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It is well known that the insular cortex (Brodmann areas 13, 14, 15, and 16) located deep inside the Sylvian fissure is associated with mental functions such as perception, language, cognition, affect, and movement. In particular, the insular cortex has been linked to interoception, which is the representation of bodily physiological states that is used to regulate bodily states and mental functions. Recently, a common principle to explain such functions of the insular cortex has been proposed. The principle posits that the anterior insula generates predictions of future bodily states, computes the error by comparing the prediction with the actual sensory signals, and integrates the body with the mind by minimizing the prediction error. This article describes the functions of the insular cortex, and discusses the possibility that an error-minimizing function can affect decision-making to regulate behaviors.

Objectives: We examined the relationship between a physical activity monitor, which measures physical activities and health behavioural factors, and behavioural changes in 70 first-year university students who consented to participate among 80 students (recovery rate, 87.5%)., Methods: We evaluated Pearson's correlation coefficients using the Mann-Whitney U-test for changes in health behavioural factors and self-efficacy and performed binomial logistic regression analysis with health behavioural factors and self-efficacy as dependent variables and life improvement effects as explanatory variables., Results: The analysis revealed a positive correlation among five items of expectations of life improvement, health behavioural factors and self-efficacy. The score of "health behaviour and expectations of life improvement effects" was higher than those of health behavioural factors and self-efficacy. Binomial logistic regression analysis revealed that self-efficacy is related to health behavioural factors, health behaviour and expectations of life improvement effects., Conclusions: Using the physical activity monitor to confirm behavioural science theory, health behavioural factors, self-efficacy and health behaviour are found to be effective for young adults to motivate themselves to maintain healthy behaviours.

Behavioral activation (BA) has recently attracted marked attention. While cognitive therapy focuses on the cognitive distortion of patients with depression and asks them to change their behaviors as the process of altering the cognitive distortion, BA pays attention to behavior to avoid an unpleasant situation or social situation as a key symptom that leads to persistence of the depression. Avoidance behaviors are often seen during every process of depression, from onset to recurrence. Avoidance behaviors, a decrease in pleasant phenomena, or increase in unpleasant phenomena, result in reinforcing a depressive mood. If patients can set appropriate behavioral targets and achieve them, the beneficial behaviors will be further promoted with positive feed-back. The behavioral change, as-a consequence, will result in improvement of the mood, cognition, and depression itself. In this manuscript, the author presents two clinical cases, in which BA assisted the patients in recovering from their depression. The first case was a male in his thirties who repeatedly took sick leave from his work because of maladjustment, which resulted in persistent depression. The second case was a female in her thirties who suffered from OCD and then became maladjusted to her place of work, depressive, and emotionally unstable. In both cases, avoidant behaviors caused their conditions to persist. Appropriate activities formed by BA improved their moods, and their self-efficacies were gradually regained. It was suggested that BA is markedly effective, especially in patients whose avoidant behaviors mainly cause the persistence of their depressive symptoms.

An approach focusing on behavioral activation (BA) was adopted in the cognitive therapy of A. T. Beck, and it came to be considered that BA can play an important role in cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) for depression. Therefore, in recent years, BA based on clinical behavior analysis has been developed as a new treatment (Martell, et al.). The core characteristics are as follows: 1) focusing attention on context in daily life to promote the behavior control of patients and avoidance of a hatred experience ; 2) breaking the vicious circle; 3) promoting the behavior according to the purpose that the patients originally expect; 4) recognizing a relationship between behavior and the situation (contingency), thereby recovering self-efficacy tied to the long-term results that one originally expects. This does not increase pleasant activity at random when the patient is inactive, or give a sense of accomplishment. We know that depression is maintained by conducting functional analysis of detailed life behavior, and encourage the patients to have healthy behavior according to individual values. We help them to complete schedules regardless of mood and reflect on the results patiently. It is considered that those processes are important. BA may be easy to apply in clinical practice and effective for the chronic cases, or the patients in a convalescent stage. Also, in principle in the CBT for major depression, it may be effective that behavioral activation is provided in an early stage, and cognitive reconstruction in a latter stage. However, an approach to carry out functional analysis by small steps with careful activity monitoring is essential when the symptoms are severe. Furthermore, it should be considered that the way of psychoeducation requires caution because we encourage rest in the treatment of depression in our country. In particular, we must be careful not to take an attitude that an inactive behavior pattern is unproductive only based model cases.

John Russell Hodges is an English behavioral neurologist, who is mainly engaged in neuropsychological research for neurocognitive disorders. He contributed to symptomatology of transient global amnesia (TGA), semantic dementia, and behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia (bvFTD). Extensive features of his research work are based on his excellent clinician's approach and his outstanding neuropsychological viewpoint, always keeping that neural basis of the symptoms using neuroimaging and neuropathological techniques, and concerning cure and care for patients. Collaboration with psychiatrists, neuroradiologists, neuropsychologists, neuropathologists, social workers, occupational therapists, research nurses, molecular biologists have supported his broad research work. Karalyn Patterson who is an outstanding clinical and experimental neuropsychologist has been particularly important guiding light for his clinical research. He is an excellent clinician and also looks like a commander of a large and well organized research group.

Charles Miller Fisher is widely regarded as the father of modern stroke neurology. He discovered almost all pathomechanisms of cerebral infarction, including embolism from atrial fibrillation, carotid artery disease, and lacunar infarcts and their syndromes, by the most meticulous clinico-pathological observations. Moreover, his work provided the basis for treatments such as anticoagulation, antiplatelet therapy, and carotid endarterectomy. He also contributed greatly to several topics of General Neurology; for example, migraine, normal pressure hydrocephalus, and Miller Fisher syndrome. In his late years, he tried to expand the neurological field to the more complex disorders of human behavior, including hysteria, dementia, and ill-defined pain syndromes. He thus became known as the grandmaster of refined neurological observation. His lifelong detailed studies were crucially important in helping neurologists all over the world recognize disorders and syndromes that had not previously been understood.

In this paper, we introduced the temporal and information representation properties of the human mirror neuron system (MNS) that have been revealed by using noninvasive imaging techniques (magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), positron emission tomography (PET), and noninvasive brain stimulation such as transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) or electrical stimulation). Next, we discussed the neural networks involved in action understanding and affordance. In this paper, we especially emphasized the role of MNS in prediction and action recognition, and introduced recent brain theories and a neural network model, based on several MNS properties, including the prediction function, the free energy principle, and the minimization of prediction error.

It is difficult to conceive of the development of the brain as a single process, especially when we think about continuity and non-continuity from child- to adulthood. Non-continuity may be present when the brain is developing normally or consistently, or during aging, and development may vary across behavioral, structural, functional, and regional units. Clinical studies that consider the developmental process of change as natural and expected may better incorporate the potential variety and non-continuity than clinical studies that do not consider the process of change. It is likely that these complications are exacerbated because the timing of changes appears to vary across units. If we can identify the critical points of plasticity, temporally appropriate interventions can be developed. A focus on the developmental process of changes in the brain may lead to more rational and effective intervention strategies.

In this study, the relationship between the haplotypes consisting of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) of GSK-3beta -50T/C and -1727A/T and the derivation of smoking was studied among 102 smokers and 103 non-smokers. It was shown that the GSK-3beta -50T/C polymorphism may be linked with the smoking. There is significantly lower T-allele frequency in the smokers than non-smokers (chi2 (2) = 21.01, P = 0.000027; chi2 (1) 13.28, P = 0.00026). According to haplotype analysis, there was an association between smokers and non-smokers (global P = 0.00029). Higher haplotype 1 (T-A) frequency was observed in non-smokers than in smokers (P = 0.00036), whereas higher haplotype 2 (C-A) frequency was observed in smokers than in non-smokers (P = 0.000053). Pairwise D' and r2 values between the two SNPs in this study were 0.51 and 0.042, respectively. The two SNPs showed weak linkage disequilibrium with each other. This study suggests that GSK-3beta -50T/C polymorphism and two haplotypes may be related to smoking behavior.

The aging rate of Japan is higher than 20% in 2005 and it is predominantly early and invites aged society in the developed countries. With increase in elderly person population, the emergency consultation of the elderly person increases, and the emergency medical treatment of the elderly person that complaining of a condition is vague must be careful to have possibilities to miss the severe condition of a patient. When an elderly person presents with sudden behavior abnormality and consults an emergency room, we must check presence of disturbance of consciousness. When there is disturbance of consciousness, we provide treatment for it. In this report, we describe an emergency disease with the behavior abnormality of the elderly person.

Purpose: To clarify the mental health factors of workers and to verify the causal correlation between their behavioral traits and mental health., Method: We asked 1,425 subjects working at private enterprises and local government offices, as well as members of labor unions, to anonymously respond to questionnaires., Result: We examined the causal influence of workers' behavioral traits on negative mental health by covariance structure analysis. Workers'other-reward oriented self-image variables indicated by behavioral traits, such as self-repression and interpersonal dependency, directly affected negative mental health. Workers'perceived emotional support indirectly affects their mental health through self-image variables and perceived stressors. Additionally, simultaneous multi-population analysis verified that different populations did not show differences, and maintained the same structure., Discussion: Other-reward oriented self-image directly affected negative mental health, and its impact was the largest. Therefore, to prevent negative mental health, the results indicate that it is important to shift self-image to a self-reward oriented one. Additionally, the results indicate the need for effort to perceive emotional support at the workplace and heighten the ability of self-expression and feelings of self-esteem. This can encourage changing to a self-reward oriented self-image and a preventive effect is expected.

A "sense of agency" involves a contemporaneous experience that the "self" causes the actions performed by the "self" (i.e., "I am the one who causes my actions"). This may comprise the main component of self-consciousness. The present research focuses on the development of a questionnaire to investigate the subjective aspects of a sense of agency. We selected items from the extant relevant measures and from previous empirical studies, and conducted four longitudinal surveys with additional scales. Statistical computations confirmed the validity and reliability of the Sense of Agency Scale (SOAS), consisting of seventeen items involving three factors. Furthermore, the results indicated that these three factors might be organized hierarchically, with each factor showing a unique relationship with emotional or social traits. This novel finding, emerging from the Sense of Agency Scale, would have been difficult to obtain via traditional empirical studies.

The limbic system (comprising the amygdala and the anterior cingulate cortex) and the prefrontal cortex (the orbital and dorsolateral prefrontal cortices) have been implicated in emotional and behavioral control. Selective lesion studies in rodents suggest that the basolateral nucleus of the amygdala, which is a critical subnucleus within the amygdala, plays a critical role in appetitive instrumental behaviors. On the other hand, the central nucleus of the amygdala directly receives afferents from the lateral nucleus of the amygdala. These 2 nuclei (central and lateral) of the amygdala are implicated in the learning of reflexive behavior (e.g., orienting, startle, and approaching behaviors) and autonomic responses (e.g., heart rate and blood pressure) during pavlovian conditioning. The caudal part of the anterior cingulate cortex (cognitive subdivision) is involved in monitoring and evaluating of the outcome of an indivisual's actions. However, the orbital cortex and the rostral part of the anterior cingulate cortex (affective subdivision) is involved in the biological evaluation of external sensory stimuli and events induced by stimuli originating from sources other than the individual. Based on these functions, the cognitive subdivision of the anterior cingulate cortex contributes to guiding and selecting actions that yield the optimal outcome, while the affective subdivision focuses on external aversive or rewarding stimuli, and guides appetitive or avoidance behaviors toward or away from these external stimuli. The dorsolateral prefrontal cortex is involved in predicting of the outcome of own action, and the evaluation of the outcome for guiding optimal behaviors is based on its close reciprocal connections with the limbic system. These 4 regions of the brain interact with each other and work complementarily. In the present review, the abovementioned functions of the limbic system and prefrontal cortex in primates are discussed with regard to the findings of previous neurophysiological studies in which neuronal responses in these brain regions were analyzed in monkeys and rats.

Participants (N = 153) rated intentionality (with a confidence rating) of 10 behaviors from the observer's perspective. There were three conditions of behaviors: behavior-only, behavior with-reason, or behavior with-cause conditions. Significant differences between the means for all of the behavior conditions were found for both intentionality and confidence ratings, and interactions of Condition x Behavior also significant. When the intentionality values were transformed with a V-shaped function, the means of the transformed values significantly increased along with the mean confidence rating in the with-reason and with-cause conditions. In addition, the across-participant correlations between intentionality and confidence for each behavior were negative when the intentionality mean was near the minimum, and the correlations were positive when the intentionality mean was large; this trend was close to a linear function. These findings suggest that the intentionality rating was based on both a binary judgment and a confidence value.

People have naive theories about the relationship between motives and behaviors. Based on recent developments in attribution theories and negativity bias in social perception, we hypothesized that people would associate negative behaviors only with negative motives, while they would associate positive behaviors with not just positive, but also negative motives. These hypotheses were tested in three studies. In Studies 1 and 2, we found that behavioral information inconsistent with naive theories was best recalled under conditions with no cognitive load. However, this recall advantage dissipated when participants were under time pressure during the encoding of the behavioral information. In Study 3, participants were presented with positive and negative behaviors, and were asked to infer the actors' motives from these behaviors. The results showed that naive theories guided their inferences: negative motives were likely to be inferred from negative behaviors, whereas both negative and positive motives were inferred from positive behaviors. Implications for attribution theories and negativity bias in social perception are discussed.

Several metamemory questionnaires have been widely used in psychological research with various populations including young or elderly, and clinical or non-clinical participants. This study investigates the factor structures in three typical metamemory questionnaires. The Everyday Memory Questionnaire (EMQ: 28 items), the Cognitive Failures Questionnaire (CFQ: 25 items), and the Memory Ability Questionnaire (MAQ: 31 items) were administered to 860 undergraduate students. Factor analyses for the data from each questionnaire indicated that the EMQ. the CFQ, and the MAQ mainly consisted of five, five, and four factors, respectively. A factor analysis was performed on the combined data relating to these 14 factors to examine the relatedness among the factors. Three factors were obtained: retrospective memory, prospective memory, and memory for person's names. The results were discussed in terms of the differences of content and formats of the questionnaire.

This study investigated the affects and behaviors that accompany and follow anger episodes, and examined the relationship among them, in hope of developing self-regulated and effective methods of controlling anger. With an open-ended questionnaire, 42 anger episodes were collected and categorized. Results suggested that typical anger episodes were instigated by selfishness, insult, coercion, and trouble and a close person such as friends was often the cause and target of anger. Surprise and depression frequently accompanied it, and eight forms of response followed: rationalization, cause searching, aggression, social sharing, displacement to object, mood change, forgetfulness, and rumination. Another questionnaire examined the relationship among these variables, as well as trait anger, perception of malice, and sense of injury, with a sample of 118 undergraduates. Results indicated, first, that sense of injury was heightened by trait anger and malice perception. Second, anger and depression were evoked only by a sense of injury. Finally, while anger without depression evoked aggression, anger with depression led to mood change and forgetfulness.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the functions of involuntary memory in the course of daily life. The participant was the author, a 39-year-old male at the time when the record of involuntary memories was begun. When an autobiographical memory occurred spontaneously, the participant would record the contents of that memory and the circumstances surrounding its occurrence, such as the triggered cues for the remembered event and the participant's activity and mood at the time. Over a period of four and a half years, involuntary memories of 184 events were collected. The results suggest four functions of involuntary memory: (1) confirmation of one's existence at a given time in one's life history; (2) confirmation of one's own psychological traits; (3) confirmation of one's relationship to others; and (4) the direction or regulation of one's behavior. One of the main functions of involuntary memory may be to provide one with the opportunity for recognition of the individual's stable beliefs and behavior, that is, the sense of self-continuity.

Background: Although heart rate variability (HRV) has been found to be associated with increased mortality in the elderly, the association of HRV and cognitive function and activity of daily living (ADL) capacity in the very elderly are not clear., Methods: A sample of very elderly people (N = 138), aged 75 years and older, living in Urausu, Hokkaido, participated in this study. Participants were classified into three groups: normal, borderline, and dementia. Time and frequency domain measures of HRV were compared with behavioral and cognitive functions., Results: HRV components, except for the LF/HF ratio, did not correlate with age in the very elderly. The LF component showed a statistically significant correlation with all the variables of behavioral functions. Most HRV components showed statistically significant and positive correlations with the flexibility of the back. The LF and LF/HF ratio were significantly lower in the dementia group than in the normal group., Conclusion: Although the meaning of the LF component is still controversial, we foundadefinite relationship between the LF component and behavioral functions. A positive relationship between most HRV components and the flexibility of the back may suggest that reduced flexibility leads to deteriorated cardiopulmonary function and reduced HRV. A further prospective study is needed to examine whether HRV and neurobehavioral functions are independent predictors of morbidity and mortality in very elderly people.

The purpose of present studies was to create brief self-report scales to assess individual differences in the sensitivity of two neurological self-regulatory systems; one is the behavioral inhibition system (BIS) which bears on aversive motivation, and the other is the behavioral approach system (BAS) which bears on appetitive motivation. Scale development was reported in study 1, and convergent and discriminant validation using alternative measures of similar constructs was reported in study 2. In study 3, positive and negative affect was manipulated in a controlled setting. Results were consistent with the hypothesis that participants with higher BIS sensitivity would show heightened emotional reactivity to negative mood induction, whereas higher BAS sensitivity would show heightened reactivity to positive mood induction. Furthermore, results indicated that higher BAS sensitivity not only inhibited negative affect in response to negative mood induction but also facilitated recovery from negative mood states. These results suggested that abnormal sensitivity of either system may be a vulnerability factor of psychopathology, when specific situational cues are present.

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of negative-sentence suggestions on various behavior. From the standpoint of the logic of negation, Miyashita (1998a, 1999) investigated the characteristics of feelings, sensations, and behavior. The results suggested that negative-sentence suggestions had more affirmative effects on mono-dimensional behavior than on multi-dimensional behavior. The present study examined this hypothesis. A total of 36 subjects (18 males, 18 females, mean age = 23.22, SD = 3.41) participated in the experiment. Subjects were given suggestions related to either mono-dimensional behavior or multi-dimensional behavior in negative-sentence form. An example of a suggestion related to mono-dimensional behavior would be "Your body does not move backwards", while an example for multi-dimensional behavior would be "Your body does not move." Body sway was then measured. Results showed that negative-sentence suggestions had more affirmative effects on mono-dimensional behavior than on multi-dimensional behavior. The hypothesis proposed by previous studies was supported.

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of negative-sentence suggestions on feelings and behaviors. Feelings and behaviors were classified under the axes of pleasant-unpleasant, and low-high activity. Sixteen subjects (six males and ten females) were induced into a light hypnotic state, and were given suggestions of feelings and behaviors in negative-sentence form. Aside of the above-mentioned suggestions, suggestions of neutral feeling and behavior in affirmative-sentence form was given as baseline. The subjects were then requested to rate the effect, which was stated in affirmative-sentence form. For example, if subject was given a negative-sentence suggestion that your feelings are not sad, then subject asked to rate his feelings of sadness. The results showed that negative-sentence suggestions had affirmative effects when the rated feeling was unpleasant, regardless of its activity level. They had negative effects when the rated feeling or behavior was pleasant and low in activity.

This study researched the effects of cognitive variables on recycling behavior, as well as effects of various media of influence on the cognition and behavior. According to Hirose (1994), the decision making process for recycling consists of two steps. The first leads to goal intention of an ecological lifestyle. The second is related to behavior intention of recycling in line with the goal intention. Mass media, such as newspaper and TV, are thought to influence beliefs about environmental problems, including three determinants of goal intention: perception of seriousness, responsibility, and effectiveness. Personal media, such as personal contacts with pro-environmental activists, are thought to influence evaluation of behavior, including three determinants of behavior intention: evaluation of feasibility, cost and benefits, and social norms. Local media, such as municipal announcement and circular, are hypothesized to have a mixed effect of the two. Path analysis indicated that goal intention affected recycling behavior through behavior intention. Effects of the three media of influence on the cognitive variables were also consistent with the hypothesis.

Locomotor movements are generally considered to be established by integrating the activities of the neuronal mechanisms related to each of the "automatic" and "volitional" control. As one of the neuronal mechanisms contributing to such integration, the possible roles played by the ponto-medullary reticular formation have recently been reexamined. As is well established, cells in the ponto-medullary reticular formation are related to arousal behavior, and the reticular formation itself is one of the major sources for generalized motor drive. In intact, awake cats, electrical stimulation delivered directly or indirectly to the reticular formation can evoke locomotor movements accompanied by an "alerting response" and preceded by postural adjustments adequate for locomotion. Microinjection of bethanechol, a short-acting cholinergic agonist, into the pontine reticular formation results in a peculiar modification of posture and, as a consequence, locomotor movements, even changing the arousal level of the animals. The cats with bilateral tegmental lesions in the pons exhibit locomotor movements during a state of rapid eye movement sleep without atonia. It is conceivable that the ponto-medullary reticular formation contributes greatly to the integration of neuronal activities related to automatic and volitional control of locomotor movements so as to establish a goal-directed behavioral locomotor movement.

The aim of the present studies was to find how people wear differently depending on season when the ambient temperature(Ta) was lowered from 33 degrees C to 6 degrees C in 90 min. Seven female young adults volunteered as subjects. The experiments consisting of laboratory and field ones were carried out in July, October, January and April throughout the year. When Ta was lowered in the laboratory experiment, the half-naked subject was instructed to wear freely. In the field experiment the subject was instructed to survey everyday for a month in each season what she wore and how the garments worn each day weighted. Tas in Nara city were seasonally collected from Nara weather station. Although the clothing weight increased proportionally to the decrease of Ta, there did not exist any seasonal changes in the clothing weight worn and also the thermophysiological parameters in the laboratory experiment. Field experiment disclosed that the clothing weight worn was the heaviest in winter and the lightest in summer, while no differences existed in the clothing weight between spring and autumn.

To determine the risk factors of the subjective symptoms experienced by chain saw workers, we surveyed 206 forestry workers using this device in their work. The strength of the relationship between their symptoms and such potential risk factors as occupational, behavioral, and physical factors was evaluated by a multiple logistic regression model. It was found that many years of chain saw operation, and numerous hours of chain saw operation per day, increased the risk of white finger, numbness of hands and arms, chillness of hands and arms and difficulty in joint movement, indicating that these symptoms were closely related to vibration exposure. Many years of forestry work before chain saw work also increased the risk of joint pain, suggesting that bone and joint disorders are related to heavy manual work not using a chain saw. A second job involving manual labor increased the risk of weakness in the arms, stiffness of the shoulders, and lumbago. Infrequent bathing was associated with increased risk of pain in hands and arms and lumbago. Older workers had a higher prevalence of stomach discomfort. No risk factor was found to significantly increase the risk of easy fatigability, forgetfulness and sleep disorder. It was found that not only exposure to vibration but also other factors contributed to the prevalence of pain in hands and arms, joint pain, weakness in arms, stiffness of shoulder, and lumbago. Second job and infrequent bathing appeared to be related to the occurrence of certain subjective symptoms. These contributory factors should be taken into account when evaluating subjective symptoms encountered in field studies of forestry workers.

It has been reported that an increased in dopaminergic activity in the striatum can induce gnawing compulsion, a stereotyped behavior. Apomorphine, amphetamine and L-DOPA also produce such effects, particularly in the rat. However, it has been reported that the gnawing compulsion in the guinea pig cannot be induced with L-DOPA and is not related to the levels of catecholamine in the brain. It is of essential importance in this kind of research to clarify whether or not a dopaminergic mechanism is equally involved in gnawing compulsion of the rodent in general. The present study dealt with the mechanism of gnawing compulsion with L-DOPA administration to guinea pigs. Gnawing compulsion was amplified by crystal pick-up and amplifiers and was continuously recorded by an inkwriting-oscilloscope. The recorded data were scored for quantitative and objective analysis. Certainly, L-DOPA alone did not induce continuous gnawing, but the gnawing was obviously induced by pretreatment with benserazide, a peripheral decarboxylase inhibitor. The induced gnawing complusion was inhibited by pimozide and haloperidol which are both dopamine receptor blockers. When catecholamine synthesis was inhibited pretreatment with alpha-methyl-p-tyrosine, the amphetamine induced gnawing compulsion alone was markedly inhibited, but the apomorphine or L-DOPA induced gnawing compulsion following the pretreatment with benserazide was not inhibited. Therefore, it was deduced that gnawing compulsion was induced with amphetamine directly by dopamine release, with apomorphine by its direct stimulation of the dopamine receptor, and with L-DOPA by its action on the dopamine receptor, after having been converted to dopamine. Based on these results, it was concluded that the dopaminergic mechanism is closely involved in gnawing compulsion seen in the guinea pig as well as in the rat.