Mourning and melancholia revisited: correspondences between principles of Freudian metapsychology and empirical findings in neuropsychiatry

Freud began his career as a neurologist studying the anatomy and physiology of the nervous system, but it was his later work in psychology that would secure his place in history. This paper draws attention to consistencies between physiological processes identified by modern clinical research and psychological processes described by Freud, with a special emphasis on his famous paper on depression entitled 'Mourning and melancholia'. Inspired by neuroimaging findings in depression and deep brain stimulation for treatment resistant depression, some preliminary physiological correlates are proposed for a number of key psychoanalytic processes. Specifically, activation of the subgenual cingulate is discussed in relation to repression and the default mode network is discussed in relation to the ego. If these correlates are found to be reliable, this may have implications for the manner in which psychoanalysis is viewed by the wider psychological and psychiatric communities

Comments on species divergence in the genus Sphaerium (Bivalvia) and phylogenetic affinities of Sphaerium nucleus and S. corneum var. mamillanum based on karyotypes and sequences of 16S and ITS1 rDNA

Chromosome, 16S and ITS1 rDNA sequence analyses were used to obtain reliable diagnostic characters and to clarify phylogenetic relationships of sphaeriid bivalves of the genus Sphaerium. The species studied were found to be diploid, with modal number 2n = 28 in S. nucleus and 2n = 30 in S. corneum var. mamillanum. Small, biarmed, C- negative B chromosomes were found in all studied populations of both species. Karyological and molecular markers revealed no differences between S. corneum s. str. and S. corneum var. mamillanum. No intraspecific differences were found in the basic karyotype of S. nucleus. Molecular analyses, however, uncovered three genetically distinct ITS1 lineages: one comprised of samples from Lithuania, Slovakia, and Russia, another from Czech, and a third from Ukraine. Additionally to known 16S haplotype from Ukraine, three new 16S haplotypes of S. nucleus were detected: one in the samples from Lithuania and Russia, one in Slovakian and one in Czech population. In the ITS1 phylogenetic tree, all branches of S. nucleus clustered in one clade. In the 16S phylogenetic tree, however, the haplotype of Czech S. nucleus formed a separate branch, distant from three other haplotypes of S. nucleus. Molecular results indicate that in the context of the Evolutionary Species Concept the S. nucleus morphospecies may represent a complex of separate taxa, however referring on the Biological Species Concept the genetic lineages could represent the intraspecific variability

High Cryptic Diversity across the Global Range of the Migratory Planktonic Copepods Pleuromamma piseki and P. gracilis

Although holoplankton are ocean drifters and exhibit high dispersal potential, a number of studies on single species are finding highly divergent genetic clades. These cryptic species complexes are important to discover and describe, as identification of common marine species is fundamental to understanding ecosystem dynamics. Here we investigate the global diversity within Pleuromamma piseki and P. gracilis, two dominant members of the migratory zooplankton assemblage in subtropical and tropical waters worldwide. Using DNA sequence data from the mitochondrial gene cytochrome c oxidase subunit II (mtCOII) from 522 specimens collected across the Pacific, Atlantic and Indian Oceans, we discover twelve well-resolved genetically distinct clades in this species complex (Bayesian posterior probabilities >0.7; 6.3–17% genetic divergence between clades). The morphologically described species P. piseki and P. gracilis did not form monophyletic groups, rather they were distributed throughout the phylogeny and sometimes co-occurred within well-resolved clades: this result suggests that morphological characters currently used for taxonomic identification of P. gracilis and P. piseki may be inaccurate as indicators of species’ boundaries. Cryptic clades within the species complex ranged from being common to rare, and from cosmopolitan to highly restricted in distribution across the global ocean. These novel lineages appear to be ecologically divergent, with distinct biogeographic distributions across varied pelagic habitats. We hypothesize that these mtDNA lineages are distinct species and suggest that resolving their systematic status is important, given the ecological significance of the genus Pleuromamma in subtropical-tropical waters worldwide