Alegoría de un polisistema en la obra Paparazzi, de Matei Visniec

Aquest article analitzarà la manera en què Matei Visniec, a través de la seua obra de teatre Paparazzi, dóna a veure l'estructura sil·logística de la seua obra, així com la del polisistema de deformacions que ens envolta i assetja. Tractarem de descriure els mecanismes mitjançant els quals l'autor romanés apunta a la necessitat del sabotatge. En efecte, a través d'una posada en abisme del procés de creació de continguts dels mitjans de comunicació de masses, Paparazzi posa en evidència en forma d'al·legoria teatral allò mateix al que al·ludeix Asensi, això és, el fet que els discursos que modelizan la nostra percepció del món són una representació alterada de la realitat que necessita ser sabotejada

Maternal prenatal cortisol predicts infant negative emotionality in a sex-dependent manner

Objective Prenatal stress influences fetal developmental trajectories, which may implicate glucocorticoid mechanisms. There is also emerging evidence that effects of prenatal stress on offspring development are sex-dependent. However, little is known about the prospective relationship between maternal prenatal cortisol levels and infant behaviour, and whether it may be different in male and female infants. We sought to address this question using data from a prospective longitudinal cohort, stratified by risk. Method The Wirral Child Health and Development Study (WCHADS) cohort (n = 1233) included a stratified random sub-sample (n = 216) who provided maternal saliva samples, assayed for cortisol, at home over two days at 32 weeks of pregnancy (on waking, 30-min post-waking and during the evening) and a measure of infant negative emotionality from the Neonatal Behavioural Assessment Scale (NBAS) at five weeks-of-age. General population estimates of associations among measures were obtained using inverse probability weights. Results Maternal prenatal cortisol sampled on waking predicted infant negative emotionality in a sex-dependent manner (interaction term, p = 0.005); female infants exposed to high levels of prenatal cortisol were more negative (Beta = 0.440, p = 0.042), whereas male infants were less negative (Beta = − 0.407, p = 0.045). There was no effect of the 30-min post-waking measure or evening cortisol. Discussion Our findings add to an emerging body of work that has highlighted sex differences in fetal programming, whereby females become more reactive following prenatal stress, and males less reactive. A more complete understanding of sex-specific developmental trajectories in the context of prenatal stress is essential for the development of targeted prevention strategies

Associations between biological markers of prenatal stress and infant negative emotionality are specific to sex

Purpose Fetal programming is the idea that environmental stimuli can alter the development of the fetus, which may have a long-term effect on the child. We have recently reported that maternal prenatal cortisol predicts infant negative emotionality in a sex-dependent manner: high prenatal cortisol was associated with increased negative emotionality in females, and decreased negative emotionality in males. This study aims to test for this sex-specific effect in a different cohort, and investigate whether sex differences in fetal programming may be specific to glucocorticoid mechanisms by also examining a maternal salivary alpha-amylase (sAA) by sex interaction. Methods 88 pregnant women (mean gestational age = 27.4 weeks, SD = 7.4) collected saliva samples at home over two working days to be assayed for the hormone cortisol (range = 0.13–88.22 nmol/l) and the enzyme alpha-amylase (range = 4.57–554.8 units/ml). Samples were collected at waking, 30-min post-waking and 12 h post-waking. Two months after birth participants reported infant negative emotionality using the distress to limits subscale of the Infant Behavior Questionnaire. Results The interaction between maternal prenatal cortisol and infant sex to predict distress to limits approached significance (p = 0.067). In line with our previous finding there was a positive association between prenatal cortisol and negative emotionality in females, and a negative association in males. The interaction between sAA and sex to predict distress was significant (p = 0.025), and the direction of effect was the same as for the cortisol data; high sAA associated with increased negative emotionality in females and reduced negative emotionality in males. Conclusions In line with our previous findings, this research adds to an emerging body of literature, which suggests that fetal programming mechanisms may be sex-dependent. This is the first study to demonstrate that maternal prenatal sAA may be an important biomarker for infant behavior, and the findings have implications for understanding sex differences in developmental psychopathology

Sex-dependent associations between maternal prenatal cortisol and child callous-unemotional traits: findings from the Wirral Child Health and Development Study

Elevated maternal glucocorticoids during pregnancy may impact on fetal development in a sex-dependent way, leading to increased amygdala activation and increased risk for internalising disorders in females. Based on evidence implicating reduced amygdala activation in callous-unemotional (CU) traits, we predicted that elevated maternal cortisol in pregnancy would be associated with lower CU traits and elevated anxious-depressed symptoms, only in girls. Participants were 225 members of a stratified subsample within an epidemiological longitudinal cohort (WCHADS). Salivary cortisol was measured over two days at 32 weeks gestation (on waking, 30-min post-waking and during the evening) and the log of the area under the curve (LogAUC) was calculated as an index of diurnal cortisol. Mothers reported on child CU traits and anxious-depressed symptoms at 2.5, 3.5 and 5.0 years of age. As predicted there was a sex of child by cortisol interaction (p < .001) whereby elevated maternal cortisol was associated with lower child CU traits, explaining 25% of the variance, in girls, but not in boys. This effect remained when controlling for relevant confounders and anxious-depressed symptoms. By contrast, elevated maternal cortisol did not predict higher anxious-depressed symptoms in girls. The study adds to growing evidence for sex-dependent effects of elevated maternal cortisol during pregnancy on early child psychopathology, consistent with mediation by elevated amygdala activation. The conditions under which, in girls, this is associated with heightened responsiveness to others' distress characteristic of low CU traits, or with increased affective symptoms, require further study

How age, sex and genotype shape the stress response

Exposure to chronic stress is a leading pre-disposing factor for several neuropsychiatric disorders as it often leads to maladaptive responses. The response to stressful events is heterogeneous, underpinning a wide spectrum of distinct changes amongst stress-exposed individuals'. Several factors can underlie a different perception to stressors and the setting of distinct coping strategies that will lead to individual differences on the susceptibility/resistance to stress. Beyond the factors related to the stressor itself, such as intensity, duration or predictability, there are factors intrinsic to the individuals that are relevant to shape the stress response, such as age, sex and genetics. In this review, we examine the contribution of such intrinsic factors to the modulation of the stress response based on experimental rodent models of response to stress and discuss to what extent that knowledge can be potentially translated to humans.FEDER through the Operational Programme Competitiveness Factors - COMPETE and National Funds through FCT - Foundation for Science and Technology under the project POCI-01-0145-FEDER-007038; and by the project NORTE-01-0145-FEDER-000013, supported by Norte Portugal Regional Operational Programme (NORTE, 2020), under the PORTUGAL 2020 Partnership Agreement, through the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF). We acknowledge the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) for providing a post-doctoral fellowship to SR (SFRH/BPD/72710/2010), a doctoral fellowship to SM (SFRH/BD/69311/2010) and a fellowship to AN (ANR/NEU-OSD/0258/2012)info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Fluoxetine during Development Reverses the Effects of Prenatal Stress on Depressive-Like Behavior and Hippocampal Neurogenesis in Adolescence

Depression during pregnancy and the postpartum period is a growing health problem, which affects up to 20% of women. Currently, selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRIs) medications are commonly used for treatment of maternal depression. Unfortunately, there is very little research on the long-term effect of maternal depression and perinatal SSRI exposure on offspring development. Therefore, the aim of this study was to determine the role of exposure to fluoxetine during development on affective-like behaviors and hippocampal neurogenesis in adolescent offspring in a rodent model of maternal depression. To do this, gestationally stressed and non-stressed Sprague-Dawley rat dams were treated with either fluoxetine (5 mg/kg/day) or vehicle beginning on postnatal day 1 (P1). Adolescent male and female offspring were divided into 4 groups: 1) prenatal stress+fluoxetine exposure, 2) prenatal stress+vehicle, 3) fluoxetine exposure alone, and 4) vehicle alone. Adolescent offspring were assessed for anxiety-like behavior using the Open Field Test and depressive-like behavior using the Forced Swim Test. Brains were analyzed for endogenous markers of hippocampal neurogenesis via immunohistochemistry. Results demonstrate that maternal fluoxetine exposure reverses the reduction in immobility evident in prenatally stressed adolescent offspring. In addition, maternal fluoxetine exposure reverses the decrease in hippocampal cell proliferation and neurogenesis in maternally stressed adolescent offspring. This research provides important evidence on the long-term effect of fluoxetine exposure during development in a model of maternal adversity