Perceptual and motor factors of implicit skill learning

Implicit skill learning underlies not only motor but also cognitive and social skills, and represents an important aspect of life from infancy to old age. Earlier research examining this fundamental form of learning has demonstrated that learning relies on motor and perceptual skills, along with the possible role of oculomotor learning. The goals of the present study were to determine whether motor or perceptual cues provide better prompts to sequence learning and to remove the possibility of oculomotor learning during the task. We used a modified version of the probabilistic ASRT task, which allowed the separation of motor and perceptual factors. Our results demonstrated that motor and perceptual factors influenced skill learning to a similar extent

Creation of Coherent Superposition States in Inhomogeneously Broadened Media with Relaxation

We propose and analyze a scheme for "on demand" creation of coherent superposition of meta-stable states in a tripod-structured atom using frequency-chirped laser pulses. Negligible excitation of the atoms during the creation of the superposition states is a priority in our consideration. The underlying physics of the scheme is explained using the formalism of adiabatic states. By numerically solving master equation for the density matrix operator, we analyze the influence of the spontaneous decay and transverse relaxation on the efficiency of the creation of superposition states. We show that the proposed scheme is robust against small-to-medium variations of the parameters of the laser pulses. We provide a detailed analysis of the effect of the inhomogeneous (Doppler-) broadening on the efficiency of the coherence creation and show that the proposed scheme may be equally efficient in both homogeneously and Doppler-broadened media

CR3 is the dominant phagocytotic complement receptor on human dendritic cells.

Dendritic cells (DCs) play a decisive role in immunity; they interact with various pathogens via several pattern recognition and different opsonophagocytotic receptors, including Fc- and complement-receptors. beta2-integrins, including complement receptors CR3 (CD11b/CD18) and CR4 (CD11c/CD18) participate in many immunological processes, especially those involving cell migration, adherence, and phagocytosis. Human monocyte derived dendritic cells (MDCs) are known to express CR3 as well as CR4, however possible differences regarding the role of these receptors has not been addressed so far. Our aim was to explore whether there is a difference between the binding and uptake of various complement-opsonized microorganisms, mediated by CR3 and CR4. Studying the expression of receptors during differentiation of MDCs we found that the appearance of CD11b decreased, whereas that of CD11c increased. Interestingly, both receptors were present in the cell membrane in an active conformation. Here we demonstrate that ligation of CD11b directs MDCs to enhanced phagocytosis, while the maturation of the cells and their inflammatory cytokine production are not affected. Blocking CD11c alone did not change the uptake of opsonized yeast or bacteria by MDCs. We confirmed these results using siRNA; namely downregulation of CD11b blocked the phagocytosis of microbes while silencing CD11c had no effect on their uptake. Our data clearly demonstrate that complement C3-dependent phagocytosis of MDCs is mediated mainly by CR3

Maternal bonding styles in smokers and non-smokers: a comparative study

BACKGROUND: Parental bonding has been implicated in smoking behavior, and the quality of maternal bonding (MB) has been associated with poor mental health and substance use. However, little is known about the association of MB and the smoking of the offspring. METHODS: In our study, 129 smokers and 610 non-smoker medical students completed the parental bonding instrument, which measures MB along two dimensions: care and overprotection. Four categories can be created by high and low scores on care and overprotection: optimal parenting (OP; high care/low overprotection); affectionless control (ALC; low care/high overprotection); affectionate constraint (AC; high care/high overprotection), and neglectful parenting (NP; low care/low overprotection). Nicotine dependence was assessed by the Fagerstrom Nicotine Dependence Test, exhaled CO level, and daily cigarette consumption (CPD). RESULTS: Higher CPD was significantly associated with lower overprotection (p = 0.016) and higher care (p = 0.023) scores. The odds for being a smoker were significantly higher in the neglectful maternal bonding style compared to the other rearing styles (p = 0.022). Besides, smokers showed significantly higher care and lower overprotection scores with the Mann-Whitney U-test than non-smokers, although these associations did not remain significant in multiple regression models. CONCLUSION: Our results indicate that focusing on early life relationship between patient and mother can be important in psychotherapeutic interventions for smoking. Registration trials retrospectively registered

Psychometric properties of the Opening Minds Stigma Scale for Health Care Providers in 32 European countries – A bifactor ESEM representation

AimsTo measure the stigma of healthcare providers toward people suffering from mental illness, the Opening Minds Stigma Scale for Health Care Providers (OMS-HC) is a commonly applied instrument. However, this scale has not been thoroughly validated in many European countries, its psychometric properties are still unknown and data on practicing psychiatrists is lacking. Therefore, this multicenter study aimed to assess the psychometric characteristics of the 15-item OMS-HC in trainees and specialists in adult and child psychiatry in 32 countries across Europe.Materials and methodsThe OMS-HC was conducted as an anonymous online survey and sent via Email to European adult and child psychiatrists. Parallel analysis was used to estimate the number of OMS-HC dimensions. Separate for each country, the bifactor ESEM, a bifactor exploratory structural equation modeling approach, was applied to investigate the factor structure of the scale. Cross-cultural validation was done based on multigroup confirmatory factor analyses and reliability measures.ResultsA total of 4,245 practitioners were included, 2,826 (67%) female, 1,389 (33%) male. The majority (66%) of participants were specialists, with 78% working in adult psychiatry. When country data were analyzed separately, the bifactor model (higher-order factor solution with a general factor and three specific factors) showed the best model fit (for the total sample χ2/df = 9.760, RMSEA = 0.045 (0.042–0.049), CFI = 0.981; TLI = 0.960, WRMR = 1.200). The average proportion of variance explained by the general factor was high (ECV = 0.682). This suggests that the aspects of ‘attitude,’ ‘disclosure and help-seeking,’ and ‘social distance’ could be treated as a single dimension of stigma. Among the specific factors, the ‘disclosure and help-seeking’ factor explained a considerable unique proportion of variance in the observed scores.ConclusionThis international study has led to cross-cultural analysis of the OMS-HC on a large sample of practicing psychiatrists. The bifactor structure displayed the best overall model fit in each country. Rather than using the subscales, we recommend the total score to quantify the overall stigmatizing attitudes. Further studies are required to strengthen our findings in countries where the proposed model was found to be weak