Guest Artist:Juile Goldberg, Guitar

Kemp Recital Hall Monday Evening November 11, 2002 7:30p.m

Clients\u27 Internal Representations of Their Therapists

Thirteen adults in long-term individual psychotherapy were interviewed regarding their internal representations (defined as bringing to awareness the internalized image ) of their therapists. Results indicated that in the context of a good therapeutic relationship, clients\u27 internal representations combined auditory, visual, and kinesthetic (i.e., felt presence) modalities; were triggered when clients thought about past or future sessions, or when distressed; occurred in diverse locations; and varied in frequency, duration, and intensity. Clients felt positively about their representations and used them to introspect or influence therapy within sessions, beyond sessions, or both. The frequency of, comfort with, and use of clients\u27 internal representations increased over the course of therapy, and the representations benefited the therapy and therapeutic relationship. Therapists tended not to take a deliberate role in creating clients\u27 internal representations, and few clients discussed their internal representations with their therapists

Rethinking Social Work\u27s Role in Public Assistance

This article presents an argument for revisiting social work\u27s relationship to public assistance in the wake of 10 years of welfare reform. Three case studies drawn from a mixed-method study of the quality of life of former TANF recipients illustrate the range, depth and complexity of the needs of persons while they are on the welfare rolls, transitioning off and living without cash relief. The article briefly traces the history of social work\u27s commitment to and provision of social services for this population and argues that it may be time to revisit the profession\u27s role in public assistance. In light of history and a review of welfare leaver studies and the authors\u27 research, the article suggests interventions that could improve service to the poor, both on and off cash relief. The role of social work in advocating for changes in welfare policy, program and practice contexts is also discussed

Eye-opening dependent elaboration and refinement of the cortical projection to the superficial superior colliculus in rats

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, February 2009.Includes bibliographical references.The superior colliculus (SC) is a multi-layered midbrain structure responsible for multimodal integration and orienting behavior in mammals. The superficial layers of the SC (sSC) receive direct visual input from retinal ganglion cells (RGC) as well as input from pyramidal cells in layer V of the ipsilateral visual cortex (VC). The retinal input is refined well before eye opening (EO) and RGC axons arborize topographically to form an appropriate map of visual space. The projection from VC is still broad and unrefined at the time of EO, however. In both sSC and VC, physiological and biochemical evidence indicate considerable synaptic refinement in response to EO, which occurs naturally at the end of the second postnatal week. These studies use anterograde filling of corticocollicular axons in combination with controlled eyelid opening and reclosing paradigms to compare the corticocollicular projections of age-matched eye-opened and eye-sutured littermates. Reconstructions of individual corticocollicular axons in rat pups and statistically sampled arborization patterns across the colliculus at set times before and after controlled eye-lid opening, show that the onset of pattern vision is critical for the establishment of registration between the cortical and collicular maps of visual space. Moreover, if pattern vision is delayed by prolonging eye-lid closure the cortical projection withdraws to single axon cylinders. A latent plasticity remains, however; the corticocollicular axons can reestablish topologically appropriate arborization if eye opening occurs within at least a week of its normal occurrence.by Julie R. Goldberg.Ph.D

Impact of lipoprotein lipase gene polymorphism, S447X, on postprandial triacylglycerol and glucose response to sequential meal ingestion

Lipoprotein lipase (LPL) is a key rate-limiting enzyme for the hydrolysis of triacylglycerol (TAG) in chylomicrons and very low-density lipoprotein. Given that postprandial assessment of lipoprotein metabolism may provide a more physiological perspective of disturbances in lipoprotein homeostasis compared to assessment in the fasting state, we have investigated the influence of two commonly studied LPL polymorphisms (rs320, HindIII; rs328, S447X) on postprandial lipaemia, in 261 participants using a standard sequential meal challenge. S447 homozygotes had lower fasting HDL-C (p = 0.015) and a trend for higher fasting TAG (p = 0.057) concentrations relative to the 447X allele carriers. In the postprandial state, there was an association of the S447X polymorphism with postprandial TAG and glucose, where S447 homozygotes had 12% higher TAG area under the curve (AUC) (p = 0.037), 8.4% higher glucose-AUC (p = 0.006) and 22% higher glucose-incremental area under the curve (IAUC) (p = 0.042). A significant gene–gender interaction was observed for fasting TAG (p = 0.004), TAG-AUC (Pinteraction = 0.004) and TAG-IAUC (Pinteraction = 0.016), where associations were only evident in men. In conclusion, our study provides novel findings of an effect of LPL S447X polymorphism on the postprandial glucose and gender-specific impact of the polymorphism on fasting and postprandial TAG concentrations in response to sequential meal challenge in healthy participant

A Synaptic Strategy for Consolidation of Convergent Visuotopic Maps

The mechanisms by which experience guides refinement of converging afferent pathways are poorly understood. We describe a vision-driven refinement of corticocollicular inputs that determines the consolidation of retinal and visual cortical (VC) synapses on individual neurons in the superficial superior colliculus (sSC). Highly refined corticocollicular terminals form 1–2 days after eye-opening (EO), accompanied by VC-dependent filopodia sprouting on proximal dendrites, and PSD-95 and VC-dependent quadrupling of functional synapses. Delayed EO eliminates synapses, corticocollicular terminals, and spines on VC-recipient dendrites. Awake recordings after EO show that VC and retina cooperate to activate sSC neurons, and VC light responses precede sSC responses within intervals promoting potentiation. Eyelid closure is associated with more protracted cortical visual responses, causing the majority of VC spikes to follow those of the colliculus. These data implicate spike-timing plasticity as a mechanism for cortical input survival, and support a cooperative strategy for retinal and cortical coinnervation of the sSC.National Institutes of Health (U.S.) (Grant EY006039