Effects of anger control program for junior high school students

本研究では, 中学生が抱えるいじめや不登校, 暴力行為などの予防策や改善策を探るため, 中学生を対象とした怒りのコントロールに関する介入プログラムの作成とその効果を検討した。相川・佐藤(2006)などを参考に, リラクセーションやアサーションを取り入れた介入プログラムを作成し, 中学1年生に実施した。その結果, 介入群において, 怒りの表出得点の減少や, ソーシャルスキルの先生との関係得点, 主張性得点の向上がみられた。本研究で作成した介入プログラムは, 中学生の怒りの表出を低減させたり, 主張性を向上させたりする可能性があることが示唆された

Social skills and the number of playmates among elementary school students

The relationship between social skills and the number of playmates among elementary school students was investigated. Elementary school students (n = 147) were asked about their social skills and the number of their playmates, as well as about the contents of their play. Social skills were classified into three categories: "empathic and supportive skills," "active and assertive skills," and "teasing and obstructive skills." Structural equation modeling was performed with the three categories of social skills as independent variables and the number of playmates as the dependent variable. Results indicated that empathic and supportive skills, as well as teasing and obstructive skills had a positive relationship, whereas active and assertive skills had a negative relationship with the number of playmates. We conclude that empathic and supportive skills are useful for increasing the number of playmates among elementary school students

Cognitive deficits in single App knock-in mouse models

AbstractTransgenic mouse models of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) with nonphysiologic overexpression of amyloid precursor protein (APP) exhibit various unnatural symptoms/dysfunctions. To overcome this issue, mice with single humanized App knock-in (KI) carrying Swedish (NL), Beyreuther/Iberian (F), and Arctic (G) mutations in different combinations were recently developed. The validity of these mouse models of AD from a behavioral viewpoint, however, has not been extensively evaluated. Thus, using an automated behavior monitoring system, we analyzed various behavioral domains, including executive function, and learning and memory. The App-KI mice carrying NL-G-F mutations showed clear deficits in spatial memory and flexible learning, enhanced compulsive behavior, and reduced attention performance. Mice carrying NL-F mutations exhibited modest abnormalities. The NL-G-F mice had a greater and more rapid accumulation of Aβ deposits and glial responses. These findings reveal that single pathologic App-KI is sufficient to produce deficits in broad cognitive domains and that App-KI mouse lines with different levels of pathophysiology are useful models of AD

Involvement of cAMP-guanine nucleotide exchange factor II in hippocampal long-term depression and behavioral flexibility

This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited.Background Guanine nucleotide exchange factors (GEFs) activate small GTPases that are involved in several cellular functions. cAMP-guanine nucleotide exchange factor II (cAMP-GEF II) acts as a target for cAMP independently of protein kinase A (PKA) and functions as a GEF for Rap1 and Rap2. Although cAMP-GEF II is expressed abundantly in several brain areas including the cortex, striatum, and hippocampus, its specific function and possible role in hippocampal synaptic plasticity and cognitive processes remain elusive. Here, we investigated how cAMP-GEF II affects synaptic function and animal behavior using cAMP-GEF II knockout mice. Results We found that deletion of cAMP-GEF II induced moderate decrease in long-term potentiation, although this decrease was not statistically significant. On the other hand, it produced a significant and clear impairment in NMDA receptor-dependent long-term depression at the Schaffer collateral-CA1 synapses of hippocampus, while microscopic morphology, basal synaptic transmission, and depotentiation were normal. Behavioral testing using the Morris water maze and automated IntelliCage system showed that cAMP-GEF II deficient mice had moderately reduced behavioral flexibility in spatial learning and memory. Conclusions We concluded that cAMP-GEF II plays a key role in hippocampal functions including behavioral flexibility in reversal learning and in mechanisms underlying induction of long-term depression

Muscarinic acetylcholine receptors Chrm1 and Chrm3 are essential for REM sleep

Sleep regulation involves interdependent signaling among specialized neurons in distributed brain regions. Although acetylcholine promotes wakefulness and rapid eye movement (REM) sleep, it is unclear whether the cholinergic pathway is essential (i.e., absolutely required) for REM sleep because of redundancy from neural circuits to molecules. First, we demonstrate that synaptic inhibition of TrkA+ cholinergic neurons causes a severe short-sleep phenotype and that sleep reduction is mostly attributable to a shortened sleep duration in the dark phase. Subsequent comprehensive knockout of acetylcholine receptor genes by the triple-target CRISPR method reveals that a similar short-sleep phenotype appears in the knockout of two Gq-type acetylcholine receptors Chrm1 and Chrm3. Strikingly, Chrm1 and Chrm3 double knockout chronically diminishes REM sleep to an almost undetectable level. These results suggest that muscarinic acetylcholine receptors, Chrm1 and Chrm3, are essential for REM sleep