I like therefore I can, and I can therefore I like: the role of self-efficacy and affect in active inference of allostasis.

Active inference (AIF) is a theory of the behavior of information-processing open dynamic systems. It describes them as generative models (GM) generating inferences on the causes of sensory input they receive from their environment. Based on these inferences, GMs generate predictions about sensory input.

Depression as a Failed Anxiety: The Continuum of Precision-Weighting Dysregulation in Affective Disorders.

Depressive, anxiety, and trauma-related disorders have many symptoms in common such as unstable mood, high anxiety, sleep disturbance, impaired concentration among others. This degeneracy creates ambiguity in classifying psychiatric disorders and raises the question of their categorical vs. dimensional nature.

Tackling hyperarousal: an integrative multimodal approach.

The effectiveness of treatment for PTSD is limited, which is especially true for war veterans, of whom 30-50% do not respond to therapy. Hyperarousal is central to the maintenance of trauma pathology. The mainstream trauma-focused therapies traditionally target the cognitive processing of traumatic experience.

Trauma or Drama: A Predictive Processing Perspective on the Continuum of Stress.

The notion of psychological trauma has been liberally used both in clinical literature and general discourse. However, no consensus exists on its exact meaning and definition. Whereas traditionally trauma has been mostly associated with criterion A of acute and posttraumatic stress disorders (PTSDs) as defined in the , many researchers find this definition too constraining and not accounting for the complexity and many aspects of trauma.

Bayesian Approach to Psychotherapy Integration: Strategic Modification of Priors.

Integrative psychotherapies have become the mainstay in mental health care. The most researched therapy, CBT, being integrative itself, continues to integrate such new elements as mindfulness, spirituality, and experiential techniques. There is no commonly accepted strategy for psychotherapy integration.

The effect of motor-respiratory coordination on the precision of tracking movements: influence of attention, task complexity and training.

Purpose: We investigated motor-respiratory coordination (MRC) in visually guided forearm tracking movements focusing on two main questions: (1) Does attentional demand, training or complexity of the tracking task have an effect on the degree of MRC? (2) Does MRC impair the precision of those movements? We hypothesized that (1) enhanced attention to the tracking task and training increase the degree of MRC while higher task complexity would reduce it, and (2) MRC impairs tracking precision.

Methods: Thirty-five volunteers performed eight tracking trials with several conditions: positive (direct) signal-response relation (SRR), negative (inverse) SRR to increase task complexity, specific instruction for enhanced attention to maximize tracking precision ("strict" instruction), and specific instruction that tracking precision would not be evaluated ("relaxed" instruction). The trials with positive and negative SRR were performed three times each to study training effects.

Integrating EMDR into an evolutionary-based therapy for depression: a case study.

We present an intervention in a case of major depression, where eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR) therapy was integrated into an evolutionary-based psychotherapy for depression. At the end of the treatment and at follow up assessment we observed a more accepting disposition and decreased depressive but not anxiety symptoms.

Melatonin stimulates cell proliferation in zebrafish embryo and accelerates its development.

All vertebrates show a dramatic circadian rhythm in circulating melatonin with high levels at night and very low levels during daytime. In adults, melatonin is thought to synchronize other circadian rhythms and regulate seasonal rhythms in photoperiodic animals by acting on specific G-protein coupled receptors. The role of melatonin in development is unknown, even though melatonin receptors appear to be more highly expressed in developing embryos and neonates than in adults.

Functional and structural diversity of the human Dickkopf gene family.

Wnt proteins influence many aspects of embryonic development, and their activity is regulated by several secreted antagonists, including the Xenopus Dickkopf-1 (xDkk-1) protein. xDkk-1 inhibits Wnt activities in Xenopus embryos and may play a role in induction of head structures. Here, we characterize a family of human Dkk-related genes composed of Dkk-1, Dkk-2, Dkk-3, and Dkk-4, together with a unique Dkk-3 related protein termed Soggy (Sgy).

Developmental study of Müller cells in the rat retina using a new monoclonal antibody, RT10F7.

We produced the monoclonal antibody RT10F7, characterized its antigenic specificity and expression in the adult and developing retina, in cultured retinal cells and in other parts of the central nervous system. In metabolically-labelled retinal cultures RT10F7 immunoprecipitated a protein of approximately 36,000 mol. wt.

Axis determination in Xenopus involves biochemical interactions of axin, glycogen synthase kinase 3 and beta-catenin.

Signaling by the Wnt family of extracellular proteins is critical in a variety of developmental processes in which cell and tissue polarity are established [1-5]. Wnt signal transduction has been studied mostly by the genetic approach in Drosophila and Caenorhabditis elegans [1,2,5], but the biochemical mechanisms involved remain to be elucidated. The Wnt pathway also operates during axis determination in vertebrates [3,5].

[The regulatory role of natural antibodies and prostaglandin F2 alpha in the course of a myocardial infarct].

Concentration of PGF2 alpha were correlated to those of antiprostaglandin antibodies IgM and IgG to this mediator in donors and myocardial infarction patients. In donors correlation between PGF2 alpha concentration and IgG antibody levels is positive. In uneventful myocardial infarction relevant correlation partially recovered at the expense of IgM antibodies.

[Natural anti-PGF2alpha and anti-PGE2 antibodies in ischemic heart disease and hypertension].

The important role played by prostaglandins in the pathogenesis of coronary disease and essential hypertension is well known. The authors have attempted to reveal a relationship between blood levels of natural autoantibodies to PGF2 alpha and PGE2 and specific features of coronary disease and essential hypertension course and complications. A total of 87 subjects were examined, 23 of these--normal controls, 25 patients with myocardial infarction, 22 with angina pectoris, and 17 with essential hypertension.

[Comparative analysis of the levels of anti-prostaglandin F2 alpha antibodies in the normal state and in cardiovascular diseases].

The ELISA test was performed on sera of normal donors and patients with myocardial infarction (MI) and essential hypertension (EH) to detect autoantibodies against prostaglandin F2 alpha (a-PGF2 alpha). The a-PGF2 alpha level was much higher after immune complexes dissociation. Baseline a-PGF2 alpha was elevated in EH patients with a sudden rise in blood pressure, and in MI patients without hypertension and unstable angina.

[Humoral autoimmune reactions directed against autoantigens of the H-2 histocompatibility system in mice with developing Rauscher leukemia].

Antibodies exhibiting a selective anti-H-2 haplotype reaction with thymic and splenic lymphocytes of intact mice were found in the sera of mice of the strains BALB/c, C57Bl/6, AKR and BDF1 with the developing Rauscher leukemia by applying the membrane immunofluorescent and complement-dependent cytotoxicity techniques in vitro. Monoclonal antibodies against H-2 IAd and H-2 IAk and sorption tests using lymphocytes of the congenic-resistant strains as target cells were used to show that the aforementioned antibodies acted against autoantigens which are the products of the genes of the I-subregion of the H-2 histocompatibility complex.

[Autogenic anti-idiotypic suppression of autoimmune reactions--a new approach to immunotherapy of experimental leukemia].

Experimental Rauscher's virus erythroleukemia (RVE) was employed to study the immunologic mechanisms by which leukemia develops. Experiments were performed on inbred mice, genetically opposite to the disease induction, namely on highly sensitive BALB/c, resistant C57BL/6 and moderately sensitive BDFI animals. It is shown that RVE resistance is an immunologic phenomenon that results from the functioning of the antileukemic immune defence (ALID) aimed against the tumor-specific antigenic complex.