, prior selection of HFB and LFB did not affect the performance of 30-day-old animals in the EPM and novelty-induced USVs. Sixty-day-old animals exhibited a performance deficit in all three tests. These data suggest that the performance of young rats in animal models of anxiety parallels their selection as LFB and HFB in the contextual fear conditioning paradigm. However, the increased fear-like behavior exhibited by the 60-day-old HFB rats may elicit performance deficits in conditioned and unconditioned fear tests. These results suggest that the interaction between hyperanxiety and age may cause a performance deficit despite the animals’ increased fear-like behavior when facing emotional challenges, thus resembling psychiatric patients in many respects.     

Mapping of quantitative trait loci for hypnotic sensitivity to ethanol in crosses derived from the C57BL/6 and DBA/2 mouse strains

BACKGROUND: Acute ethanol sensitivity is thought to be a predisposing factor toward the development of alcoholism. Accumulated evidence suggests that this characteristic may be at least partly heritable. A widely accepted approach for identifying genes thought to contribute to alcoholism is to map quantitative trait loci (QTLs) for various ethanol-related behaviors in rodent models. METHODS: Ethanol sensitivity QTLs were interval-mapped in a C57BL/6 (B6) X DBA/2 (D2) F2 intercross that contained 391 mice. Sensitivity was measured as the duration of loss of righting reflex (LORR) after 4.1 g/kg ip. LORR also was evaluated in a chromosome 1 marker-assisted congenic strain that had an approximately 30 centiMorgan (cM) portion of D2 DNA from the distal end of chromosome 1 introgressed onto a B6 background. RESULTS: A suggestive QTL was mapped on chromosome 1 (LOD = 3.3; approximately 80 cM) and a provisional QTL on chromosome 5 (LOD = 2.3; approximately 26 cM). The provisional chromosome 5 QTL was found to be sex-specific (LOD = 2.5 for males; LOD < 1 for females) with the D2 allele increasing LORR. The chromosome 1 D2 allele decreased LORR. Consistent with the F2 QTL mapping, congenic mice heterozygous for the chromosome 1 interval (B6/D2) had a significantly different mean (+/- SEM) LORR of 74.0 +/- 4.9 min (n = 36) compared with 90.8 +/- 6.2 min (n = 33) for their homozygous (B6/B6) littermates (p = 0.02). Blood ethanol concentration at regain of righting reflex was 377 +/- 10 mg% for the B6/D2 and 368 +/- 10 mg% (p = NS) for the B6/B6. CONCLUSIONS: LORR results in the chromosome 1 congenic mice were consistent with and very similar to what was predicted from the QTL analysis in the B6 X D2 F2 population. These results support a suggestive LORR QTL on the distal end of mouse chromosome 1. The results also indicate that there is a provisional sex-specific LORR QTL on chromosome 5.     

新兵心理应激反应与积极心理品质及特质应对方式的关系

目的 探讨新兵的心理应激反应与积极心理品质及特质应对方式的关系,为新兵训练时的心理指导和干预提供理论依据.方法 以曾经完成过训练任务的新兵作为研究对象.采用事件影响量表修订版(IES-R)、新兵积极心理品质评估问卷(PMCS-R)和特质应对方式问卷(TCSQ)对某部队男性新兵进行问卷调查.结果 其调查1 322名新兵,其心理应激反应程度与特质消极应对呈正相关(r=0.544,P＜0.05),与特质积极应对、积极心理品质呈负相关(r=-0.280,-0.201,均P＜0.05).以应激事件影响总分为因变量,积极心理品质各维度分和特质应对方式各维度分为预测变量进行多元逐步分析,消极应对、积极应对、智慧和自控4个因子进入回归方程,可解释应激反应总分变异的32.4％.结论 积极心理品质和特质应对方式可影响新兵的心理应激反应水平.