Automatic evaluation of body-related words among young women: an experimental study.

Background: Previous research has demonstrated that exposure to images depicting the thin female ideal has negative effects on some females' levels of body dissatisfaction. Much of this research, however, has utilised relatively long stimulus exposure times; thereby focusing on effortful and conscious processing of body-related stimuli. Relatively little is known about the nature of females' affective responses to the textual components of body-related stimuli, especially when these stimuli are only briefly encountered.

Behavioral and neural analysis of GABA in the acquisition, consolidation, reconsolidation, and extinction of fear memory.

The current review systematically documents the role of gamma-amino-butyric acid (GABA) in different aspects of fear memory-acquisition and consolidation, reconsolidation, and extinction, and attempts to resolve apparent contradictions in the data in order to identify the function of GABA(A) receptors in fear memory. First, numerous studies have shown that pre- and post-training administration of drugs that facilitate GABAergic transmission disrupt the initial formation of fear memories, indicating a role for GABA(A) receptors, possibly within the amygdala and hippocampus, in the acquisition and consolidation of fear memories. Similarly, recent evidence indicates that these drugs are also detrimental to the restorage of fear memories after their reactivation.

Motivation, depression, and naturalistic time-based prospective remembering.

This study investigated the effect of a motivational manipulation on naturalistic time-based prospective memory (PM) task performance. The association between depression and PM task performance was also investigated. First-year psychology students were required to send mobile phone text messages (SMSs) at a specific time 3 days and 6 days after an initial meeting.

The role of GABA and anxiety in the reconsolidation of conditioned fear.

The current study examined the effects of systemic administration of a GABA agonist [midazolam (MDZ)] and a GABA antagonist (bicuculline) on fear responding after brief CS exposure, a procedure thought to involve memory reconsolidation. Using a contextual fear-conditioning paradigm, rats were initially given two context-shock training trials, followed 24 hrs later by a 90-s context exposure (reactivation), and 24 hrs later by a 3-min context test. In Experiment 1, MDZ (2 mg/kg, i.

Automatic evaluation of body-related images.

An affective priming task was used to determine whether females automatically evaluate body-related images, and to establish whether this is moderated by appearance schematicity, thin internalisation, body dissatisfaction, and dietary restraint. In a within participants design, the valence congruence of the prime and target pairs was manipulated, as was the interval between them. Undergraduate females (N=87, Experiment 1 and N=72, Experiment 2) individually selected colour images as the primes.

D-cycloserine facilitates extinction of learned fear: effects on reacquisition and generalized extinction.

Background: d-cycloserine (DCS) facilitates extinction of learned fear. The aim of this study was to examine whether DCS 1) affects reacquisition of fear (Experiment 1) and 2) produces generalized extinction of fear (Experiment 2).

Methods: Following fear conditioning, where a light or a tone conditioned stimulus (CS) was paired with a white-noise burst unconditioned stimulus (US), rats received nonreinforced exposure to one CS (i.

Facilitation of fear extinction by D-cycloserine: theoretical and clinical implications.

Anxiety disorders are among the most common psychological disturbances in the industrialized world. Current behavioral therapy procedures for these disorders are somewhat effective, but their efficacy could be substantially improved. Because these procedures are largely based on the process of extinction, manipulations that enhance extinction may lead to improvements in treatment effectiveness.

D-cycloserine and the facilitation of extinction of conditioned fear: consequences for reinstatement.

Several recent studies have reported that D-cycloserine (DCS), a partial N-methyl-D-aspartate agonist, facilitates extinction of learned fear in rats. Other studies have shown that representation of the unconditioned stimulus (US) can reinstate learned fear after extinction. This study examined whether this reinstatement effect occurs in Sprague-Dawley rats given DCS at the time of extinction.

Effects of D-cycloserine on extinction of conditioned freezing.

The present study tested the prediction that D-cycloserine (DCS), a partial N-methyl-D-aspartate agonist, would facilitate extinction of conditioned freezing in male Sprague-Dawley rats. Rats received 5 light-shock pairings (conditioning). The following day, rats received 6 light-alone presentations (extinction training).

Dopamine antagonists in the orbital prefrontal cortex reduce prepulse inhibition of the acoustic startle reflex in the rat.

Schizophrenia is characterized by, among other things, (a) information processing deficits that have been indexed by a number of measures, including deficits in prepulse inhibition (PPI) of the acoustic startle reflex; and (b) pathophysiology of the frontal lobe. Recent studies have implicated the prefrontal cortex (PFC) in the modulation of PPI in rats. These studies suggest that dopamine (DA) ablation of the PFC (using 6-OHDA) leads to disruption of PPI.

Immediate-startle stimulus presentation fails to condition freezing responses to contextual cues.

Twenty-eight male Wistar rats were placed in a novel and distinctive environment. Eighteen of these received an intense startle-eliciting white noise stimulus. Animals that experienced a 60-s delay between placement and the startle stimulus demonstrated significant freezing in the context, both poststartle (Session 1) and on a later startle-free test (Session 2).

Potentiation of the acoustic startle response by a conditioned stimulus paired with acoustic startle stimulus in rats.

The hypothesis that the standard acoustic startle habituation paradigm contains the elements of Pavlovian fear conditioning was tested. In a potentiated startle response paradigm, a startle stimulus and a light conditioned stimulus (CS) were paired. A startle stimulus then was tested alone or following the CS.

Influence of long-term sensitization on long-term habituation of the acoustic startle response in rats: central gray lesions, preexposure, and extinction.

The relation between long-term decrements of the acoustic startle response in rats and the development of freezing behavior during habituation training was examined. Freezing behavior developed over the initial trials of habituation training, and the rate of long-term response decrements was found to be inversely related to the development of freezing. Manipulations (neurological or behavioral) that either reduced the level of freezing or retarded its development promoted startle response decrements.

Duplex perception: some initial findings concerning its neural basis.

Duplex perception is the simultaneous perception of a speech syllable and of a nonspeech "chirp," and occurs when a single formant transition and the remainder (the "base") of a synthetic syllable are presented to different ears. The current study found a slight but nonsignificant advantage for correct labeling of the fused syllable when the chirp was presented to the left ear. This advantage was amplified in the performance of a "split-brain" subject.

Effects of lesions of the cerebellar vermis on VMH lesion-induced hyperdefensiveness, spontaneous mouse killing, and freezing in rats.

In a series of independent experiments, we showed that lesions of the vermis of the cerebellum in rats blocked the hyperdefensiveness induced by lesions of the ventromedial hypothalamus (VMH), attenuated spontaneous mouse killing, and reduced unconditioned freezing and other signs of fear in the presence of a cat. The vermal lesions did not significantly affect foot-shock conditioned freezing. Control lesions of the cerebellar hemispheres did not affect VMH lesion-induced hyperdefensiveness or freezing in the presence of a cat.

Startle responding and context conditioning. Naloxone pretreatment and stimulus intensity.

The possibility that acoustic startle stimuli could support a conditional response (freezing) to contextual stimuli was investigated. Rats were exposed to three acoustic startle stimuli on the first day, and one on the second day. On day 1, 20 rats received naloxone pretreatment and another 20 received saline (placebo) pretreatment.

Reflex modification in the rat: the inhibitory effects of intensity and frequency changes in steady tones.

In laboratory rats (as in humans) a low-intensity tone that precedes a high-intensity burst of noise by approximately 100 ms can reduce the amplitude of the startle reaction elicited by the burst of noise. A series of four experiments with rats investigated the relation between the inhibitory effects of tonal frequency change and the length of the silent period (gap) preceding it. The major findings were the following: (a) A gap in an otherwise continuous pure tone inhibited startle when the gap occurred approximately 100 ms prior to the noise burst.

Seating preference, hypnotizability, and imagery ability.

The effects of a specific hemispheric mode of functioning as indexed by lateralized seating preference was tested separately for male and female subjects in terms of their performance on the Harvard Group Scale of Hypnotid Susceptibility, Form A, the Creative Imagination Scale, and Betts' Questionnaire Upon Mental Imagery. Males, but not females, who preferred right-side seating scored higher on the Harvard scale but not on the Creative Imagination Scale or Betts' imagery questionnaire. Findings provide some support the notion that hypnotizability is associated with the right hemisphere for right-handed persons.