Complexity of the self-schema and responses to disconfirming feedback

This study focused on complexity of the self-schema as one factor that influences people's responses to social feedback that challenges their established view of self. Complexity refers to the number of independent attributes included in the schema. A card-sorting task (Zajonc, 1960) was used to identify the high- and low-complexity groups. Subjects were given bogus feedback relevant to the targeted domain of self-knowledge, and changes in self-descriptiveness ratings and response latency times were monitored. Results suggest that high-complexity subjects were able to attend to and encode the disconfirming feedback, while low-complexity subjects responded by rejecting the feedback and reasserting positive aspects of the self. The implications of these findings for clarifying the process of self-schema updating, revision, and change are discussed.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/44337/1/10608_2006_Article_BF02357222.pd

The association between depressive symptoms and executive control impairments in response to emotional and non-emotional information

Depression has been linked with impaired executive control and specific impairments in inhibition of negative material. To date, only a few studies have examined the relationship between depressive symptoms and executive functions in response to emotional information. Using a new paradigm, the Affective Shift Task (AST), the present study examined whether depressive symptoms in general, and rumination specifically, are related to impairments in inhibition and set shifting in response to emotional and non-emotional material. The main finding was that depressive symptoms in general were not related to inhibition. Set-shifting impairments were only observed in moderate to severely depressed individuals. Interestingly, rumination was related to inhibition impairments, specifically when processing negative information, as well as impaired set shifting as reflected in a larger shift cost. These results are discussed in relation to cognitive views on vulnerability for depression

Development and characterization of a Yucatan miniature biomedical pig permanent middle cerebral artery occlusion stroke model

BACKGROUND: Efforts to develop stroke treatments have met with limited success despite an intense need to produce novel treatments. The failed translation of many of these therapies in clinical trials has lead to a close examination of the therapeutic development process. One of the major factors believed to be limiting effective screening of these treatments is the absence of an animal model more predictive of human responses to treatments. The pig may potentially fill this gap with a gyrencephalic brain that is larger in size with a more similar gray-white matter composition to humans than traditional stroke animal models. In this study we develop and characterize a novel pig middle cerebral artery occlusion (MCAO) ischemic stroke model. METHODS: Eleven male pigs underwent MCAO surgery with the first 4 landrace pigs utilized to optimize stroke procedure and 7 additional Yucatan stroked pigs studied over a 90 day period. MRI analysis was done at 24 hrs and 90 days and included T2w, T2w FLAIR, T1w FLAIR and DWI sequences and associated ADC maps. Pigs were sacrificed at 90 days and underwent gross and microscopic histological evaluation. Significance in quantitative changes was determined by two-way analysis of variance and post-hoc Tukey’s Pair-Wise comparisons. RESULTS: MRI analysis of animals that underwent MCAO surgery at 24 hrs had hyperintense regions in T2w and DWI images with corresponding ADC maps having hypointense regions indicating cytotoxic edema consistent with an ischemic stroke. At 90 days, region of interest analysis of T1 FLAIR and ADC maps had an average lesion size of 59.17 cc, a loss of 8% brain matter. Histological examination of pig brains showed atrophy and loss of tissue, consistent with MRI, as well as glial scar formation and macrophage infiltration. CONCLUSIONS: The MCAO procedure led to significant and consistent strokes with high survivability. These results suggest that the pig model is potentially a robust system for the study of stroke pathophysiology and potential diagnostics and therapeutics

Pleasure in decision-making situations

BACKGROUND: This study explores the role of pleasure in decision making. RESULTS: In Experiment 1, 12 subjects were presented with a questionnaire containing 46 items taken from the literature. Twenty-three items described a situation where a decision should be made and ended with a suggested solution. The other items served as filler items. The subjects were requested not to make a decision but to rate the pleasure or displeasure they experienced when reading the situation described in the item. The subjects' ratings were then compared to the decisions on the same situations made by the other subjects of the studies published by other workers. The ratings of pleasure/displeasure given by our subjects correlated significantly with the choices published by other authors. This result satisfies a necessary condition for pleasure to be the key of the decision making process in theoretical situations. In Experiment 2, a new group of 12 subjects rated their experience of pleasure/displeasure when reading various versions of 50 situations taken from daily life where an ethical decision had to be made (Questionnaire I) including 200 items. This was followed by a multiple-choice test with the 50 situations (Questionnaire II) using the same 200 items and offering the various behaviors. Subjects tended to choose ethical and unethical responses corresponding to their highest pleasure rating within each problem. In all cases the subjects' behavior was higher than chance level, and thus, followed the trend to maximize pleasure. In Experiment 3, 12 subjects reading 50 mathematical short problems followed by correct and incorrect versions of the answer to the problem (Questionnaire III), including 200 items. This was followed by a multiple-choice mathematical test with the 50 problems (Questionnaire IV) using the same 200 items and offering the correct and incorrect answers. In questionnaire IV, subjects tended to choose correct as well as incorrect responses corresponding to their highest hedonic rating within each problem. In all cases the subjects' behavior was higher than chance level, and thus, followed the trend to maximize pleasure. CONCLUSIONS: The results of the three experiments support the hypothesis according to which decisions are made in the hedonic dimension of conscious experience

Stellar feedback and triggered star formation in the prototypical bubble RCW 120

Interstellar matter and star formatio

Stellar feedback and triggered star formation in the prototypical bubble RCW 120

Interstellar matter and star formatio

Why do People Worry and Ruminate? Investigating Factors that Maintain Repetitive Negative Thought

The overarching aim of this research was to understand factors implicated in the maintenance of rumination and worry, conceptualised as a transdiagnostic process of repetitive negative thought (RNT), through the use of cross-sectional, prospective, and experimental research designs. Rumination and worry have been repeatedly implicated in the development and maintenance of various forms of psychopathology, in particular, depression and anxiety disorders. Given the negative outcomes for mood and psychopathology, there is a need for a better understanding of vulnerability factors that maintain this unconstructive thinking. Based on a review of the literature, an integrative theoretical model was developed and tested using structural equation modelling. Using cross-sectional data, the model was tested in a large sample of adults (n = 506). Of the broad range of proximal and distal vulnerability factors examined, only neuroticism and beliefs about the function of repetitive thought remained significantly associated with RNT once current symptoms were statistically controlled. Emotional abuse and abstract processing were indirectly associated with RNT. Following on from this, a prospective study examined which of these vulnerability factors prospectively predicted change in RNT over six to eight weeks. Only neuroticism and the specific belief that repetitive thought aids instrumental understanding predicted change in RNT, after controlling for depression and anxiety symptoms. Next, two experimental studies were conducted to explore the causal relationship between RNT and the belief that RNT aids insight and understanding, by experimentally manipulating this appraisal and measuring the impact on state RNT. Whilst methodological issues with the first experimental study precluded clear conclusions being drawn about the nature of the relationship, the second experimental study demonstrated that participants manipulated to believe that RNT is helpful for increasing insight and understanding had greater levels of state RNT after exposure to a stressor, relative to participants manipulated to believe that RNT is unhelpful. Finally, in order to see whether rumination has any consequences that may potentially reinforce its further use, an experimental study was conducted to manipulate processing mode (abstract rumination versus concrete thinking) and examine the effect on a range of outcomes relating to insightfulness and avoidance. Whilst rumination did not lead to increased insight, it did afford more justification for avoidance, relative to concrete thinking. The clinical and theoretical implications of these findings are discussed with respect to existing theories of repetitive negative thought