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Previous research has suggested that cholinergic neurons in the nucleus basalis magnocellularis and substantia innominata (NBM/SI) may be important in mediating aversive states. The authors investigated the effect of NBM/SI cholinergic lesions, induced with 192 IgG saporin, on behavioral measures of aversive states in rats. Behavior in the elevated plus maze and behavioral suppression induced by 2 fear-conditioned stimuli, a tone and a light, were evaluated. Lesions had no effect on any measures in the elevated plus maze but attenuated operant suppression induced by the light and attenuated freezing induced by the tone, though this last effect was not statistically significant. The results of the study suggest that NBM/SI cholinergic neurons may be important in mediating selective aspects of aversive states. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Prior lab research revealed higher basal total peripheral resistance (TPR) and lower cardiac output (CO) in lonely than in nonlonely young adults. In this study, experience sampling was used to obtain ambulatory blood pressure; impedance cardiography; and reports of activities, appraisals, interactions, and health behaviors. Results confirmed that loneliness predicted higher TPR and lower CO during a normal day. Loneliness did not predict differences in time spent alone, daily activities, or health behaviors but did predict higher stress appraisals and poorer social interactions. Independent of loneliness, interaction quality contributed to TPR. Loneliness differences were not mediated by depressed affect or neuroticism. Social support mediated loneliness differences in stress and threat. Concomitants of loneliness were comparable for men and women. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Examines the impact of element size in choice arrays using one to five large and small candies. Weight of element size when choice stimuli differed in size and quantity although choices reflected total candy mass; Influence of individual item size on quantity judgment.

Examines the multilevel integrative analyses of human behavior in the United States. Consideration of social influences on biological processes; Emphasis on biopsychology; Differences in the magnitude of response to social stimuli; Interactions between neural and social processes; Association between social and biological psychology.

Presents an experiment in which a chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes) trained in counting and comprehension of number symbols spontaneously displayed a variety of indicating acts during counting. Number of items in the array; Cardinal number selected by the ape; Frequency of indicating gestures.

Provides a conceptual framework to advance the interpretation of data describing the relationships between cognitive phenomena and brain structure activity. History of brain imaging and cerebral localization; Methodological and logical issues on cerebral localization of function; Toward strong inference in the interpretation of brain-behavior relationships.

Discusses the relationship between attitudes and evaluative processes. Origins of bipolar attitude rating scales; Principles of evaluative activation, opposing evaluative actions and bivalent modes of evaluative activation; Attitudinal properties as a function of the bivalent mode of evaluative activation; Surface gradients.

Presents a quantitative bivariate model for the chonotropic control of the human heart. Comprehensive characterization of psychophysiological response; Differentiation of behavioral states and processes; Illumination of general principles such as the law of initial values; Psychophysiological investigations within the autonomic space model; Limitations; Analytical tools.

Compares the perceptual and cognitive mechanisms in chimpanzees in their responses to quantity. Alleviation of performance deficits by the use of numerical symbols; Training in counting and number comprehension.

Examines the importance of a multilevel, integrative approach to the study of mental and behavioral phenomena in the 1990s, the decade of the brain, declared by Congress. Reasons for importance of the congressional declaration of the decade of the brain; Use of single level vs. multilevel analysis in social psychology and the neurosciences; Doctrine of multilevel analysis; Social psychological contributions to the neurosciences.

This article presents response of researchers John T. Cacioppo, Gary G. Berntson and Gün R. Semin to the comments about their research related to realism, instrumentalism and scientific symbiosis. By analogy, scientists benefit from appropriately applying both inductive and deductive reasoning to the problem of scientific inquiry. The appropriate and iterative application of induction and deduction in science might reasonably be described as symbiotic because the accrual of knowledge benefits from their iterative application in the scientific method. Researchers agree with assertion that subjectivism may color a scientist's understanding of phenomena under investigation. The division of knowledge into disciplines reflects the limits of human capacities, and the specific aspects on which scientists choose to focus are an expression of expectations and values. In sum, researchers appreciate the thoughtful commentaries and hope readers agree that the comments raise important questions and point to worthwhile literatures beyond what they could cover.

Intraperitoneal epinephrine enhances the cerebral auditory evoked potential (AEP), an effect that is dependent on the basal forebrain cortical cholinergic system. The present study examined the hypothesis that ascending noradrenergic projections from brainstem autonomic substrates to the basal forebrain cholinergic system represent an essential component of the ascending pathway mediating this effect of epinephrine. Epinephrine again enhanced the AEP in rats, and this effect was attenuated by infusion of the selective αl adrenergic antagonist terazosin into the basal forebrain. Moreover, infusions of the selective αl adrenergic agonist phenylephrine into the basal forebrain mimicked the priming effects of epinephrine. Results support the hypothesis that noradrenergic afferents to the basal forebrain cholinergic system represent a component of an ascending visceral afferent system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Scientific realism holds that scientific theories are approximations of universal truths about reality, whereas scientific theories are intellectual structures that provide adequate predictions of what is observed and useful frameworks for answering questions and solving problems in a give domain. These philosophical perspectives have different strengths and weaknesses and have been regarded as incommensurate: Scientific realism fosters theoretical rigor, verifiability, parsimony, and debate, whereas scientific instrumentalism fosters theoretical innovation, synthesis, generativeness, and scope. The authors review the evolution of scientific realism and instrumentalism in psychology and propose that the categorical distinction between the 2 is overstated as a prescription for scientific practice. The authors propose that the iterative deployment of these 2 perspective, just as the iterative application of inductive and deductive reasoning in science, may promote more rigorous, integrative, cumulative, and useful scientific theories. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Developments within the neurosciences, cognitive sciences, and social sciences have contributed to the emergence of social neuroscience. Among the most obvious contemporary developments are brain-imaging procedures such as functional magnetic resonance imaging. The authors outline a set of first principles designed to help make sense of brain-imaging research within the fields of cognitive and social neuroscience. They begin with a principle few would debate--that social cognition, emotion, and behavior involve the brain--but whose implications might not be entirely obvious to those new to the field. The authors conclude that (a) complex aspects of the mind and behavior will benefit from yet a broader collaboration of neuroscientists, cognitive scientists, and social scientists, and (b) social psychologists bring important theoretical, methodological, and statistical expertise to this interdisciplinary enterprise. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the pain-flexor reflex, arm extension is temporally coupled with the onset of the unconditioned aversive stimulus, whereas flexion is associated with its offset; when retrieving desirable stimuli, arm flexion is more closely coupled temporally to the acquisition or consumption of the desired stimuli than arm extension. It was posited that these contingencies foster an association between arm flexion, in contrast to extension, and approach motivational orientations. Six experiments were conducted to examine this hypothesis. Ideographs presented during arm flexion were subsequently ranked more positively than ideographs presented during arm extension, but only when the Ss' task was to evaluate the ideographs when they were presented initially. Arm flexion and extension were also each found to have discernible attitudinal effects. These results suggest a possible role for nondeclarative memory in attitude formation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous studies have demonstrated that corticopetal cholinergic lesions applied to the nucleus basalis magnocellularis and substantia innominata (NBM/SI) attenuate operant suppression induced by aversive events. However, these lesions have no effect on open-arm behavior in the elevated plus-maze or changes in startle reactivity induced by bright light. This raises the possibility that NBM/SI corticopetal cholinergic lesions alter operant behavior and/or appetitive state, as opposed to the aversive state operant suppression is supposed to index. To address this concern, the authors documented the effect of NBM/SI corticopetal cholinergic lesions on freezing induced by a component of fox feces (2,4,5- trimethylthiazoline [TMT]), a paradigm that does not involve food deprivation or operant performance. TMT presentation induced freezing behavior, and this effect was attenuated by NBM/SI corticopetal cholinergic lesions. Because predator odor presentation, but not presentation of a predator, induces defense behaviors that are sensitive to anxiolytic drugs, the results of the study suggest that NBM/SI corticopetal cholinergic lesions attenuate anxiety-like states. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We report evidence of both correspondence and independence between participants' attitude report and a late positive potential (LPP) of the event-related potential. Attitude reports and LPPs to positive, neutral, and negative stimuli that were preceded by positive stimuli were recorded while participants either reported accurately their attitudes or misreported neutral or negative attitudes. Evaluatively inconsistent, in contrast to consistent, stimuli evoked a larger LPP regardless of whether participants reported accurately or misreported their attitudes. These results were replicated in a second study in which attitude reports and LPPs to negative, neutral, and positive stimuli that were preceded by negative stimuli were recorded. Findings suggest that the LPP evoked during evaluative judgments reflects attitude categorization rather than attitude report processes and can potentially assess attitudes that people are unwilling to report. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]