Improving the Quality of Life of Persons with Intellectual Disabilities Through ICTs.

Removing barriers to accessing Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) by Persons with Intellectual Disabilities (IDPs) is crucial. Being excluded from ICTs implies being shut down from the information society, but also from accessing essential public services, as well as from the opportunity of living an independent life. The IdICT project has the general objective of increasing the competences of IDPs, their families and the professionals that work with them to exploit ICTs with a Quality of Life approach.

Association of prenatal phenobarbital and phenytoin exposure with genital anomalies and menstrual disorders.

Background: Animal studies demonstrated that early exposure to phenobarbital decreases reproductive function. This study investigates whether prenatal exposure to these anticonvulsants affects human genital tract development.

Methods: Genital anomalies at birth were studied retrospectively in 90 phenobarbital-exposed, 108 phenobarbital plus phenytoin-exposed, and 198 matched control infants.

Association of prenatal phenobarbital and phenytoin exposure with small head size at birth and with learning problems.

Unlabelled: Small head size has been observed in prenatally anticonvulsant-exposed neonates. In infancy, cognitive impairments were revealed. It is presently unknown whether these impairments are permanent or disappear after puberty.

Prenatal exposure to anticonvulsant drugs and spatial ability in adulthood.

By disturbing steroid hormone balances in the fetus, the anticonvulsant drugs phenobarbital and phenytoin may affect certain aspects of cognitive functioning. In order to test this hypothesis, we studied hormone related cognitive functioning in 72 men and 75 women who had been prenatally exposed to these drugs and equal numbers of matched control subjects. The groups did not differ on word fluency, dichotic listening and a Water Level Test.

Psychoendocrinological assessment of the menstrual cycle: the relationship between hormones, sexuality, and mood.

The role of sex hormones in sexuality and mood across the menstrual cycle was investigated. Twenty-one normal health women were followed for one menstrual cycle. Blood samples were taken frequently, and analyzed for estradiol, progesterone, testosterone, androstenedione, dehydroepiandrosterone sulfate, cortisol, and sex hormone-binding globulin.

The premenstrual phase and reactions to aversive events: a study of hormonal influences on emotionality.

Fifty-eight normal cycle, healthy women were confronted with an aversive, anger-provoking situation in the laboratory. Eighteen women were tested in their follicular phase. A further 40 women were tested in the premenstrual phase, half of whom reported suffering from complaints of premenstrual emotional lability and irritation, the other half reported being without premenstrual problems.

Gender differences in behaviour: activating effects of cross-sex hormones.

The relative contribution of organizing and activating effects of sex hormones to the establishment of gender differences in behaviour is still unclear. In a group of 35 female-to-male transsexuals and a group of 15 male-to-female transsexuals a large battery of tests on aggression, sexual motivation and cognitive functioning was administered twice: shortly before and three months after the start of cross-sex hormone treatment. The administration of androgens to females was clearly associated with an increase in aggression proneness, sexual arousability and spatial ability performance.

Studies on long-lasting consequences of prenatal exposure to anticonvulsant drugs.

Based on neonatal examination at birth, it has been estimated that epileptic women have a 2-3 times greater risk of giving birth to an infant with congenital anomalies. But anticonvulsant drugs may also have more subtle influences on the developing foetus which are not visible at birth but only emerge later in life. Evidence for these functional teratogenic influences has been provided by animal research and follow-up studies in young children.

Activating effects of androgens on cognitive performance: causal evidence in a group of female-to-male transsexuals.

It is still unclear whether sex differences in cognitive functioning are mainly due to perinatal organizing effects of sex hormones on the brain, or to activating effects in adulthood. In a group of 22 female-to-male transsexuals a battery of visuospatial and verbal ability tests was administered twice: shortly before and 3 months after the start of androgen treatment. The administering of androgens was clearly associated with an increase in spatial ability performance.

SDN-POA volume, sexual behavior, and partner preference of male rats affected by perinatal treatment with ATD.

The present study investigated 1) the importance of the aromatization process during the perinatal period for the development of the sexually dimorphic nucleus in the preoptic area of the hypothalamus (SDN-POA) of male rats, and 2) the relationship between SDN-POA volume and parameters of masculinization in male rats that were treated perinatally with the aromatase-inhibitor ATD. Males were treated with ATD either prenatally or pre- and neonatally, or with the vehicle. Masculine sexual behavior and partner preference were investigated in adulthood.

Sex-dependent effects of restraint on nociception and pituitary-adrenal hormones in the rat.

The sex-dependent effects of acute restraint (RT) on nociceptive and pituitary-adrenal responses were investigated in the rat. In a first experiment, the effect of 30 min RT on pain sensitivity was evaluated through repeated use of the tail withdrawal test during and after treatment. RT induced an increase in the nociceptive threshold, i.

Cerebral glucose utilization during conditioned sexual arousal.

Local cerebral glucose utilization was investigated in male rats during conditioned sexual arousal. Increased glucose utilization was found in three amygdaloid nuclei after exposure to a stimulus associated with exposure to a sexually active female. No changes were observed in areas known to be of crucial importance for the expression of consummatory aspects of sexual behavior.

Intracerebroventricular LHRH may serve as a discriminative stimulus in male rats.

Male Wistar rats (N = 16) were trained to discriminate 5 micrograms/kg LHRH, injected intraperitoneally, from saline in a two-lever, food-reinforced drug discrimination procedure, with an injection-session interval of 45 min. Reliable discrimination of LHRH was acquired within 60 training sessions. Subsequent generalization tests in brain-cannulated animals showed dose-dependent and time-related partial substitution of intracerebroventricular LHRH for intraperitoneal LHRH (ventricle doses ranged from 25-400 ng, and the injection-session intervals ranged from 10-40 min).

Testosterone as appetitive and discriminative stimulus in rats: sex- and dose-dependent effects.

Stimulus properties of subcutaneously injected testosterone were studied in male and female rats. In a conditioned place preference procedure, dose-dependent effects (doses: 0, 0.5, and 1 mg/kg) were observed in males.

Changes in male copulatory behavior after sexual exciting stimuli: effects of medial amygdala lesions.

A paradigm was developed to investigate how precoital sexual arousal affects parameters of sexual behavior in male rats. Estrous females in a wire mesh cage were used to induce sexual arousal before the sexual interaction test. In control procedures, males were presented in a wire mesh cage or else there was no stimuli at all.

Temporal characteristics of appetitive stimulus effects of luteinizing hormone-releasing hormone in male rats.

Conditioned place preference, induced by intraperitoneal injections of 5 micrograms/kg luteinizing hormone-releasing hormone (LHRH), was studied by varying the interval between the injection of LHRH and the conditioning sessions. Place preference was investigated for five presession intervals (0, 15, 45, 75, and 120 min) in separate groups of gonadectomized male rats provided with a subcutaneous testosterone implant. It was shown that the presession interval is an important parameter in the development of LHRH-induced conditioned place preference.

Dose-dependent and time-related stimulus properties of LHRH in male but not in female rats.

Male and female rats (N = 32) were trained to discriminate 5 micrograms/kg LHRH from saline in a two-lever, food-reinforced drug discrimination procedure with injection-session intervals of 15 min or 45 min. When the interval was 15 min, neither males nor females were able to discriminate the stimulus conditions. With an interval of 45 min, LHRH showed sex-dependent stimulus properties.

Hypothalamic involvement in sexuality and hostility: comparative psychological aspects.

Evidence presented in this article shows the representation of sexual and aggressive behaviors at the level of the hypothalamus to be more prominent than in all other brain areas involved. Indeed, there are good arguments to attribute a central position to the hypothalamus within larger structural systems encompassing the limbic system, where aspects of the behaviors involved can be influenced. So far, however, the arguments are purely descriptive and factual and do not contribute much to answering questions about hypothalamic function: the grounds for and consequences of this massive representation of apparently almost all emotionally relevant social behavioral complexes, so universally established in a diversity of species, still has to be detected.

Discriminative stimulus properties of estradiol in male and female rats revealed by a taste-aversion procedure.

Gonadectomized male and female rats were trained to discriminate 50µg/kg estradiol-17B(E(2)) from its vehicle in a one-bottle forced-drinking discriminative taste-aversion procedure. The animals were injected SC with E(2) or arachidic oil, 60min prior to daily training sessions during which they had access to a saccharin (Sac) solution for 10min. Animals injected with E(2) prior to Sac-LiCl pairings and with arachidic oil prior to Sac-NaCl pairings acquired hormone discrimination, only suppressing Sac intake following the administration of E(2) and not following the administration of arachidic oil.

Estradiol-induced conditioned taste aversion and place aversion in rats: sex- and dose-dependent effects.

Effects of various doses (0-250 micrograms/kg, SC) of estradiol-17 beta (E2) in a two-bottle choice conditioned taste aversion and a two-compartment conditioned place preference procedure were studied in male and female rats. Dose-dependent taste aversion and place aversion effects of E2 were established, and the conditioned taste aversion procedure was found to be more sensitive in detecting aversive properties of E2 than the conditioned place preference procedure. Although aversive properties of E2 were found in both sexes, the effects were clearly more prominent in males as compared to females.

Controllable and uncontrollable footshock and monoaminergic activity in the frontal cortex of male and female rats.

Effects of controllable and uncontrollable footshock on monoaminergic activity in the frontal cortex and plasma corticosterone levels were studied in male and female rats. Subjects were exposed to a shuttle-box procedure for a period of either 30 min (60 shocks) or 90 min (180 shocks). A shuttle response ended shock presentation for escape subjects, whereas their yoked, same-sex, counterparts were unable to escape from shock presentation.

Sex differences in the behavioral consequences of inescapable footshocks depend on time since shock.

In two experiments, the effects of inescapable shock on subsequent shuttle-box escape performance were studied in male and female rats. Effects of treatment with short-duration shocks (2 s) were studied after 1- and 24-hour intervals (Experiment 1), and effects of long-duration shocks (6 s) were studied after 24- and 72-hour intervals (Experiment 2). Experience with inescapable shock resulted in a serious disruption of escape performance in both males and females.

Sex- and time-dependent changes in neurochemical and hormonal variables induced by predictable and unpredictable footshock.

Previous experiments have revealed sex-dependent effects of inescapable shock in rats. Behavior of male rats was more severely disrupted by inescapable shock than behavior of female rats. These sex differences were found after 1- and 24-hour intervals but not after a 72-hour interval.