L'atenció de les rates cap a les seves cries les protegeix contra l'estrès quan són adultes

Un estudi amb rates mostra que davant d'una situació d'estrès ambiental, la mare augmenta la seva conducta materna cap a les cries, per intentar compensar l'estrès ambiental rebut. Quan són adultes, aquestes cries tenen una menor reactivitat endocrina a l'estrès, afronten més activament noves situacions estressants i manifesten menys interès per situacions noves. Els resultats mostren interessants diferències entre mascles i femelles, sent aquestes menys impulsives, i segons les situacions a les qual s'enfronten els animals.Un estudio con ratas muestra que ante una situación de estrés ambiental, la madre aumenta su conducta materna hacia las crías, para intentar compensar el estrés ambiental recibido. Cuando son adultas, estas crías tienen una menor reactividad endocrina al estrés, afrontan más activamente nuevas situaciones estresantes y manifiestan menos interés por situaciones nuevas. Los resultados muestran interesantes diferencias que dependen del género de los animales, siendo las hembras menos impulsivas, y de las situaciones a las que se enfrentan los animales.A study with rats shows that in a situation of environmental stress, the mother increases her maternal behaviour toward offspring, trying to compensate them for the stress received. As adults, these offspring have lower endocrine reactivity to stress, are more active facing stressful situations and show less interest in new situations. The results show interesting differences between males and females, which are less impulsive for example, and depending on the situations faced by the animals

La búsqueda de sensaciones y su relación con la vulnerabilidad a la adicción y al estrés

Existe una importante vulnerabilidad individual a la adicción que puede estar relacionada con factores de personalidad. Uno de los rasgos de personalidad más estudiado en relación a la susceptibilidad a la adicción ha sido el de búsqueda de sensaciones o de novedades. En esta revisión se analizan principalmente datos de investigación básica sobre la relación entre adicción y búsqueda de sensaciones. En modelos animales este rasgo ha sido valorado principalmente mediante la actividad motora en un ambiente nuevo, estableciéndose dos tipologías de ratas, las denominadas LR (low-responders) y las HR (high-responders) que muestran respectivamente niveles bajos y altos de actividad en dicho ambiente nuevo. Los animales HR son más sensibles a los efectos estimulantes motores de diversas drogas y muestran mayor sensibilización conductual ante la administración repetida de la droga respecto a los LR. Además, los sujetos HR adquieren inicialmente más fácilmente la conducta de autoadministración operante de diversas drogas de abuso. La reactividad del eje hipotálamo-pituitario-adrenal ante ciertas situaciones de estrés también es mayor en los animales HR que en los LR. A nivel del sistema nervioso central, los sujetos HR también presentan una mayor actividad del eje hipotalámico pituitarioadrenal. Respecto al sistema dopaminérgico, estudios de microdiálisis muestran que la cocaína ejerce un mayor efecto neuroquímico (mayor incremento en los niveles de dopamina) en los animales HR que en los LR. Estos datos en animales a grandes rasgos se replican también en humanos, aunque existen también resultados contradictorios tanto en animales como en humanos, indicando que el tema es complejo y aún no está resueltoThere is considerable variation in individual vulnerability to addiction that may be related to personality factors. One of the most widely studied personality traits in relation to susceptibility to addiction has been novelty or sensation-seeking. In the present review we mainly analyze basic research data on the relationship between addiction and novelty-seeking. In animal models, this trait has been assessed mainly by means of motor activity in an inescapable novel environment. Thus, two typologies of rats have been established, the so-called LR (lowresponders) and the HR (high-responders), which respectively show low and high levels of activity in a novel environment. HR animals are more sensitive to the motor-stimulating effects of various drugs, and show greater behavioural sensitization with repeated drug administration, than LR animals. Moreover, HR subjects initially acquire operant self-administration behaviour more easily than LR subjects. Hypothalamicpituitary- adrenal axis reactivity in certain stressful situations is also greater in HR than in LR subjects. At the level of the central nervous system, HR subjects also show greater activity of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis. With regard to dopaminergic systems, microdialysis studies show that cocaine has a greater neurochemical effect (more increase in dopamine levels) in HR than in LR animals. Human data are generally in agreement with those from the animal literature, though there are also contradictory results in both humans and animals, suggesting that this topic is complex and still far from being fully understoo

Un estudi relaciona l'addicció i la tendència perseverant a explorar

Segons com sigui el nostre temperament, correm el risc gratuït de ser uns addictes en potència. Investigadors de l'Institut de Neurociències suggereixen que els individus que constantment busquen noves sensacions són més propensos a convertir-se en addictes. Aquesta conclusió és fruit d'un estudi realitzat amb morfina i rates curioses.Según cómo sea nuestro temperamento corremos el riesgo gratuito de ser unos adictos en potencia. Investigadores del Instituto de Neurociencias sugieren que los individuos que constantemente buscan nuevas sensaciones son más propensos a convertirse en adictos. Esta conclusión es fruto de un estudio realizado con morfina y ratas curiosas

L'estrès juvenil pot afavorir l'aparició de psicopatologies a l'edat adulta

Un estudi amb rates mostra que l'exposició a un estrès juvenil afecta la reactivitat a noves situacions d'estrès a l'etapa adulta i pot afavorir l'aparició de certes psicopatologies. Els animals mantinguts en ambients poc estressants en l'edat adulta mostren menys interès per situacions noves, mentre que si se'ls administra un estrès intens hi ha un increment en l'ansietat de l'animal. Cal dir que l'estrès juvenil i l'adult per separat no provoquen efectes a les proves d'ansietat, però l'estrès juvenil potencia d'alguna manera els efectes latents de l'estrès adult.A study with rats shows that exposure to juvenile stress affects the reactivity to novel stressful situations in adulthood and may increase the risk to develop certain psychopathologies. Animals maintained in low- stress environments in adulthood show less interest for new situations, whereas if they are exposed to an intense stress there is an increase in animal's anxiety. It is noteworthy to say that juvenile and adult stress separately do not cause effects in tests of anxiety, but juvenile stress potentiates in some way the latent effects of adult stress.Un estudio con ratas muestra que la exposición a un estrés juvenil afecta a la reactividad a nuevas situaciones de estrés en la etapa adulta y puede favorecer la aparición de ciertas psicopatologías. Los animales mantenidos en ambientes poco estresantes en la edad adulta muestran menos interés por situaciones nuevas, mientras que si se les administra un estrés intenso hay un incremento en la ansiedad del animal. Hay que decir que el estrés juvenil y el adulto por separado no provocan efectos en las pruebas de ansiedad, pero el estrés juvenil potencia de alguna manera los efectos latentes del estrés adulto

Searching for Biological Markers of Personality: Are There Neuroendocrine Markers of Anxiety?

The existence of stable individual differences in cognitive and emotional capabilities both in animals and humans is well-accepted. The theories of personality assume that such individual differences can be categorized and that the richness of individual differences in humans would be the result of the combination of differences in a few underlying personality factors

Les rates amb més germans són menys ansioses quan són adultes

En aquest revelador estudi, científics de l'Institut de Neurociències de la UAB han investigat com influeix el nombre de germans d'una ventrada en el comportament dels animals quan són adults. Malgrat que, en les ventrades petites, cada criatura rep més atenció individual, les criades en "famílies" més grans són menys ansioses quan són adultes.En este revelador estudio, científicos del Instituto de Neurociencias de la UAB han investigado cómo influye el número de hermanos de una camada en el comportamiento de los animales cuando son adultos. A pesar de que, en las camadas pequeñas, cada cría recibe más atención individual, aquellas criadas en "familias" más grandes son menos ansiosas cuando son adultas.In this revealing study, scientists from the UAB Neurosciences Institute have investigated how the number of siblings in a litter can influence behaviour when the rats reach adulthood. Although, in smaller litters, every pup receives more individual attention, those raised in bigger "families" are less anxious in their adulthood

Not all stressors are equal : behavioral and endocrine evidence for development of contextual fear conditioning after a single session of footshocks but not of immobilization

Exposure of animals to footshocks (FS) in absence of any specific cue results in the development of fear to the compartment where shocks were given (contextual fear conditioning), and this is usually evaluated by time spent freezing. However, the extent to which contextual fear conditioning always develops when animals are exposed to other stressors is not known. In the present work we firstly demonstrated, using freezing, that exposure of adult rats to a single session of FS resulted in short-term and long-term contextual fear conditioning (freezing) that was paralleled by increased hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) activation. In contrast, using a similar design, no HPA or behavioral evidence for such conditioning was found after exposure to immobilization on boards (IMO), despite this stressor being of similar severity as FS on the basis of standard physiological measures of stress, including HPA activation. In a final experiment we directly compared the exposure to the two stressors in the same type of context and tested for the development of conditioning to the context and to a specific cue for IMO (the board). We observed the expected high levels of freezing and the conditioned HPA activation after FS, but not after IMO, regardless of the presence of the board during testing. Therefore, it can be concluded that development of fear conditioning to context or particular cues, as evaluated by either behavioral or endocrine measures, appears to be dependent on the nature of the aversive stimuli, likely to be related to biologically preparedness to establish specific associations

Sex differences in the behavioural and hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal response to contextual fear conditioning in rats

This is the author's version of a work that was accepted for publication in Hormones and behavior. Changes resulting from the publishing process, such as peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting, and other quality control mechanisms may not be reflected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication. A definitive version was subsequently published in Hormones and behavior, Vol. 66 No. 5 (Nov. 2014), p. 713-723In recent years, special attention is being paid to sex differences in susceptibility to disease. In this regard, there is evidence that male rats present higher levels of both cued and contextual fear conditioning than females. However, little is known about the concomitant hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis response to those situations which is critical in emotional memories. Here, we studied the behavioural and HPA responses of male and female Wistar rats to context fear conditioning using electric footshock as the aversive stimulus. Fear-conditioned rats showed a much greater ACTH and corticosterone response than those merely exposed to the fear conditioning chamber without receiving shocks. Moreover, males presented higher levels of freezing whereas HPA axis response was greater in females. Accordingly, during the fear extinction tests, female rats consistently showed less freezing and higher extinction rate, but greater HPA activation than males. Exposure to an open-field resulted in lower activity/exploration in fear-conditioned males, but not females, suggesting greater conditioned cognitive generalization in males than females. It can be concluded that important sex differences in fear conditioning are observed in both freezing and HPA activation, but the two set of variables are affected in the opposite direction: enhanced behavioural impact in males, but enhanced HPA responsiveness in females. Thus, the role of sex differences on fear-related stimuli may depend on the variables chosen to evaluate it, the greater responsiveness of the HPA axis in females perhaps being an important factor to be further explored

Adaptability to acute stress among women survivors of intimate partner violence : protocol for a mixed-methods cross-sectional study in a laboratory setting (BRAW study)

Altres ajuts: "La Caixa" Foundation, 2017ACUP00277; Departament de Salut de la Generalitat de Catalunya, SLT002/16/00237Intimate partner violence (IPV) is the most common and alarming form of violence against women, affecting around 30% of all women around the world. Using an integrative methodology, we approach IPV as a form of chronic exposure to severe stress that alters the stress-response system of exposed women. The aim of this study is to test the hypothesis that sustained exposure to IPV in women confers a vulnerability-to-stress profile characterised by higher neuroendocrine and behavioural responsiveness associated with a selective attentional processing bias towards threat. Women between 21 and 50 years old from the area of Barcelona (Spain) will be invited to participate. A sample of 82 women exposed to IPV and 41 women not exposed to IPV will be included and assessed for attentional bias and response to acute stress in a laboratory condition (the Trier Social Stress Task). The study will include quantitative and qualitative measures of cognitive performance, neuroendocrine activity and face-to-face interviews to obtain an integrative description of the stress-response profile of these women. Results are expected to help build resilience strategies with a long-lasting impression on women's healthy functioning. The study has obtained the approval of the local Ethics Committee ('Comité de Ética de Investigación Parc Taulí de Sabadell'; 2 018 551 V.1.2 June 2018). Besides the communication of results in peer-reviewed papers and scientific congresses, the project will inform guidelines and recommendations through policy-dialogues and workshops with relevant regional and national representatives for future work and prevention strategies. Participants will be invited to be an active part in the dissemination strategy focussed on raising awareness of coping limitations and abilities that women themselves will be able to identify throughout the study. The study has been registered at the ClinicalTrails.gov database (Identifier number: NCT03623555; Pre-results)

La calculadora d'Ahmés : reflexió i raonament entorn del propi sistema de numeració i del significat de les seves operacions a través de la investigació, com a base de l'aprenentatge matemàtic

Estudi del propi sistema de numeració decimal a través de la investigació del sistema de numeració egipci. Aquesta experiència ha estat realitzada amb els alumnes de 1r d'ESO de l'INS Santa Coloma de Farners en coordinació amb el Departament de Socials, i amb alguna col·laboració esporàdica de l'assignatura de visual i plàstica. El procés d'investigació que es proposa consisteix a descobrir el sistema de numeració i diversos algorismes de càlcul a l'antic Egipte, dels quals l'alumnat estudia la validesa i extreu propietats aplicables al sistema de numeració. Paral·lelament, en l'assignatura de Socials s'estudia la vida, els costums i l'oligarquia a l'antic Egipte.A study of the decimal system bymeans of investigation of the Egyptian numbering system, based on exercises carried outwith second-year secondary students at the INS Santa Coloma de Farners school, in coordination with their Social and Arts departments. The project was designed to explore the numbering systemand various calculation algorithms used in ancient Egypt, from which students could study their validity and identify properties applicable to our numbering system. At the same time, in terms of social studies, the life, traditions and oligarchy of ancient Egyptwere also considered