9 research outputs found
MDMA Increases Cooperation and Recruitment of Social Brain Areas When Playing Trustworthy Players in an Iterated Prisoner's Dilemma
No full textSocial decision-making is fundamental for successful functioning, and can be affected in psychiatric illness and by serotoninergic modulation. The Prisoner’s Dilemma (PD) is the archetypal paradigm to model cooperation and trust. However, the effect of serotonergic enhancement is poorly characterised, and its influence on the effect of variations in opponent behaviour unknown. To address this, we conducted a study investigating how the serotonergic enhancer MDMA modulates behaviour and its neural correlates during an iterated PD with both trustworthy and untrustworthy opponents.We administered 100mg MDMA or placebo to 20 male participants in a double-blind, placebo-controlled, crossover study. While being scanned, participants played repeated rounds with opponents who differed in levels of cooperation. On each round participants chose to compete or cooperate and were asked to rate their trust in the other player. Cooperation with trustworthy, but not untrustworthy, opponents was enhanced following MDMA but not placebo (respectively: OR=2.01 95% CI 1.42–2.84, p<0.001; OR=1.37 95% CI 0.78–2.30 n.s.). Specifically, MDMA enhanced recovery from, but not the impact of, breaches in cooperation. During trial outcome, MDMA increased activation of four clusters incorporating precentral and supramarginal gyri, superior temporal cortex, central operculum/posterior insula, and supplementary motor area. There was a treatment-by-opponent interaction in right anterior insula and dorsal caudate. Trust ratings did not change across treatment sessions. MDMA increased cooperative behaviour when playing trustworthy opponents. Underlying this was a change in brain activity of regions linked to social cognition. Our findings highlight the context-specific nature of MDMA’s effect on social decision-making.© 2020, The Author(s). This is an author produced version of a paper published in JOURNAL OF NEUROSCIENCE uploaded in accordance with the publisher’s self- archiving policy. The final published version (version of record) is available online at the link. Some minor differences between this version and the final published version may remain. We suggest you refer to the final published version should you wish to cite from it.</p
Receptor-Enriched Analysis of functional connectivity by targets (REACT): A novel, multimodal analytical approach informed by PET to study the pharmacodynamic response of the brain under MDMA
No full textOne of the main limitations of pharmacological fMRI is its inability to provide a molecular insight into the main effect of compounds, leaving an open question about the relationship between drug effects and haemodynamic response. The aim of this study is to investigate the acute effects of 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA) on functional connectivity (FC) using a novel multimodal method (Receptor-Enriched Analysis of functional Connectivity by Targets - REACT). This approach enriches the resting state (rs-)fMRI analysis with the molecular information about the distribution density of serotonin receptors in the brain, given the serotonergic action of MDMA. Twenty healthy subjects participated in this double-blind, placebo-controlled, crossover study. A high-resolution in vivo atlas of four serotonin receptors (5-HT 1A , 5-HT 1B , 5-HT 2A , and 5-HT 4 ) and its transporter (5-HTT) was used as a template in a two-step multivariate regression analysis to estimate the spatial maps reflecting the whole-brain connectivity behaviour related to each target under placebo and MDMA. Results showed that the networks exhibiting significant changes after MDMA administration are the ones informed by the 5-HTT and 5-HT 1A distribution density maps, which are the main targets of this compound. Changes in the 5-HT 1A -enriched functional maps were also associated with the pharmacokinetic levels of MDMA and MDMA-induced FC changes in the 5-HT 2A -enriched maps correlated with the spiritual experience subscale of the Altered States of Consciousness Questionnaire. By enriching the rs-fMRI analysis with molecular data of voxel-wise distribution of the serotonin receptors across the brain, we showed that MDMA effects on FC can be understood through the distribution of its main targets. This result supports the ability of this method to characterise the specificity of the functional response of the brain to MDMA binding to serotonergic receptors, paving the way to the definition of a new fingerprint in the characterization of new compounds and potentially to a further understanding to the response to treatment
The Deakinite myth exposed: other accounts of constitution-makers, constitutions and citizenship
No full textAs argued throughout this thesis, in his personification of the federal story, if not immediately in his formulation of its paternity, Deakin's unpublished memoirs anticipated the way that federation became codified in public memory. The long and tortuous process of federation was rendered intelligible by turning it into a narrative set around a series of key events. For coherence and dramatic momentum the narrative dwelt on the activities of, and words of, several notable figures. To explain the complex issues at stake it relied on memorable metaphors, images and descriptions.
Analyses of class, citizenship, or the industrial confrontations of the 1890s, are given little or no coverage in Deakinite accounts. Collectively, these accounts are told in the words of the victors, presented in the images of the victors, clothed in the prejudices and predilections of the victors, while the losers are largely excluded. Those who spoke out against or doubted the suitability of the constitution, for whatever reason, have largely been removed from the dominant accounts of constitution-making. More often than not they have been 'character assassinated' or held up to public ridicule by Alfred Deakin, the master narrator of the Conventions and federation movement and by his latter-day disciples. Those who opposed Deakin I have labelled anti-Deakinites.
To anti-Deakinites, the journey to federation was characterised by compromises and concessions that reflected or produced a series of exclusions (of individuals, groups and ideas) from Deakinite stories of federation, often for reasons of political exigency. They acknowledge that compromises had to be made in bringing about federation. Men with a national viewpoint they believe, often acquiesced to states' rights men whose primary interest was a good deal for their state or colony. Anti-Deakinites are critical of the heroes in Deakinite accounts (of the Ultra-Federalists) believing that these men would have federated any time after 1891 with an undemocratic and illiberal constitution.
Events that were to influence the course of Australian history took place during the 1880-90s. Yet the dominant accounts of constitution-making do not acknowledge the context within which the constitution was written. It is difficult denying that these must have influenced the Constitution-makers as they began their work in 1891. The central claim of my thesis is that many accounts of Australian constitution-making and federation have been selective in their descriptions of the events and the organisations and individuals involved, leading to the misrepresentation of these seminal episodes in Australian history. This misrepresentation has occurred as a consequence of the privileging of, what I label, the Deakinite account of constitution-making and federation over all others
The effect of intranasal oxytocin on neural response to facial emotions in healthy adults as measured by functional MRI: A systematic review
No full textAbnormalities in responses to human facial emotions are associated with a range of psychiatric disorders. Addressing these abnormalities may therefore have significant clinical applications. Previous meta-analyses have demonstrated effects of the neuropeptide oxytocin on behavioural response to facial emotions, and effects on brain, as measured by functional MRI. Evidence suggests that these effects may be mediated by sex and the role of eye gaze. However, the specific effect of oxytocin on brain response to facial emotions in healthy adults has not been systematically analysed. To address this question, this further systematic review was conducted. Twenty-two studies met our inclusion criteria. In men, oxytocin consistently attenuated brain activity in response to negative emotional faces, particularly fear, compared with placebo, while in women, oxytocin enhanced activity. Brain regions consistently involved included the amygdala, fusiform gyrus and anterior cingulate cortex. In some studies, oxytocin increased fixation changes towards the eyes with enhanced amygdala and/or fusiform gyrus activation. By enhancing understanding of emotion processing in healthy subjects, these pharmacoimaging studies provide a theoretical basis for studying deficits in clinical populations. However, progress to date has been limited by low statistical power, methodological heterogeneity, and a lack of multimodal studies
The Politics of the Idea of Partnership: From contemporary aid policy to local health governance in practice in Zambia
No full textThis thesis explores the idea of partnership in contemporary aid policy and practice. Drawing on a multi-disciplinary body of literature that is broadly ‘constructivist’ in orientation, and using the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, the health Sector-Wide Approach (SWAp) and the health sector in Zambia as case studies, the research uniquely explores how (and why) the idea of partnership is a pervasive feature in aid policy, and how this relates to and shapes local practice, including the practice of politics that this enjoins.
Drawing on textual analysis of policy documents and on qualitative field research conducted in Zambia between November 2008 and July 2009, the thesis provides a number of important and novel insights. Firstly, it shows how the idea of partnership began its contemporary life in the socio-political relations of aid institutions and in the context of an aid crisis in the 1990s. Secondly, it shows how the idea travelled ideationally and geographically, through an elite network of aid agency actors (cf. Mosse, 2007), eventually becoming an expected and symbolic motif of aid policy. Thirdly, the thesis suggests why partnership remains a pervasive policy idea; featuring in SWAp and Global Fund policy because it symbolically conceals the existence of different perspectives about the right relations of health and developmental governance. Fourthly, and at the same time, the thesis shows how partnership is dominantly constructed in aid policy in a depoliticised way – as a technical and economic way to organise action – due to the prevailing power of donor governments and aid agencies in the socio-political processes that produce aid policy and the context of inequality in which aid is governed. Finally, the thesis shows how the depoliticisation of policy is ‘unravelled’ in the health sector in Zambia as partnership is translated, in and through the politics of collaboration, contestation, and compromise (Mosse, 2007, p.2, 2005a p.645; Rossi, 2006; Bending and Rosendo, 2006). This shapes, contorts and constrains local health governance in diverse and unexpected ways
Piracy and counterfeiting: the freedom to copy vs. intellectual property rights.
No full textPhDSince 1980, many countries have passed new intellectual property laws, or
revised their laws. The same period witnessed the birth of more trade
associations which work to combat unauthorised copying. Nonetheless, it is
estimated that piracy and counterfeiting still account for about 5% of world
trade. National responses to piracy and counterfeiting are often determined by
how deeply local interests are affected either way. Since the intellectual
property repertoire of most developing economies is usually much smaller than
that of industrialised economies, the costs to the former and the loss to the
latter often polarise the globe into the strong advocates of the intellectual
property system and those who advocate a freedom to copy.
This thesis which focuses primarily on Nigeria and the UK, suggests that the
concept of intellectual property is not alien to developing economies because
many pre-literate societies had recognised and protected intangible rights which
bear some semblance to the intellectual property system. Now, irrespective of
any influence the system may have had on economic growth in any country,
intellectual property has assumed ever greater economic significance - as a
trade issue within the context of GATT. Any country wishing to benefit from
GATT must respect the intellectual property rights of others. Fears that an
intellectual property system makes possible the abuse of a monopoly (that may
be created by virtue of intellectual property rights) are not justifiable because
of various measures, including rules of competition or anti-trust that can be
used to check any abuse of monopoly.
The thesis attempts to categorise infringers, demonstrates the harm caused
and suggests additional new criteria for liability particularly for those in a quasifiduciary
relationship with right holders such as licensees, agents, employees
and former business associates. It highlights some of the difficulties involved
in criminalising intellectual property infringements and suggests improvements.
It examines issues like the suitability of criminal sanctions to the breach of
unregistered marks or patents, the relevance of presumptions, the onus of proof
of a guilty mind and private prosecution.
The thesis explores some of the substantive and procedural aspects of TRIPS,
reveals gaps which may cause problems and recommends changes. The
procedural issues discussed include: inspection and seizure orders, border
control measures, the privilege against self-incrimination, and the absence of
specific obligations to grant Mareva orders or create special procedures or
courts for intellectual property. TRIPS' standards for patents, trade marks and
copyright are addressed primarily in the light of the pharmaceutical and
computer software industries.
Irrespective of good laws, effective action can only be taken if right holders, law
enforcement agents, judges, governments, WIPO and the World Trade
Organisation demonstrate a positive response to the intellectual property cause
Clinical problems caused by obesity
No full textOver the past few decades the incidence of obesity has doubled worldwide and current
estimates classify more than 1.5 billion adults as overweight and at least 500 million of them as
clinically obese, with body mass index (BMI) over 25 kg/m2 and 30 kg/m2, respectively. Obesity
prevalence rates are steadily rising in the majority of the modern Western societies, as well as in the
developing world. Moreover, alarming trends of weight gain are reported for children and adolescents,
undermining the present and future health status of the pediatric population. To highlight the
related threat to public health, the World Health Organization has declared obesity a global epidemic,
also stressing that it remains an under-recognized problem of the public health agenda
