Effects of tryptophan depletion and tryptophan loading on the affective response to high-dose CO2 challenge in healthy volunteers

It has been reported that in panic disorder (PD), tryptophan depletion enhances the vulnerability to experimentally induced panic, while the administration of serotonin precursors blunts the response to challenges. Using a high-dose carbon dioxide (CO2) challenge, we aimed to investigate the effects of acute tryptophan depletion (ATD) and acute tryptophan loading (ATL) on CO2-induced panic response in healthy volunteers. Eighteen healthy volunteers participated in a randomized, double-blind placebo-controlled study. Each subject received ATD, ATL, and a balanced condition (BAL) in separate days, and a double-breath 35% CO2 inhalation 4.5 h after treatment. Tryptophan (Trp) manipulations were obtained adding 0 g (ATD), 1.21 g (BAL), and 5.15 g (ATL) of l-tryptophan to a protein mixture lacking Trp. Assessments consisted of a visual analogue scale for affect (VAAS) and panic symptom list. A separate analysis on a sample of 55 subjects with a separate-group design has also been performed to study the relationship between plasma amino acid levels and subjective response to CO2. CO2-induced subjective distress and breathlessness were significantly lower after ATD compared to BAL and ATL (p <0.05). In the separate-group analysis, Delta VAAS scores were positively correlated to the ratio Trp:I LNAA pound after treatment (r = 0.39; p <0.05). The present results are in line with preclinical data indicating a role for the serotonergic system in promoting the aversive respiratory sensations to hypercapnic stimuli (Richerson, Nat Rev Neurosci 5(6):449-461, 2004). The differences observed in our study, compared to previous findings in PD patients, might depend on an altered serotonergic modulatory function in patients compared to healthy subjects

Heroic heads, mobility mythologies and the power of ambiguity

This paper explores how the contradictions of neoliberal education reform and its companion, the self-made aspirational subject, are embodied by Sir Michael Wilshaw, former headteacher of Mossbourne Community Academy in Hackney, East London, through his leadership practices. Wilshaw creates powerful mobility and morality tales that pave over the contradictions and ambiguities inherent in the academies programme and Mossbourne’s approach. Drawing on a larger study of Mossbourne, the paper focuses on how raced and classed pathological discourses are mobilised and inverted both by Wilshaw and policy rhetoric, cultivating compliance through a belief in the aspirational subject capable of transcending social structures. The paper argues that neoliberal academy reforms are not about autonomy, but the imperative to comply with centralised policy demands at the expense of democratic participation and accountability

The Dialogic Possibilities for Interactive Fiction in the Secondary Academy English Classroom

The literacy practices enacted in secondary school English classrooms can be influenced by the pressures acting upon teachers and students. Attention can be diverted away from the process of meaning-making when more emphasis is placed upon performance outcomes than on reading processes. This paper argues that digital forms of Interactive Fiction (IF) hold the potential to help teachers and students attend more closely to the process of meaning-making. It also argues that IF’s component parts – passages, choices and links – render it a useful resource for the scaffolding of classroom dialogue. By considering the different ways that IF could influence the choices that individuals make in the classroom, this paper suggests that works of IF could enable teachers and students to engage with texts differently, improving the literacy practices of the students involved

'The very best generation of teachers ever': teachers in post-2010 ministerial speeches

This article explores how teachers were discursively positioned in England following the formation of the Coalition government in 2010, using a corpus-assisted critical discourse analysis of 363 speeches produced by government ministers. Findings show that young teachers were privileged in post-2010 government discourse, constructed as valued and active social agents. Experienced teachers, however, were constructed as passive and deficient, albeit useful for training new teachers. The findings indicate the deployment of a biopolitical apparatus which sought to hierarchically distinguish between different groups of teachers in order to facilitate system reform