Normative ideals, rules and praxis: Social pathologies about the school principals in Peru

El presente artículo busca exponer las funciones del director de escuela desde tres diferentes ejes –el ideal normativo, las normas vigentes y la práctica profesional de los directores– y resalta el nivel de desencuentro que existe entre dichos ámbitos. El objetivo de este estudio es mostrar que las políticas dirigidas hacia los directores se estarían concibiendo de manera incorrecta al no existir correspondencia entre los tres ejes mencionados. De este modo, se estaría asistiendo al desarrollo de una política errática. La investigación se realizó con una metodología que proviene de la Teoría Crítica, partiendo de los trabajos de Axel Honneth, y busca reconstruir el ideal normativo del director de escuela en el Perú con la finalidad de develar patologías sociales en torno a esa noción. Los principales resultados indican que, para lograr un correcto desempeño del director, no solo se debe brindar una correcta preparación para ser agentes de cambio, sino también requiere cumplir una serie de exigencias que transitan desde lo ético y la búsqueda de la equidad educativa, hacia la mejora de la calidad a través de la inversión y la descentralizaciónThis article seeks to expose principals’ functions from three different axes –the normative ideal, the current regulations and the principals’ professional practice– and highlights the level of disagreement that exists between them. The aim of this study is to demonstrate that the policies directed to the principals are being conceived in an inaccurate manner due to the lack of connection in between these three concepts. Thus, we are helping to develop an erratic policy. The methodology used for this research comes from the Critical Theory, based on the work of Axel Honneth, and seeks to reconstruct the normative ideal of the principals in Peru with the purpose of exposing the social pathologies around that notion. The main results denote that, to achieve a better performance of the principal, it is not only needed to provide a correct training to be a change agent. It also involves fulfilling a series of requirements that go from the ethical and the search of educational equity, to the improvement of quality through investment and decentralizatio

Mode of Effective Connectivity within a Putative Neural Network Differentiates Moral Cognitions Related to Care and Justice Ethics

BACKGROUND: Moral sensitivity refers to the interpretive awareness of moral conflict and can be justice or care oriented. Justice ethics is associated primarily with human rights and the application of moral rules, whereas care ethics is related to human needs and a situational approach involving social emotions. Among the core brain regions involved in moral issue processing are: medial prefrontal cortex, anterior (ACC) and posterior (PCC) cingulate cortex, posterior superior temporal sulcus (pSTS), insula and amygdala. This study sought to inform the long standing debate of whether care and justice moral ethics represent one or two different forms of cognition. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Model-free and model-based connectivity analysis were used to identify functional neural networks underlying care and justice ethics for a moral sensitivity task. In addition to modest differences in patterns of associated neural activity, distinct modes of functional and effective connectivity were observed for moral sensitivity for care and justice issues that were modulated by individual variation in moral ability. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: These results support a neurobiological differentiation between care and justice ethics and suggest that human moral behavior reflects the outcome of integrating opposing rule-based, self-other perspectives, and emotional responses

Conducta suicida: factores de riesgo y protección.

Aproximadamente un millón de personas mueren cada año debido a suicidio. Poblaciones de alto riesgo de suicidio incluyen militares, adolescentes, ancianos, y pacientes con enfermedades crónicas mentales o médicas. Más de 90% de suicidios ocurren en personas que sufren de alguna enfermedad psiquiátrica. Prácticamente todas las enfermedades psiquiátricas aumentan el riesgo de suicidio, sin embargo la depresión está asociada a más de la mitad de los casos de suicidio. Hallazgos clínicos, epidemiológicos, autopsias psicológicas, en genética, neuroquímica, y neuroimágenes han incrementado significativamente nuestro conocimiento sobre el suicidio. El factor biológico más consistentemente asociado a suicidio es la disminución en la neurotransmisión serotoninérgica, particularmente en la zona ventral de la corteza prefrontal. Déficits en la función de la zona ventral de la corteza prefrontal están asociadas a impulsividad y a subóptima toma de decisiones. Las otras aminas biogénicas y el eje hipotalámico-pituitaria-adrenal (HPA) también parecen estar involucrados en la proclividad al suicidio. Los factores cognitivos y psicológicos involucrados en suicidio incluyen desesperanza, dolor psicológico o mental, impulsividad, pobre habilidad para solucionar problemas, perfeccionismo y pobre autoestima. Los factores de protección contra el suicidio más estudiados son: acceso y utilización de servicios de salud, conexión significativa con familia y la comunidad, y creencias religiosas y culturales que se oponen al suicidio. A pesar de la abundancia de estudios realizados, aun carecemos de factores fidedignos de predicción de riesgo de suicidio y debemos basarnos en el reporte del individuo y emplear el juicio clínico. Por eso continúa siendo tremendamente difícil predecir quién morirá por suicidio. Dada esta dramática carencia, continúa siendo una alta prioridad el desarrollo de estrategias de detección y prevención de suicidio, especialmente en poblaciones de alto riesgo

Neurotensin: Role in psychiatric and neurological diseases

Neurotensin (NT), an endogenous brain–gut peptide, has a close anatomical and functional relationship with the mesocorticolimbic and neostriatal dopamine system. Dysregulation of NT neurotransmission in this system has been hypothesized to be involved in the pathogenesis of schizophrenia. Additionally, NT containing circuits have been demonstrated to mediate some of the mechanisms of action of antipsychotic drugs, as well as the rewarding and/or sensitizing properties of drugs of abuse. NT receptors have been suggested to be novel targets for the treatment of psychoses or drug addiction

Toward an Understanding of Decision Making in Severe Mental Illness

A commonality of patients with major psychiatric disorders is their propensity to make poor decisions, which is intimately related to poor real-life outcomes. The authors reviewed the literature on decision making as applied to severe psychiatric disorders, with particular focus on advances in cognitive neuroscience. A commonality of patients with major psychiatric disorders is their propensity to make poor decisions, which is intimately related to poor real-life outcomes. The authors reviewed the literature on decision making as applied to severe psychiatric disorders, with particular focus on advances in cognitive neuroscience. Deficits in reward sensitivity, avoidance learning, and temporal discounting are reported in depression. Besides abnormalities in hedonic capacity, other cognitive distortions required for flexible control of behavior occur in patients with bipolar disorder and schizophrenia. A conceptual framework of abnormal decision making in mental illness could generate targeted interventions to improve quality of life and clinical outcomes

Do neurotensin receptor agonists represent a novel class of antipsychotic drugs?

Schizophrenia is one of the major psychiatric disorders for which effective pharmacotherapy has been available for approximately 50 years. Study of the mechanism of action of these antipsychotic drugs (APDs) has largely focused on the mesolimbic dopamine system and in the neurotransmitter systems that regulate it. Modulation of the neurotensin (NT) circuit in the mesolimbic system can underlie the mechanism of action of APDs. Several lines of evidence support this hypothesis, including: (1) association of NT with neural circuits relevant to the pathophysiology of schizophrenia and the therapeutic effects of APDs; (2) prediction of antipsychotic efficacy and side effect liability based on APD effects on the NT system; (3) low concentrations of NT in the cerebrospinal fluid of a subset of patients with schizophrenia and its normalization after associated clinical improvement with APDs; and (4) remarkable behavioral similarities between peripherally administered APDs and central NT administration. For these reasons, drugs that directly modify the activity of NT systems, particularly NT receptor agonists, could plausibly represent a novel class of APDs

Virally mediated increased neurotensin 1 receptor in the nucleus accumbens decreases behavioral effects of mesolimbic system activation

Dopamine receptor agonist and NMDA receptor antagonist activation of the mesolimbic dopamine system increases locomotion and disrupts prepulse inhibition of the acoustic startle response (PPI), paradigms frequently used to study both the pharmacology of antipsychotic drugs and drugs of abuse. In rats, virally mediated overexpression of the neurotensin 1 (NT1) receptor in the nucleus accumbens antagonized d-amphetamine- and dizocilpine-induced PPI disruption, hyperlocomotion, and D-amphetamine-induced rearing. The NT receptor antagonist SR 142948A [2-[[5-(2,6-dimethoxyphenyl)-1-(4-N-(3-dimethylaminopropyl)-N-methylcarbamoyl)-2-isopropylphenyl)-1H-pyrazole-3-carbonyl]amino] adamantane-2-carboxylic acid, hydrochloride] blocked inhibition of dizocilpine-induced hyperlocomotion mediated by overexpression of the NT1 receptor. Together, these results suggest that increased nucleus accumbens NT neurotransmission, via the NT1 receptor, can decrease the effects of activation of the mesolimbic dopamine system and disruption of the glutamatergic input from limbic cortices, resembling the action of the atypical antipsychotic drug clozapine. In contrast to clozapine, virally mediated overexpression of the NT1 receptor in the nucleus accumbens had prolonged protective effects (up to 4 weeks after viral injection) without perturbing baseline PPI and locomotor behaviors. These data further confirm the NT1 receptor as the receptor mediating the antistimulant- and antipsychotic-like properties of NT and provide rationale for the development of NT1 receptor agonists as novel antipsychotic drugs. In addition, the NT1 receptor vector might be a valuable tool for understanding the mechanism of action of antipsychotic drugs and drugs of abuse and may have potential therapeutic applications