The ontogenesis of smiling and its association with mothers` affective behaviors: A longitudinal study

Two babies were observed from their third week to their sixth month of life. Our goals in the study were: to investigate developmental changes in smiling patterns; to analyze the smiling patterns observed in the presence of mother`s affective behaviors, and to verify whether the babies can answer contingently, with smiles, to mothers` affective behaviors. The babies and their mothers were videotaped at home. It was verified a positive linear trajectory tendency for the babies` smiles. The babies revealed a particular tendency to display one or two kinds of smiles. Babies answered contingently with smiles to their mothers` affective behaviors. Correlations between the most frequent types of babies` smiles and his/her mothers` smiles were verified (r = 37, p < .0017 - baby1, and r = .62, p < .0017 - baby2). Different types of smiles were exhibited by the babies as contingent answers to mothers` behaviors. The results show an association between babies` smiles and their mothers` affective behaviors. (C) 2009 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Effects of diazepam on BOLD activation during the processing of aversive faces

This study aimed to measure, using fMRI, the effect of diazepam on the haemodynamic response to emotional faces. Twelve healthy male volunteers (mean age = 24.83 +/- 3.16 years), were evaluated in a randomized, balanced-order, double-blind, placebo-controlled crossover design. Diazepam (10 mg) or placebo was given 1 h before the neuroimaging acquisition. In a blocked design covert face emotional task, subjects were presented with neutral (A) and aversive (B) (angry or fearful) faces. Participants were also submitted to an explicit emotional face recognition task, and subjective anxiety was evaluated throughout the procedures. Diazepam attenuated the activation of right amygdala and right orbitofrontal cortex and enhanced the activation of right anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) to fearful faces. In contrast, diazepam enhanced the activation of posterior left insula and attenuated the activation of bilateral ACC to angry faces. In the behavioural task, diazepam impaired the recognition of fear in female faces. Under the action of diazepam, volunteers were less anxious at the end of the experimental session. These results suggest that benzodiazepines can differentially modulate brain activation to aversive stimuli, depending on the stimulus features and indicate a role of amygdala and insula in the anxiolytic action of benzodiazepines.

COMT Met (158) modulates facial emotion recognition in bipolar I disorder mood episodes

Background: One of the many cognitive deficits reported in bipolar disorder (BD) patients is facial emotion recognition (FER), which has recently been associated with dopaminergic catabolism. Catechol-O-methyltransferase (COMT) is one of the main enzymes involved in the metabolic degradation of dopamine (DA) in the prefrontal cortex (PFC). The COMT gene polymorphism rs4680 (Val(158)Met) Met allele is associated with decreased activity of this enzyme in healthy controls. The objective of this study was to evaluate the influence of Val(158)Met on FER during manic and depressive episodes in BD patients and in healthy controls. Materials and methods: 64 BD type I patients (39 in manic and 25 in depressive episodes) and 75 healthy controls were genotyped for COMT rs4680 and assessed for FER using the Ekman 60 Faces (EK60) and Emotion Hexagon (Hx) tests. Results: Bipolar manic patients carrying the Met allele recognized fewer surprised faces, while depressed patients with the Met allele recognized fewer "angry" and "happy" faces. Healthy homozygous subjects with the Met allele had higher FER scores on the Hx total score, as well as on "disgust" and "angry" faces than other genotypes. Conclusion: This is the first study suggesting that COMT rs4680 modulates FER differently during BD episodes and in healthy controls. This provides evidence that PFC DA is part of the neurobiological mechanisms of social cognition. Further studies on other COMT polymorphisms that include euthymic BD patients are warranted. ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT00969. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Temporal memory of emotional experience

The few studies that have investigated judgments of time have suggested that the memory of duration is distorted more for emotional events than for neutral events, while in contrast there is abundant evidence that other aspects of memories of emotional events are more accurate. To reconcile this apparent discrepancy, we used a procedure in which the participants learned a standard duration over several trials under three emotional conditions: a threatening, a nonthreatening, and a neutral control condition. They were then tested either immediately or 24 h after learning. In this test phase, they had to indicate whether presented comparison durations were or were not the same as the previously learned standard duration. We found that durations were recalled better in the emotional than in the neutral condition, and that this occurred to a greater extent in the threatening than in the nonthreatening condition. Arousing emotions thus enhanced temporal memory, just as they enhance memory for other aspects of emotional events.

A structural model of emotions of cognitive dissonances

Cognitive dissonance is the stress that comes from holding two conflicting thoughts simultaneously in the mind, usually arising when people are asked to choose between two detrimental or two beneficial options. In view of the well-established role of emotions in decision making, here we investigate whether the conventional structural models used to represent the relationships among basic emotions, such as the Circumplex model of affect, can describe the emotions of cognitive dissonance as well. We presented a questionnaire to 34 anonymous participants, where each question described a decision to be made among two conflicting motivations and asked the participants to rate analogically the pleasantness and the intensity of the experienced emotion. We found that the results were compatible with the predictions of the Circumplex model for basic emotions. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The impact of the CACNA1C risk allele on limbic structures and facial emotions recognition in bipolar disorder subjects and healthy controls

Introduction: Impairments in facial emotion recognition (PER) have been reported in bipolar disorder (BD) during all mood states. FER has been the focus of functional magnetic resonance imaging studies evaluating differential activation of limbic regions. Recently, the alpha 1-C subunit of the L-type voltage-gated calcium channel (CACNA1C) gene has been described as a risk gene for BD and its Met allele found to increase CACNA1C mRNA expression. In healthy controls, the CACNA1C risk (Met) allele has been reported to increase limbic system activation during emotional stimuli and also to impact on cognitive function. The aim of this study was to investigate the impact of CACNA1C genotype on FER scores and limbic system morphology in subjects with BD and healthy controls. Material and methods: Thirty-nine euthymic BD I subjects and 40 healthy controls were submitted to a PER recognition test battery and genotyped for CACNA1C. Subjects were also examined with a 3D 3-Tesla structural imaging protocol. Results: The CACNA1C risk allele for BD was associated to FER impairment in BD, while in controls nothing was observed. The CACNA1C genotype did not impact on amygdala or hippocampus volume neither in BD nor controls. Limitations: Sample size. Conclusion: The present findings suggest that a polymorphism in calcium channels interferes FER phenotype exclusively in BD and doesn't interfere on limbic structures morphology. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Using complex networks to quantify consistency in the use of words

In this paper we have quantified the consistency of word usage in written texts represented by complex networks, where words were taken as nodes, by measuring the degree of preservation of the node neighborhood. Words were considered highly consistent if the authors used them with the same neighborhood. When ranked according to the consistency of use, the words obeyed a log-normal distribution, in contrast to Zipf's law that applies to the frequency of use. Consistency correlated positively with the familiarity and frequency of use, and negatively with ambiguity and age of acquisition. An inspection of some highly consistent words confirmed that they are used in very limited semantic contexts. A comparison of consistency indices for eight authors indicated that these indices may be employed for author recognition. Indeed, as expected, authors of novels could be distinguished from those who wrote scientific texts. Our analysis demonstrated the suitability of the consistency indices, which can now be applied in other tasks, such as emotion recognition.

Attitudes of mental health professionals towards persons with schizophrenia: a transcultural comparison between Switzerland and Brazil

Background: Stigmatization is an important issue in the treatment and course of schizophrenia. The maintenance of stigmatizing attitudes may be related to socio-cultural factors. Objectives: To compare stigmatizing attitudes of mental health professionals in the culturally diverse countries Brazil and Switzerland. Methods: We analyzed data of two broad stigmatization surveys from Switzerland and Brazil by focusing on the social distance and attitudes of mental health professionals towards the acceptance of side effects of psychopharmacological treatment. Results: Swiss mental health professionals showed significantly higher levels of social distance than their Brazilian counterparts. There was also a weak effect of age as well as an interaction effect between origin and age. With respect to the acceptance of side effects, the effect of origin was rather weak. With the exception of drug dependence, Swiss professionals' acceptance of long-lasting side effects was significantly higher than for their counterparts in Brazil. Discussion: The strong association between origin and social distance may be related to the socio-cultural background of the mental health professionals. In comparison with Switzerland, Brazil is very heterogeneous in terms of ethnicity and socio-economic structure. The distinct acceptance of side effects may additionally be related to the more sophisticated medicaments (i.e. new generation of antipsychotic drugs) commonly used in Switzerland. Hengartner MP, et al. / Rev Psiq Clin. 2012;39(4):115-21