Institute of Psychology,Chinese Academy Of Sciences
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THE BRIEF IMPLICIT ASSOCIATION TEST IS VALID: EXPERIMENTAL EVIDENCE
No full textAs a new variant of Implicit Association Test (IAT; Greenwald, McGhee, & Schwartz, 1998), the Brief Implicit Association Test (BIAT; Sriram & Greenwald, 2009) has been shown to be useful in predicting various behaviors. This research aims to examine experimental validity of the BIAT. Two experiments were conducted. Experiment 1 demonstrated that the BIAT was sensitive to implicit favoritism toward and identification with a newly established ingroup by memorization procedure, a minimal group induction procedure (Pinter & Greenwald, 2011). Experiment 2 showed that the BIAT was responsive to the threat effect on intergroup attitudes and further predictive of resultant intention to boycott outgroup. Moreover, mediation analysis showed that the change in implicit favoritism revealed by BIAT partially explained changes in the intention to boycott. These findings suggest that B IAT is not only sensitive to newly formed associations but also to the change of an existing association
Okadaic acid blocks the effects of 5-aza-2-deoxycytidine on consolidation, acquisition and retrieval of morphine-induced place preference in rats
No full textRecent studies indicated that epigenetic modification, especially DNA methylation, play an important role in the persistence of addiction-related memory. 5-aza-2-deoxycytidine (5-aza), an inhibitor of DNA methyltransferases, was approved for clinical treatment. However, it is not clear whether 5-aza is involved in opiate addiction. In this study, using the morphine-induced conditioned place preference (mCPP) model in rats, we injected 5-aza into hippocampus (CA1) and prelimbic cortex (PL), and tested the behavioral consequences at various stages of consolidation, acquisition and retrieval. Moreover, to test whether protein phosphatase regulates the effects of 5-aza, protein phosphatase (PP) 1/2A inhibitor okadaic acid (OA) was infused before 5-aza injection. We found that 5-aza injection into CA1 but not into PL significantly attenuated the consolidation and acquisition of mCPP, however, the inhibition of DNA methylation in PL but not in CA1 enhanced the retrieval of mCPP. All these behavioral effects were absent when OA was infused before 5-aza injection. These findings suggest that 5-aza interfere opiate-related memory, and protein phosphatase plays an important role in this process. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved
A Sketch-Based Approach for Interactive Organization of Video Clips
No full textWith the rapid growth of video resources, techniques for efficient organization of video clips are becoming appealing in the multimedia domain. In this article, a sketch-based approach is proposed to intuitively organize video clips by: (1) enhancing their narrations using sketch annotations and (2) structurizing the organization process by gesture-based free-form sketching on touch devices. There are two main contributions of this work. The first is a sketch graph, a novel representation for the narrative structure of video clips to facilitate content organization. The second is a method to perform context-aware sketch recommendation scalable to large video collections, enabling common users to easily organize sketch annotations. A prototype system integrating the proposed approach was evaluated on the basis of five different aspects concerning its performance and usability. Two sketch searching experiments showed that the proposed context-aware sketch recommendation outperforms, in terms of accuracy and scalability, two state-of-the-art sketch searching methods. Moreover, a user study showed that the sketch graph is consistently preferred over traditional representations such as keywords and keyframes. The second user study showed that the proposed approach is applicable in those scenarios where the video annotator and organizer were the same person. The third user study showed that, for video content organization, using sketch graph users took on average 1/3 less time than using a mass-market tool Movie Maker and took on average 1/4 less time than using a state-of-the-art sketch alternative. These results demonstrated that the proposed sketch graph approach is a promising video organization tool
Orexins (hypocretins) contribute to fear and avoidance in rats exposed to a single episode of footshocks
No full textOrexins (hypocretins) are peptides that have been shown to regulate behavioral arousal and wakefulness. Recent evidence indicates that orexin neurons are activated by stress and that orexins play a role in anxiety. The present paper describes a series of experiments that examined whether orexins are involved in the anxiety that resulted from exposing rats to an acute episode of footshocks (5 x 2 s of 1.5 mA shocks). We found that prepro-orexin (ppOX) mRNA was elevated in rats at 6 and 14 days after exposure to footshock and that ppOX mRNA levels were correlated with fear at 14 days post-shock. Systemic injections of the non-selective dual orexin receptor antagonist TCS-1102 (10 and 20 mg/kg, i.p.) were found to decrease fear and anxiety in rats 14 days after exposure to footshock. We also found that rats that exhibited a high level of immobility to a novel tone the day after the footshock episode (high responders, HR) showed significantly elevated levels of ppOX mRNA at 14 days post-shock compared to control rats. Furthermore, TCS-1102 (10 mg/kg, i.p.) was found to have anxiolytic effects that were specific for HR when tested in the elevated T-maze. This study provides evidence linking the orexin system to the anxiety produced by exposure of rats to a single episode of footshocks. It also provides preclinical evidence in support of the use of orexin antagonists for the treatment of anxiety in response to an acute episode of stress
The effect of discourse structure on depth of semantic integration in reading
No full textA coherent discourse exhibits certain structures in that subunits of discourses are related to one another in various ways and in that subunits that contribute to the same discourse purpose are joined to create a larger unit so as to produce an effect on the reader. To date, this crucial aspect of discourse has been largely neglected in the psycholinguistic literature. In two experiments, we examined whether semantic integration in discourse context was influenced by the difference of discourse structure. Readers read discourses in which the last sentence was locally congruent but either semantically congruent or incongruent when interpreted with the preceding sentence. Furthermore, the last sentence was either in the same discourse unit or not in the same discourse unit as the preceding sentence, depending on whether they shared the same discourse purpose. Results from self-paced reading (Experiment 1) and eye tracking (Experiment 2) showed that discourse-incongruous words were read longer than discourse-congruous words only when the critical sentence and the preceding sentence were in the same discourse unit, but not when they belonged to different discourse units. These results establish discourse structure as a new factor in semantic integration and suggest that discourse effects depend both on the content of what is being said and on the way that the contents are organized
Ingestion of Lactobacillus strain reduces anxiety and improves cognitive function in the hyperammonemia rat
No full textEvidence suggests that the hyperammonemia (HA)-induced neuroinflammation and alterations in the serotonin (5-HT) system may contribute to cognitive decline and anxiety disorder during hepatic encephalopathy (HE). Probiotics that maintain immune system homeostasis and regulate the 5-HT system may be potential treatment for HA-mediated neurological disorders in HE. In this study, we tested the efficacy of probiotic Lactobacillus helveticus strain NS8 in preventing cognitive decline and anxiety-like behavior in HA rats. Chronic HA was induced by intraperitoneal injection of ammonium acetate for four weeks in male Sprague-Dawley rats. HA rats were then given Lactobacillus helveticus strain NS8 (10(9) CFU mL(-1)) in drinking water as a daily supplementation. The Morris water maze task assessed cognitive function, and the elevated plus maze test evaluated anxiety-like behavior. Neuroinflammation was assessed by measuring the inflammatory markers: inducible nitric oxide synthase, prostaglandin E2, and interleukin-1 beta in the brain. 5-HT system activity was evaluated by measuring 5-HT and its metabolite, 5-HIAA, and the 5-HT precursor, tryptophan. Probiotic treatment of HA rats significantly reduced the level of inflammatory markers, decreased 5-HT metabolism, restored cognitive function and improved anxiety-like behavior. These results indicate that probiotic L. helveticus strain NS8 is beneficial for the treatment of cognitive decline and anxiety-like behavior in HA rats
The external noise normalized gain profile of spatial vision
No full textThe contrast sensitivity function (CSF), a measure of visual sensitivity to a wide range of spatial frequencies, has been widely used as the gain profile of the front-end filter of the visual system to predict how we perceive spatial patterns. However, the CSF itself is determined by the gain profile and other processing inefficiencies of the visual system; it may be problematic to use the CSF as the gain profile in observer models. Here, we applied the external noise paradigm and the perceptual template model (PTM) to characterize several major properties of the visual system. With the external noise normalized gain profile, nonlinearity, and internal additive and multiplicative noises, the PTM accounted for 92.8% of the variance in the experiment data measured in a wide range of conditions and revealed the major processing components that determine the CSF. Unlike the CSF, the external noise normalized gain profile of the visual system is relatively flat across a wide range of spatial frequencies. The results may have major implications for understanding normal and abnormal spatial vision
Conservation combats exploitation: Choices within an evolutionary framework
No full textIntentional change when viewed as making a risky or intertemporal choice with evolutionary relevance helps us understand its successes and its failures. To promote future-oriented ecological rationality requires establishing a linkage between nongenetic, cultural, and symbolic selections and genetic adaptations. Coupled with biophilic instinct, intentional conservation is more likely to prevail against evolved desires of environmental exploitation
The Relationship between Recent Stressful Life Events, Personality Traits, Perceived Family Functioning and Internet Addiction among College Students
No full textInternet addiction (IA) is an emerging social and mental health issue among youths. Analysis of risk factors, as well as their interactions, is crucial for understanding the development of IA. This study investigated the relationship between recent stressful life events, personality traits, perceived family functioning and IA in 892 college students. Subjects were classified into categories (non-addicted, mild IA or severe IA) using the Chen Internet Addiction Scale. Stressful life events, personality traits and family functioning were assessed using the Adolescent Self-Rating Life Events Checklist, the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire, and the Family Adaptability and Cohesion Scale, respectively. The results indicated that compared with non-addicted subjects, subjects with severe IA (9.98%) had lower family functioning, lower extraversion, higher neuroticism and psychoticism, and more stressful life events, and subjects with mild IA (11.21%) had higher neuroticism and more health and adaptation problems. Neuroticism and health and adaptation problems were potential predictors of IA. An interaction effect between psychoticism and total life stress on IA was also found. These findings highlight the role of personality traits and life stress and their interactions in college students' IA. Further research should explore the mechanisms underlying the interaction effect of psychoticism with life stress on IA. Copyright (c) 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd
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