Psychology

The relative power of the hippocampal theta-band ( approximately 6 Hz) activity (theta ratio) is thought to reflect a distinct neural state and has been shown to affect learning rate in classical eyeblink conditioning in rabbits. We sought to determine if the theta ratio is mostly related to the detection of the contingency between the stimuli used in conditioning or also to the learning of more complex inhibitory associations when a highly demanding delay discrimination-reversal eyeblink conditioning paradigm is used. A high hippocampal theta ratio was not only associated with a fast increase in conditioned responding in general but also correlated with slow emergence of discriminative responding due to sustained responding to the conditioned stimulus not paired with an unconditioned stimulus. The results indicate that the neural state reflected by the hippocampal theta ratio is specifically linked to forming associations between stimuli rather than to the learning of inhibitory associations needed for successful discrimination. This is in line with the view that the hippocampus is responsible for contingency detection in the early phase of learning in eyeblink conditioning.

There are at least two distinct oscillatory states of the hippocampus that are related to distinct behavioral patterns. Theta (4-12 Hz) oscillation has been suggested to indicate selective attention during which the animal concentrates on some features of the environment while suppressing reactivity to others. In contrast, sharp-wave ripples ( approximately 200 Hz) can be seen in a state in which the hippocampus is at its most responsive to any kind of afferent stimulation. In addition, external stimulation tends to evoke and reset theta oscillation, the phase of which has been shown to modulate synaptic plasticity in the hippocampus. Theoretically, training on a hippocampus-dependent learning task contingent upon ripples could enhance learning rate due to elevated responsiveness and enhanced phase locking of the theta oscillation. We used a brain-computer interface to detect hippocampal ripples in rabbits to deliver trace eyeblink conditioning and extinction trials selectively contingent upon them. A yoked control group was trained regardless of their ongoing neural state. Ripple-contingent training expedited acquisition of the conditioned response early in training and evoked stronger theta-band phase locking to the conditioned stimulus. Surprisingly, ripple-contingent training also resulted in slower extinction in well trained animals. We suggest that the ongoing oscillatory activity in the hippocampus determines the extent to which a stimulus can induce a phase reset of the theta oscillation, which in turn is the determining factor of learning rate in trace eyeblink conditioning.

Chemotherapy, especially if prolonged, disrupts attention, working memory and speed of processing in humans. Most cancer drugs that cross the blood-brain barrier also decrease adult neurogenesis. Because new neurons are generated in the hippocampus, this decrease may contribute to the deficits in working memory and related thought processes. The neurophysiological mechanisms that underlie these deficits are generally unknown. A possible mediator is hippocampal oscillatory activity within the theta range (3-12 Hz). Theta activity predicts and promotes efficient learning in healthy animals and humans. Here, we hypothesised that chemotherapy disrupts learning via decreases in hippocampal adult neurogenesis and theta activity. Temozolomide was administered to adult male Sprague-Dawley rats in a cyclic manner for several weeks. Treatment was followed by training with different types of eyeblink classical conditioning, a form of associative learning. Chemotherapy reduced both neurogenesis and endogenous theta activity, as well as disrupted learning and related theta-band responses to the conditioned stimulus. The detrimental effects of temozolomide only occurred after several weeks of treatment, and only on a task that requires the association of events across a temporal gap and not during training with temporally overlapping stimuli. Chemotherapy did not disrupt the memory for previously learned associations, a memory independent of (new neurons in) the hippocampus. In conclusion, prolonged systemic chemotherapy is associated with a decrease in hippocampal adult neurogenesis and theta activity that may explain the selective deficits in processes of learning that describe the 'chemobrain'.

Animals in the natural world continuously encounter learning experiences of varying degrees of novelty. New neurons in the hippocampus are especially responsive to learning associations between novel events and more cells survive if a novel and challenging task is learned. One might wonder whether new neurons would be rescued from death upon each new learning experience or whether there is an internal control system that limits the number of cells that are retained as a function of learning. In this experiment, it was hypothesized that learning a task that was similar in content to one already learned previously would not increase cell survival. We further hypothesized that in situations in which the cells are rescued hippocampal theta oscillations (3-12 Hz) would be involved and perhaps necessary for increasing cell survival. Both hypotheses were disproved. Adult male Sprague-Dawley rats were trained on two similar hippocampus-dependent tasks, trace and very-long delay eyeblink conditioning, while recording hippocampal local-field potentials. Cells that were generated after training on the first task were labeled with bromodeoxyuridine and quantified after training on both tasks had ceased. Spontaneous theta activity predicted performance on the first task and the conditioned stimulus induced a theta-band response early in learning the first task. As expected, performance on the first task correlated with performance on the second task. However, theta activity did not increase during training on the second task, even though more cells were present in animals that had learned. Therefore, as long as learning occurs, relatively small changes in the environment are sufficient to increase the number of surviving neurons in the adult hippocampus and they can do so in the absence of an increase in theta activity. In conclusion, these data argue against an upper limit on the number of neurons that can be rescued from death by learning.

Any occasional changes in the acoustic environment are of potential importance for survival. In humans, the preattentive detection of such changes generates the mismatch negativity (MMN) component of event-related brain potentials. MMN is elicited to rare changes ('deviants') in a series of otherwise regularly repeating stimuli ('standards'). Deviant stimuli are detected on the basis of a neural comparison process between the input from the current stimulus and the sensory memory trace of the standard stimuli. It is, however, unclear to what extent animals show a similar comparison process in response to auditory changes. To resolve this issue, epidural potentials were recorded above the primary auditory cortex of urethaneanesthetized rats. In an oddball condition, tone frequency was used to differentiate deviants interspersed randomly among a standard tone. Mismatch responses were observed at 60-100 ms after stimulus onset for frequency increases of 5% and 12.5% but not for similarly descending deviants. The response diminished when the silent inter-stimulus interval was increased from 375 ms to 600 ms for +5% deviants and from 600 ms to 1000 ms for +12.5% deviants. In comparison to the oddball condition the response also diminished in a control condition in which no repetitive standards were presented (equiprobable condition). These findings suggest that the rat mismatch response is similar to the human MMN and indicate that anesthetized rats provide a valuable model for studies of central auditory processing.

The presence of new neurons in the adult hippocampus indicates that this structure incorporates new neurons into its circuitry and uses them for some function related to learning and/or related thought processes. Their generation depends on a variety of factors ranging from age to aerobic exercise to sexual behavior to alcohol consumption. However, most of the cells will die unless the animal engages in some kind of effortful learning experience when the cells are about one week of age. If learning does occur, the new cells become incorporated into brain circuits used for learning. In turn, some processes of learning and mental activity appear to depend on their presence. In this review, we discuss the now rather extensive literature showing that new neurons are kept alive by effortful learning, a process that involves concentration in the present moment of experience over some extended period of time. As these thought processes occur, endogenous patterns of rhythmic electrophysiological activity engage the new cells with cell networks that already exist in the hippocampus and at efferent locations. Concurrent and synchronous activity provides a mechanism whereby the new neurons become integrated with the other neurons. This integration allows the present experience to become integrated with memories from the recent past in order to learn and predict when events will occur in the near future. In this way, neurogenesis and learning interact to maintain a fit brain.

Understanding speech is based on neural representations of individual speech sounds. In humans, such representations are capable of supporting an automatic and memory-based mechanism for auditory change detection, as reflected by the mismatch negativity (MMN) of event-related potentials. There are also findings of neural representations of speech sounds in animals, but it is not known whether these representations can support the change detection mechanism analogous to that underlying the MMN in humans. To this end, we presented synthesized spoken syllables to urethane-anesthetized rats while local field potentials were epidurally recorded above their primary auditory cortex. In an oddball condition, a deviant stimulus /ga/ or /ba/ (probability 1:12 for each) was rarely and randomly interspersed between frequently presented standard stimulus /da/ (probability 10:12). In an equiprobable condition, 12 syllables, including /da/, /ga/, and /ba/, were presented in a random order (probability 1:12 for each). We found evoked responses of higher amplitude to the deviant /ba/, albeit not to /ga/, relative to the standard /da/ in the oddball condition. Furthermore, the responses to /ba/ were higher in amplitude in the oddball condition than in the equiprobable condition. The findings suggest that anesthetized rat's brain can form representations of human speech sounds, and that these representations can support the memory-based change detection mechanism analogous to that underlying the MMN in humans. Our findings show a striking parallel in speech processing between humans and rodents and may thus pave the way for feasible animal models of memory-based change detection.

Understanding speech is based on neural representations of individual speech sounds. In humans, such representations are capable of supporting an automatic and memory-based mechanism for auditory change detection, as reflected by the mismatch negativity (MMN) of event-related potentials. There are also findings of neural representations of speech sounds in animals, but it is not known whether these representations can support the change detection mechanism analogous to that underlying the MMN in humans. To this end, we presented synthesized spoken syllables to urethane-anesthetized rats while local field potentials were epidurally recorded above their primary auditory cortex. In an oddball condition, a deviant stimulus /ga / or /ba / (probability 1:12 for each) was rarely and randomly interspersed between frequently presented standard stimulus /da / (probability 10:12). In an equiprobable condition, 12 syllables, including /da/, /ga/, and /ba/, were presented in a random order (prob...

The purpose of this study was to describe the experience of workplace bullying when the bully is one's supervisor. Workplace bullying was understood to exist as meaning relations in human consciousness and therefore analysis was carried out with phenomenological research orientation. The aim of the study was to describe the entity of the experience of workplace bullying as it appears and to search those meaning units that were shared: mutually experienced. The material of this study was the writings of subjectively experienced workplace bullying by their supervisors. The writings were analysed applying Perttula's phenomenological psychology method and the analysis process was carried out in two parts. Through the first part the analysis proceeded at individual level while the second part proceeded at common level. As the results, one common meaning structure of workplace bullying was constituted, that is the essence of the phenomenon. This can be perceived by four specific core meanings that were: a) the treatment provided by the supervisor, b) social context and community bullying, c) getting help and the ending of the bullying, and d) emotional condition, self – esteem and health. The experiences of workplace bullying were perceived as a " continuum of meaning units ". Results of the common entity of the experience indicated a figure of a psychological trauma that is caused by being bullied by one's supervisor. This study found that the experience of workplace bullying is strongly connected to the social context where it appears and that experienced workplace bullying can also be communal in the way that there are several perpetrators. These results can be utilized to help those who have experienced workplace bullying and further on in practical work with work communities and in research work.

Entrainment and its perturbation in the auditory cortex of the rat: phase and frequency modulations Author: Anu Karvonen Supervisor: Markku Penttonen Master's Thesis in psychology University of Jyväskylä September 2010 48 pages Objective of the present study was to build oscillatory entrainment in the auditory cortex of the rat and perturb it selectively. There is hardly any previous research on entrainment so the study was of exploratory nature and a unique experimental design was used. Local field potentials (LFPs) were measured from a total of fifteen urethane-anesthetized rats via an extracellular microelectrode placed over the dura. In the four main experiments 2,5 Hz entrainment was created with tone trains of nine stimuli, the entraining frequency of the tone being 4000 Hz and the perturbation frequency of the tone being 4500 Hz. Perturbation was always in the eight tone of the tone train, in which the phase and/or frequency of the tone was changed. Also jitter in the entraining frequency and single tone experiments were studied. It was noted that the rat can be either in a so called up & down or complex state during the measuring, from which the complex state is the preferred state for analyzing response differences.

In this single-case study, we focus on how to have a dialogue in a research interview with a child whose parent has been diagnosed with a mental disorder. The interactional context and the interviewer's role in co-constructing the child's accounts have been largely neglected in the qualitative psychological research on this subject. Stigma related to mental disorders is increasingly being recognized as a central issue for the entire mental health field. It is considered to have far-reaching effects on the social interaction of the stigmatized person and also to contaminate the interactions of those around that person. We examine how the stigma of a parental mental disorder arises and is negotiated in the dialogue between an 8-year-old girl and a female interviewer. The perspective of the study is micro-sociological and constructionist. Three categories of the child's talk were identified: actively describing her position and voice in the ongoing dialogue, normalization of the parental problem and herself, and talking about shame and embarrassment.

This study concerned the meanings given by one integrative
psychotherapist to the practice of psychotherapy and her implicit theory-in-use as expressed in her spontaneous
thinking concerning the casework in sessions. The methodological approach used was autoethnography and the psychotherapist was in the dual role of researcher and participant. The research data consisted
of free-form short texts, which the therapist had written
immediately after the therapy session. The data was analyzed
using category analysis. In the re-constructed theory-in-use
of the participant, psychotherapy was seen as a process where
the therapist at the same time reflected the client’s problems,
collected evidence for herself, settled in a relationship with the
client and evaluated the results of psychotherapy. The implicit
categorization used by the therapist-participant was viewed as
a meta-theoretical approach to and a common factor element
of psychotherapy.

Keywords: psychotherapy, theory-in-use, common factors,
autoethnography, category analysis, therapists’ spontaneous thinking

Abstract The public service as coaching service. A comparison between Finland and Italy
In "Desiderio e Consapevolezza. Fondamenti e fenomenologia del coaching.
Edited by Federica Bergamino, settembre 2014, EDUSC, MCENotes, Roma
Address correspondence to Marco Braghero, Ph.D. Researcher Department of Psychology, University of Jyväskylä P.O.Box 35, FIN – 40351 Jyvaeskylae, Finland; e-mail: [email protected] - [email protected]  - [email protected] – University of Jyväskylä – University of SSF Rebaudengo Torino

The research investigates how the dialogical approach and coaching can help to transform the public service into a coaching service for users, and how this approach to public service can be a social innovation.
The contribution briefly describes the Finnish experience of the past decade in some municipalities (particularly in the municipalities of pilot Nurmijarvi and Rovaniemi ) in the public service who practice a “ coaching service dialogic “ through the experience of the Dialogues Open – Open Dialogue , the cooperation Open Early – Early Open cooperation , and in particular on the on – Dialogues Dialogues from the future or anticipatory. (TE Seikkula 1993 2002; Arnkil , Seikkula , 2003, 2013) .
It also discusses the widespread dialogical experience of coaching in organizations. From these experiences comes this search .
The public service as coaching service dialogic , in an ‘ analysis and comparison of Finnish and Italian reality ( Rovaniemi and Nurmijarvi , Garbagnate Milanese – Agency Towns The public service as a coaching service. The dialogical approach of coaching to support the governance of local networks. A comparison between Finland and Italy Together, VI District Municipality of Turin). The research explores how public services especially the “public services to the person“ educational, social and health services, can be transformed into “coaching services“ ( Bachirova 2007, Stelter 2009, Cox, Bachkirova, Clutterbuck 2010, ).
A proposed innovation for social change, in which the dialogical approach (Buber 1993; Bakthin  1981, 1984, 1993) and Coaching may prove to be strategic, in order to improve the governance of social networks (Braghero 2012, 2012 Folgheraiter) the quality of services to individuals and citizen participation.
The research is conducted by the Department of Psychology, University of Jyvaskyla ( Fin) in collaboration with the Department of Psychology of SSF Rebaudengo the Salesian Pontifical University (UPS ) Turin, of the ‘ International Coaching Federation – ICF Italy & Finland . The methods used are, open interviews like “Dialogical Methods for Investigations of Happening of Change“ (Seikkula 2011), “Narrative Process Coding System” (Laitila, Aaltonen, Wahlström, Angus, 2001) Focus Groups ( Markova 2007), coaching sessions, Team and group coaching, Peer coaching.

Keywords: Public service, dialogue, coaching, social innovation, governance, social networks, change, exotopia

Summary:
1. Context
2. Integrated Dialogical Approach to IDAC Coaching
2. The Finnish experience
3. The research project
4. Conclusions: Social innovation in the public sector
Supervisors:
Prof . Jaakko Seikkula from Jyvaskyla - University of Finland; Prof . Tom Erik Arnkil from the Finnish Research Institute for Health and Welfare.
Advisors and supervisors:
Prof. Alessio Rocchi from Rebaudengo Univeristy in Turin, Italy; international advisor:
Prof. Alicia Cabezudo Rosario Argentina University– Bureau International Peace – IPB V.  Pres.
Researcher: Marco Braghero Jyvaskyla University of Finland
Research Staff: Marta Bosi, Lorenzo Cabodi Gatti, Anna Carretta, Nicoletta Foresti, Cinzia Lombardi, Nina Saarineen;
ICF Italy President: Enrico Illuminati
Past President: Massimiliano Cardani
Coach: Daniela Avignolo - Tania Cariani – Giorgia Franceschini – Annarita Galanto Marco Malvezzi - Eleonora Materazzini