Für wen gebe ich mein Urteil ab? Der systematische Einfluss des Fragebogenadressaten auf Kausalattributionsgewichtungen bei geschlossenen Antwortformaten

Die Fragebogenforschung belegt, dass Respondenten durch Kontextinformationen eines Fragebogens systematisch in ihrem Antwortverhalten beeinflusst werden. So zeigten Norenzayan und Schwarz (1999), dass Probanden bei freier Antwortmöglichkeit eher persönlichkeitsbezogene Ursachen zur Erklärung von Straftaten nennen, wenn der Fragebogen scheinbar von einem Institut für Persönlichkeitsforschung (verglichen mit einem Institut für Sozialforschung) erstellt wurde. Hierzu diskutierte Erklärungen sind einerseits Konversationsmaximen, die einen Bezug zwischen Adressat und Gesagtem induzieren, andererseits kognitive Primings, die selektive kognitive Aktivierungen und damit Verfügbarkeiten bedingen sollen. Die vorliegende Studie untersucht diese Erklärungsalternativen, indem sie erstmals in einem analogen Studiendesign persönlichkeitsbezogene und soziale Gründe in geschlossenen Antwortformaten vorgibt und gewichten lässt. Mögliche Gewichtungsunterschiede sind somit nicht mittels kognitiver Verfügbarkeit erklärbar. Eine Kovarianzanalyse (Alter, Geschlecht und die Big-Five-Persönlichkeitsdimensionen als Kovariaten) belegt im Einklang mit den Konversationsmaximen eine signifikant stärkere Bedeutungszuschreibung für persönlichkeitsbezogene Ursachen unter der Bedingung „Institut für Persönlichkeitsforschung“ im Vergleich zu „Institut für Sozialforschung“ und einer Kontrollbedingung („Institut für Kriminologie“)

Real-Time fMRI Neurofeedback in Patients With Tobacco Use Disorder During Smoking Cessation: Functional Differences and Implications of the First Training Session in Regard to Future Abstinence or Relapse

One of the most prominent symptoms in addiction disorders is the strong desire to consume a particular substance or to show a certain behavior (craving). The strong association between craving and the probability of relapse emphasizes the importance of craving in the therapeutic process. Former studies have demonstrated that neuromodulation using real-time fMRI (rtfMRI) neurofeedback (NF) can be used as a treatment modality in patients with tobacco use disorder. The aim of the present project was to determine whether it is possible to predict the outcome of NF training plus group psychotherapy at the beginning of the treatment. For that purpose, neuronal responses during the first rtfMRI NF session of patients who remained abstinent for at least 3 months were compared to those of patients with relapse. All patients were included in a certified smoke-free course and took part in three NF sessions. During the rtfMRI NF sessions tobacco-associated and neutral pictures were presented. Subjects were instructed to reduce their neuronal responses during the presentation of smoking cues in an individualized region of interest for craving [anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), insula or dorsolateral prefrontal cortex]. Patients were stratified to different groups [abstinence (N = 10) vs. relapse (N = 12)] according to their individual smoking status 3 months after the rtfMRI NF training. A direct comparison of BOLD responses during the first NF-session of patients who had remained abstinent over 3 months after the NF training and patients who had relapsed after 3 months showed that patients of the relapse group demonstrated enhanced BOLD responses, especially in the ACC, the supplementary motor area as well as dorsolateral prefrontal areas, compared to abstinent patients. These results suggest that there is a probability of estimating a successful withdrawal in patients with tobacco use disorder by analyzing the first rtfMRI NF session: a pronounced reduction of frontal responses during NF training in patients might be the functional correlate of better therapeutic success. The results of the first NF sessions could be useful as predictor whether a patient will be able to achieve success after the behavioral group therapy and NF training in quitting smoking or not

Common variation in PHACTR1 is associated with susceptibility to cervical artery dissection

Cervical artery dissection (CeAD), a mural hematoma in a carotid or vertebral artery, is a major cause of ischemic stroke in young adults although relatively uncommon in the general population (incidence of 2.6/100,000 per year). Minor cervical traumas, infection, migraine and hypertension are putative risk factors, and inverse associations with obesity and hypercholesterolemia are described. No confirmed genetic susceptibility factors have been identified using candidate gene approaches. We performed genome-wide association studies (GWAS) in 1,393 CeAD cases and 14,416 controls. The rs9349379[G] allele (PHACTR1) was associated with lower CeAD risk (odds ratio (OR) = 0.75, 95% confidence interval (CI) = 0.69-0.82; P = 4.46 × 10(-10)), with confirmation in independent follow-up samples (659 CeAD cases and 2,648 controls; P = 3.91 × 10(-3); combined P = 1.00 × 10(-11)). The rs9349379[G] allele was previously shown to be associated with lower risk of migraine and increased risk of myocardial infarction. Deciphering the mechanisms underlying this pleiotropy might provide important information on the biological underpinnings of these disabling conditions

Atrial fibrillation genetic risk differentiates cardioembolic stroke from other stroke subtypes

AbstractObjectiveWe sought to assess whether genetic risk factors for atrial fibrillation can explain cardioembolic stroke risk.MethodsWe evaluated genetic correlations between a prior genetic study of AF and AF in the presence of cardioembolic stroke using genome-wide genotypes from the Stroke Genetics Network (N = 3,190 AF cases, 3,000 cardioembolic stroke cases, and 28,026 referents). We tested whether a previously-validated AF polygenic risk score (PRS) associated with cardioembolic and other stroke subtypes after accounting for AF clinical risk factors.ResultsWe observed strong correlation between previously reported genetic risk for AF, AF in the presence of stroke, and cardioembolic stroke (Pearson’s r=0.77 and 0.76, respectively, across SNPs with p &lt; 4.4 × 10−4 in the prior AF meta-analysis). An AF PRS, adjusted for clinical AF risk factors, was associated with cardioembolic stroke (odds ratio (OR) per standard deviation (sd) = 1.40, p = 1.45×10−48), explaining ∼20% of the heritable component of cardioembolic stroke risk. The AF PRS was also associated with stroke of undetermined cause (OR per sd = 1.07, p = 0.004), but no other primary stroke subtypes (all p &gt; 0.1).ConclusionsGenetic risk for AF is associated with cardioembolic stroke, independent of clinical risk factors. Studies are warranted to determine whether AF genetic risk can serve as a biomarker for strokes caused by AF.</jats:sec

Low-frequency and common genetic variation in ischemic stroke: The METASTROKE collaboration

OBJECTIVE To investigate the influence of common and low-frequency genetic variants on the risk of ischemic stroke (all IS) and etiologic stroke subtypes. METHODS We meta-analyzed 12 individual genome-wide association studies comprising 10,307 cases and 19,326 controls imputed to the 1000 Genomes (1 KG) phase I reference panel. We selected variants showing the highest degree of association (p < 1E-5) in the discovery phase for replication in Caucasian (13,435 cases and 29,269 controls) and South Asian (2,385 cases and 5,193 controls) samples followed by a transethnic meta-analysis. We further investigated the p value distribution for different bins of allele frequencies for all IS and stroke subtypes. RESULTS We showed genome-wide significance for 4 loci: ABO for all IS, HDAC9 for large vessel disease (LVD), and both PITX2 and ZFHX3 for cardioembolic stroke (CE). We further refined the association peaks for ABO and PITX2. Analyzing different allele frequency bins, we showed significant enrichment in low-frequency variants (allele frequency <5%) for both LVD and small vessel disease, and an enrichment of higher frequency variants (allele frequency 10% and 30%) for CE (all p < 1E-5). CONCLUSIONS Our findings suggest that the missing heritability in IS subtypes can in part be attributed to low-frequency and rare variants. Larger sample sizes are needed to identify the variants associated with all IS and stroke subtypes

Towards an Advanced Linear International Collider

This document provides detailed information on the status of Advanced and Novel Accelerators techniques and describes the steps that need to be envisaged for their implementation in future accelerators, in particular for high energy physics applications. It complements the overview prepared for the update of the European Strategy for particle physics, and provides a detailed description of the field. The scientific priorities of the community are described for each technique of acceleration able to achieve accelerating gradient in the GeV~range or above. ALEGRO working group leaders have coordinated the preparation of their working group contribution and contributed to editing the documents. The preparation of this document was coordinated by the Advanced LinEar collider study GROup, ALEGRO. The content was defined through discussions at the ALEGRO workshop in Oxford UK, March 2018, and an advanced draft was discussed during a one day meeting prior to the AAC workshop in Breckenridge, CO, USA, August 2018. This document was submitted as an addendum to the ALEGRO submission to the European Strategy for Particle Physics