Biological Psychology

What is an emotion?'' William James's seminal paper in Mind (1884) proposed the idea that physiological and behavioral responses precede subjective experience in emotions that are marked by ''distinct bodily expression.'' This notion has broadly inspired the investigation of emotion-specific autonomic nervous system activity, a research topic with great longevity. The trajectory of this literature is traced through its major theoretical challenges from the Cannon-Bard, activation, and Schachter-Singer theories, through its rich empirical history in the field of psychophysiology. Although these studies are marked by various findings, the overall trend of the research supports the notion of autonomic specificity for basic emotions. The construct of autonomic specificity continues to influence a number of core theoretical issues in affective science, such as the existence of basic or 'natural kinds' of emotion, the structure of affective space, the cognition-emotion relationship, and the function of emotion. Moreover, James's classic paper, which stimulated the emergence of psychology from philosophy and physiology in the latter nineteenth century, remains a dynamic force in contemporary emotion research.

Aim: Early-onset schizophrenia (onset before adulthood) is a rare and severe form of the disorder that shows phenotypic and neurobiological continuity with adult-onset schizophrenia. Here, we provide a synthesis of keynote findings in this enriched population to understand better the neurobiology and pathophysiology of early-onset schizophrenia. Methods: A synthetic and integrative approach is applied to review studies stemming from epidemiology, phenomenology, cognition, genetics and neuroimaging data. We provide conclusions and future directions of research on early-onset schizophrenia. Results: Childhood and adolescentonset schizophrenia is associated with severe clinical course, greater rates of premorbid abnormalities, poor psychosocial functioning and increased severity of brain abnormalities. Early-onset cases show similar neurobiological correlates and phenotypic deficits to adult-onset schizophrenia, but show worse longterm psychopathological outcome. Emerging technological advances have provided important insights into the genomic architecture of earlyonset schizophrenia, suggesting that some genetic variations may occur more frequently and at a higher rate in young-onset than adult-onset cases. Conclusions: Clinical, cognitive, genetic and imaging data suggest increased severity in early-onset schizophrenia. Studying youngeronset cases can provide useful insights into the neurobiological mechanisms of schizophrenia and the complexity of gene-environment interactions leading to the emergence of this debilitating disorder.

Many parasites induce characteristic changes in behavior of their hosts. In humans latent toxoplasmosis is associated with changes in personality profiles. It has been already shown that a decrease in superego strength is correlated with duration of toxoplasmosis in men. Here we studied changes in personality profiles with Cattell's 16 PF questionnaire in Toxoplasma-infected women. The changes were measured as differences in personality factors between Toxoplasma-infected subjects and uninfected controls of the same age. The low-rate changes were studied in 230 women diagnosed with acute toxoplasmosis during past 14 years. The results showed the correlation between duration of toxoplasmosis and level of factors G (high superego strength) and Q3 (high strength of self sentiment). The high-rate changes were estimated by measuring the correlation between level of Toxoplasma-antibody titers (which rapidly decline after the end of acute phase of toxoplasmosis) and personality factors in an experimental set of 55 young mothers with latent toxoplasmosis. Again, certain factors, namely A (affectothymia), F (surgence), G (high superego strength), H (parmia), and L (protension), correlated with the length of the infection. We suggest that the parasite induced the changes in the personality profiles of the women because of our observation of an increasingly different personality profile over time between women with latent infection and controls. The same evidence questions the view that women with a particular personality

The main purposes of the present study were to substantiate the existence of the four types of performance categories (i.e., optimal-automatic, optimal-controlled, suboptimal-controlled, and suboptimal-automatic) as hypothesised in the multi-action plan (MAP) model, and to investigate whether some specific affective, behavioural, psychophysiological, and postural trends may typify each type of performance. A 20-year-old athlete of the Italian shooting team, and a 46-year-old athlete of the Italian dart-throwing team participated in the study. Athletes were asked to identify the core components of the action and then to execute a large number of shots/flights. A 2 × 2 (optimal/suboptimal × automated/controlled) within subjects multivariate analysis of variance was performed to test the differences among the four types of performance. Findings provided preliminary evidence of psychophysiological and postural differences among four performance categories as conceptualized within the MA...

Three frequently used RSA metrics are investigated to document violations of assumptions for parametric analyses, moderation by respiration, influences of nonstationarity, and sensitivity to vagal blockade. Although all metrics are highly correlated, new findings illustrate that the metrics are noticeably different on the above dimensions. Only one method conforms to the assumptions for parametric analyses, is not moderated by respiration, is not influenced by nonstationarity, and reliably generates stronger effect sizes. Moreover, this method is also the most sensitive to vagal blockade. Specific features of this method may provide insights into improving the statistical characteristics of other commonly used RSA metrics. These data provide the evidence to question, based on statistical grounds, published reports using particular metrics of RSA.

During lucid dreaming, a subject willed movements of his fingers, toes and feet, remembered tasks, and counted sensory stimuli. Dreamed speech was related to respiration. EMG activity corresponding to dreamed actions was greater in flexor than in extensor limb muscles and was never present in axial muscles.

Cortical processing of emotional words differs from that of neutral words. Using EEG event-related potentials (ERPs), the present study examines the functional stage(s) of this differentiation. Positive, negative, and neutral nouns were randomly mixed with pseudowords and letter strings derived from words within each valence and presented for reading while participants' EEG was recorded. Results indicated emotion effects in the N1 (110-140 ms), early posterior negativity (EPN, 216-320) and late positive potential (LPP, 432-500 ms) time windows. Across valence, orthographic word-form effects occurred from about 180 ms after stimulus presentation. Crucially, in emotional words, lexicality effects (real words versus pseudowords) were identified from 216 ms, words being more negative over posterior cortex, coinciding with EPN effects, whereas neutral words differed from pseudowords only after 320 ms. Emotional content affects word processing at pre-lexical, lexical and post-lexical levels, but remarkably lexical access to emotional words is faster than access to neutral words.

Most contemporary text books of neurology and of psychology pay little attention to the function of the cerebellum beyond noting it to be an organ of motor control. A historical overview of research on cerebellar function is presented, from pre-Sherrinton suggestions of sensory and motor function, through the post-Sherrinton and dominant 20 th . Century view of "motor" function, to the 21 st . century perspective of "sensorimotor" function. The intrinsic capability of the cerebellum is briefly considered in terms of: its size/complexity/capacity; its information representation/processing characteristics (with "a particular computational function"); its sensory information processing capability; and, its role in sensorimotor regulatory control. It is suggested that the cerebellum can process sensorimotor stimulus information in a statistical (connectionist type) manner and respond to in on the basis of its own learning based sensorimotor representations, albeit at a "level" that does not necessarily involve cerebral "awareness".

Findings on alexithymic emotion difficulties have been inconsistent. We examined potential differences between alexithymic and control participants in general arousal, reactivity, facial and subjective expression, emotion labeling, and covariation between emotion response systems. A depth of processing intervention was introduced. Fifty-four participants (27 alexithymic), selected using the Toronto Alexithymia Scale-20, completed an imagery experiment (imagining joy, fear and neutral scripts), under instructions for shallow or deep emotion processing. Heart rate, skin conductance, facial electromyography and startle reflex were recorded along with subjective ratings. Results indicated hypo-reactivity to emotion among high alexithymic individuals, smaller and slower startle responses, and low covariation between physiology and self-report. No deficits in facial expression, labeling and emotion ratings were identified. Deep processing was associated with increased physiological reactivity and lower perceived dominance and arousal in high alexithymia. Findings suggest a tendency for avoidance of intense, unpleasant emotions and less defensive action preparation in alexithymia.

Alterations in hormone levels during aging have been shown to impact on cognitive functioning and mood. However, with respect to sex and sex-related hormones research has mainly focused on testosterone and estradiol. Serum concentration levels of testosterone (TT), estradiol (E2), follicle-stimulating Q2 hormone (FSH), luteinizing hormone (LH), dehydroepiandrosterone sulfate (DHEAS) and prolactin (PRL) were assessed at fasting in 120 community-dwellers (51+ years of age, males and females), in a crosssectional approach. An extensive battery of neurocognitive/psychological and quality of life instruments was administered. Performance clusters based on executive functioning (GENEXEC), memory (MEM), mood and well-being (sleep, quality of life and nutritional status) measures were obtained. In males, higher PRL levels were associated with worse cognitive performance, lower well-being scores, and higher scores in depression scales. Additionally, E2 levels were significantly lower in individuals with higher depressive mood and poorer cognitive functioning. Linear regression analyses revealed that in males DHEAS is positively associated with GENEXEC and MEM, after adjustment of the remaining hormones and socio demographic variables. Higher PRL levels were associated with higher depressive mood and lower well-being. Nutritional status was significantly associated with PRL (positively) and with DHEAS (negatively). These findings indicate that besides the more exhaustively studied impact of E2 and TT on cognition and depression, variations in the levels of sex-related hormones such as PRL, FSH, LH and DHEAS are of interest for the mental health aging profile.

This paper reports an investigation of forearm blood flow and cardiac responses to high intensity auditory stimulation. Blood flow was assessed in terms of forearm girth (FG) using a strain gauge, and since this technique had not been used previously, a preliminary study was conducted to validate the measure. In Experiment 1 (N = 24), subjects performed either a fastor slow-paced mental arithmetic task. The data indicated that the strain gauge technique differentiated periods of rest from arithmetic stress and produced results comparable with those obtained using limb volume plethysmography. In Experiment 2 (N = 24), subjects received eight presentations of either a 60 dB or a 110 dB white noise stimulus at randomly ordered intervals of 35, 40, 45 and 50 see; stimulus rise time was 50 msec and the duration 1 see. Both groups displayed short-latency (i.e. within 10 beats poststimulus) cardiac accelerative responses which habituated over trials. In addition, the 110dB group displayed a long-latency (19.9 see) accelerative response of approximately 25 beats per min and this was accompanied by an increase in FG. These responses occurred only following the f'trst stimulus presentation, and analysis of the EKG T-wave amplitude suggested that the cardiac response was mediated sympathetically. These results are discussed in terms of conceptions of the startle and defence responses in man and the f'~Jat/flight reaction in animals.

People with specific animal phobias react with increased autonomic activity when exposed to fear-relevant stimuli. The present study examined whether individuals having a less circumscribed fear (public speaking fear) also react with increased autonomic responses when exposed to fear-relevant i.e. social stimuli. A High-fear and a Low-fear group, as indicated by the PRCS questionnaire, were exposed to pictures of faces (social stimuli) and mushrooms (neutral stimuli) while heart rate (HR) and skin conductance responses (SCRs) were measured. It was found that: (1) Social stimuli evoked larger SCRs as compared to neutral stimuli only in the High-fear group;

Citrus fruits are notable for their high Vitamin C (Ascorbic Acid) content and nutritional value. It was hypothesized by past PRISM scholars that the amount of AA content decreases with increase in temperature. Titration performed in the past used a range of titrants including iodine solution and DPIP, but really how effective is 'titration' in order to measure amount of Vitamin C? In this study we measure AA change in orange juice (O.J) under temperature conditions, comparing the results obtained from HPLC and titration. Abstract Methods Freshly picked Valencia oranges were squeezed and filtered over cheesecloths to make a 700mL batch of O.J for this experiment. Batch was deoxygenated with argon for ten minutes prior to storage in a 4-5ºC cold room for the duration of this project. O.J kept under three temperature conditions namely 4-5ºC, 33-35ºC and 55-57ºC was titrated with an iodine solution (Containing KI, KIO 3 and H 2 SO 4 dissolved to 500mL) until a permanent color change from orange-yellow to brownish grey was observed. Standards with laboratory AA were made prior to titrations with O.J.; approximately 0.1g of AA was dissolved in 100mL distilled water. Volume of iodine titrant was recorded to two decimal places. Masses in mg of AA were then calculated based on average volumes of standard solutions. Sample Preparation and Titration 150mL O.J for each day was deoxygenated for ten minutes with argon prior to taking samples. Orange juice was maintained at the appropriate temperature in an oven. A mixture of 10ml of O.J and 10mL of distilled water is titrated against iodine solution. Samples are taken and titrated every hour for four hours and rest returned to the oven. Our control was the juice stored at 4-5ºC. A pH reading of the juice was taken after four hours on each day.

Stress has been implicated in the etiology of numerous mental and physical illnesses. Thus, it is important to identify factors that buffer individuals against stress. The purpose of this study was to examine the influence of perceived control (PC) on the biological and subjective stress responses, and to investigate the potential moderating effect of locus of control (LOC) on this relationship. Stress was induced with a noise-cognitive paradigm, and PC was manipulated by offering the option of manual control over noise intensity. Saliva cortisol and subjective stress were measured. There was no main effect of control on cortisol. However, LOC moderated the relation between control and cortisol; participants with more internal LOC, who also perceived themselves to have control over the stressor, showed a reduced cortisol response in the PC condition. The results are discussed in light of their implications for elucidating the determinants of the effects of perceived control on stress.

biopsychosocial regulatory processes in the development of childhood behavioral problems In this timely volume, leading behavioral scientists describe recent advances in our understanding of the multiple biopsychosocial regulatory processes underlying the development of children's behavior disorders. A full spectrum of regulatory influences is addressed, ranging from genes to cultural factors. Individual chapters highlight the importance of developing research paradigms that synthesize biological, behavioral, and social-ecological influences and of viewing self-regulation as a complex system that reorganizes across development. The regulatory foundations of a diverse range of childhood behavior problems are examined, including anxiety, social withdrawal, depression, conduct problems, inattention and impulsivity, and sleep problems.

Emotionally arousing picture stimuli evoked scalp-recorded event-related potentials. A late, slow positive voltage change was observed, which was significantly larger for affective than neutral stimuli. This positive shift began 200 -300 ms after picture onset, reached its maximum amplitude :1 s after picture onset, and was sustained for most of a 6-s picture presentation period. The positive increase was not related to local probability of content type, but was accentuated for pictures that prompted increased autonomic responses and reports of greater affective arousal (e.g. erotic or violent content). These results suggest that the late positive wave indicates a selective processing of emotional stimuli, reflecting the activation of motivational systems in the brain.

Using a randomized double-blind placebo-controlled design we examined the effects of caffeine on working memory (WM) as a function of extraverted personality. Participants (N = 59) received 200 mg of caffeine and placebo in counterbalanced-order over two sessions prior to completing a 'N-Back' WM paradigm. Findings revealed that caffeine administration relative to the placebo condition resulted in heightened WM performance, but only for extraverted participants. We suggest based on previous theory and research that dopamine function (DA) may be the most plausible mechanism underlying this finding.

While scientists have narrowed down various chemical connections to feelings of happiness, others have come to more holistic conclusions. Happiness, it seems, is as elusive in definition as it is in attainment. As everyday people, we are constantly seeking out that which makes us happy. This paper reviews the psychological approaches humans utilize to find and experience happiness, and the biochemical compounds which make it possible.

Stress is a major health burden in today's society. Research shows that negative cognitive styles are associated with increased stress reactivity, low mood and accelerated cellular aging. Our study sought to unravel the relationship between the content of self-generated thoughts and psychosocial stress measured in terms of hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis and sympathetic activity. Features of selfgenerated thoughts were assessed using thought sampling while participants performed cognitive tasks following a stress induction or in a baseline condition. More negatively toned emotional thoughts and more social temporal thoughts with a past focus were associated with increased cortisol and alphaamylase levels, both after stress and at baseline. More social temporal thoughts with a future focus, on the other hand, had an overall attenuating effect on the levels of both stress markers. Our results indicate a fundamental link between the thoughts and stress levels we experience. Understanding the mechanisms governing this mind-body association may have important implications for understanding and counteracting the high incidence of stress-related disorders in today's society.

The relationships between the Tridimensional Personality Questionnaire (TPQ) and serotonergic activity has been described in some studies with controversial results. These studies have focused on specific patient populations rather than normal controls. Therefore, the aim of the present study is to examine the relationships between the TPQ and serotonergic activity in a group of non-patient subjects. Twenty-three normal subjects answered the TPQ, and the serotonergic activity was assessed by the prolactin response to a highly potent and selective 5-HT1a agonist (flesinoxan). A positive relationship between harm avoidance and PRL response to flesinoxan was found. This study is consistent with the hypothesized link between serotonergic activity and the harm avoidance dimension of the biosocial model of Cloninger.

Correctly processing rapid sequences of sounds is essential for developmental milestones, such as language acquisition. We investigated the sensitivity of two-month-old infants to violations of a temporal regularity, by recording event-related brain potentials (ERP) in an auditory oddball paradigm from 36 waking and 40 sleeping infants. Standard tones were presented at a regular 300 ms inter-stimulus interval (ISI). One deviant, otherwise identical to the standard, was preceded by a 100 ms ISI. Two other deviants, presented with the standard ISI, differed from the standard in their spectral makeup. We found significant differences between ERP responses elicited by the standard and each of the deviant sounds. The results suggest that the ability to extract both temporal and spectral regularities from a sound sequence is already functional within the first few months of life. The scalp distribution of all three deviant-stimulus responses was influenced by the infants" state of alertness.

a b s t r a c t "Excessive" viewing of visual sexual stimuli (VSS) is the most commonly reported hypersexual behavior problem and is especially amenable to laboratory study. A pattern of enhanced sexual cue responsiveness is expected in this sample if hypersexuality shares features of other addiction models. Participants (N = 122) who either reported or denied problematic VSS use were presented with emotional, including explicit sexual, images while their evoked response potentials were recorded. An interaction of hypersexual problem group and the level of desire for sex with a partner predicted LPP amplitude. Specifically, those reporting problems regulating their VSS use who also reported higher sexual desire had lower LPP in response to VSS. This pattern appears different from substance addiction models. These are the first functional physiological data of persons reporting VSS regulation problems.

Some relevant discoveries suggest the fact that one personality traitextraversion -correlates with sensation seeking. In 1978 Eysenck & Zuckerman found a correlation between Extraversion and Sensation Seeking (Total) for English men and women. That is, extroverts find themselves always searching situations which provide high level of stimulation in order to keep an optimal level of cortical-arousal (Eysenck & Zuckermann, 1978). In order to sustain this statement, a scientific study was conducted. This paper aims to show whether the predictions are true and if there is a positive correlation between extraversion and sensation seeking. The participants would have to show high positive correlation between extraversion and the total sensation seeking factors. In this study it was used a correlation design and 194 participants who undertook two questionnaires.

Recent advances in neuroimaging technologies have allowed ever more detailed studies of the human brain. The combination of neuroimaging techniques with genetics may provide a more sensitive measure of the influence of genetic variants on cognitive function than behavioural measures alone. Here we present a review of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies of genetic links to executive functions, focusing on sustained attention, working memory and response inhibition. In addition to studies in the normal population, we also address findings from three clinical populations: schizophrenia, ADHD and Autism Spectrum Disorders. While the findings in the populations studied do not always converge, they all point to the usefulness of neuroimaging techniques such as fMRI as potential endophenotypes for parsing the genetic aetiology of executive function.

The mere presence of task-irrelevant auditory stimuli is known to interfere with cognitive functioning. Disruption can be caused by changing auditory distractors (the changing-state effect) or by a sound that deviates from the auditory background (the deviation effect). The unitary account of auditory distraction explains both phenomena in terms of attentional capture whereas the duplex-mechanism account posits that they reflect two fundamentally different forms of distraction in which only the deviation effect is caused by attentional capture. To test these predictions, we exploited a physiological index of attention orienting: the pupillary dilation response (PDR). Participants performed visual serial recall while ignoring sequences of spoken letters. These sequences either comprised repeated or changing letters, and one letter could sometimes be replaced by pink noise (the deviant). Recall was poorer in both changing-state and deviant trials. Interestingly, the PDR was elicited by deviant sounds but not changing-state sounds. This physiological dissociation of the changing-state and the deviation effects suggests they are subtended by distinct mechanisms thereby procuring support for the duplex-mechanism account over the unitary account.

L-Theanine is an amino acid contained in green tea leaves which is known to block the binding of L-glutamic acid to glutamate receptors in the brain. Because the characteristics of L-Theanine suggest that it may influence psychological and physiological states under stress, the present study examined these possible effects in a laboratory setting using a mental arithmetic task as an acute stressor. Twelve participants underwent four separate trials: one in which they took L-Theanine at the start of an experimental procedure, one in which they took L-Theanine midway, and two control trials in which they either took a placebo or nothing. The experimental sessions were performed by double-blind, and the order of them was counterbalanced. The results showed that L-Theanine intake resulted in a reduction in the heart rate (HR) and salivary immunoglobulin A (s-IgA) responses to an acute stress task relative to the placebo control condition. Moreover, analyses of heart rate variability indicated that the reductions in HR and s-IgA were likely attributable to an attenuation of sympathetic nervous activation. Thus, it was suggested that the oral intake of L-Theanine could cause anti-stress effects via the inhibition of cortical neuron excitation. #

Stress is assumed to impair sleep, but there is very little empirical evidence for this using sleep recordings. Here, we recorded sleep (at home) in 33 normal participants on three nights, which followed days with low, high and intermediate stress. The participants made daily ratings of the level of stress/worries at bedtime and also two-hourly ratings of stress. Only those 16 individuals who differed in stress/worries between two nights were analysed. There was a significantly lower sleep efficiency (81.0% versus 85.2%) a higher percent Wake (22.6% versus 15.6%) and a longer latency to Stage 3 (33.9 versus 18.3 min) during the nights with a higher stress/worry bedtime rating. None of the other sleep variables were affected. Also mean daytime stress ratings were significantly higher on the day preceding and following the high stress/worries sleep. It was concluded that moderate increases in stress/worries at bedtime are associated with moderately impaired sleep. #

Although serial killing was only defined in 1988, there is still more research to be conducted into the causes of this phenomena. Therefore, the aim of this thesis is to look into potential causes of serial killing, with emphasis on social, biological and cognitive psychology. A plethora of literature and various case studies of incarcerated serial killers have been used to support or debunk the theories explored.

Serial murderer is classified as the murder of 3 or more victims by the same offender, over multiple locations with the presence of a cooling off period (Ressler et al, 1988). Definitional problems with defining serial murder has led to confusion when classifying murder and therefore its causes. Social psychology explores the nurture side of the ‘nature vs nurture’ debate, with emphasis on childhood trauma, re-enactment and self-evaluation. Biological psychology explores the nature side of the debate, with emphasis on chromosomal abnormalities, a biological predisposition for crime and other biological functions. Cognitive psychology explores how brain dysfunctions can lead to serial murder, with emphasis on head injury causing frontal lobe damage. Lastly, personality disorders are explored in relation to social, biological and cognitive psychology and how they link to serial killing.

After reviewing the evidence, it is reasonable to suggest that there is not one singular cause of serial killing, rather a variety of social, biological and cognitive factors and that can cause someone to be susceptible or expedite the process of becoming a serial killer.