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PubMed1982

Narcissism, defence and the positive transference.

Questions concerning the positive transference and its therapeutic use have been raised by the psychology of the self. By drawing upon Freud, Abraham and Sharpe, an attempt is made to test whether classical structural, dynamic and developmental theories still provide an adequate theoretical framework for understanding the vicissitudes of the positive transference in patients with significant narcissistic psychopathology. I propose the concept of a narcissistic mechanism of defence which, relying upon the convertibility of object libido into narcissistic libido (and the reverse), utilizes the substitution of activities and inanimate objects for persons in order to compensate for narcissistic injuries and to carry out unconscious aggression motivated by the same injuries. The case of Mrs M reveals that narcissistic transference phenomena, while requiring specific therapeutic interpretation, nevertheless are intrinsically related developmentally to object libidinal conflicts. The patient's narcissistic injuries were found to be intrinsically related to stage specific traumata at the oral, anal and phallic stages. Thus while the narcissistic aspects of these traumata had to be treated therapeutically in their own right, they could not have been successfully treated without the concurrent or sequential treatment of the object libidinal conflicts connected with them. Finally, it is argued that the hypothesis of a narcissistic defence mechanism supported by the hypothesis of pre-oedipal narcissistic projective and introjective identifications with narcissistically divinized or demonized parents within the framework of classical theory can account for the clinical phenomena of narcissistic neuroses.

Adult↗
PubMedDate not supplied

[Depression in children: prospective studies].

Prospective longitudinal observation of children socially and emotionally immature and depressive at entering school was carried on till their early adolescence. The study's aim was to describe: 1. childhood depression dynamics, 2. developmental changes in depression, 3. factors related to the depression course, 4. relation of childhood depression to adolescence depression. A screening study of representative population of school entering children led to identification of a risk group followed-up 3 and 6 years later. The Kraków Depression Inventory (AO "B1" and IO "B1") was used to diagnose, and for analysis of depression. Results of the study revealed a tendency to chronic course of depression in the studied group. Data collected at the first and the second stage showed coincidence of the depression chronicity and a set of nonspecific factors of "biological vulnerability" on the one hand, and dysfunctional family on the other. The latter was characterized by unclear family boundaries and difficult relational individuation. Data collected at the third stage of the study showed persistence of depression in the same individuals. Entering adolescence seemed to have no impact on depression prevalence in the studied group. It was, however, evident that cognitive and general activity disturbances increased among those studied who were not diagnosed depressive in the second and third stage. This finding requires further studies.

Antidepressive Agents↗
PubMed2001

Nonlinear developmental processes as sources of dominance.

Phenotypes are the products of developmental processes whose dynamics are controlled by genes. In many developmental processes there is a nonlinear relationship between genetic variation and phenotypic variation. These nonlinear relationships can result in the emergence of dominance among alleles that control the developmental process. We explore the properties of dominance relationships in a simple developmental system consisting of a diffusion-gradient-threshold mechanism commonly deployed in pattern formation. We show that a single nonlinear process (diffusion) within this integrated mechanism leads to the emergence of dominance in all components of the mechanism. Unlike the situation in metabolic pathways, where new mutations are most likely to be recessive, the structure of the nonlinearities in this developmental mechanism is such that in certain circumstances new mutations are equally likely to be dominant or recessive. Although the dominance we observe in this system is the result of a physiological process, we also find that dominance can evolve by microevolutionary mechanisms and thus are able to reconcile the opposing views of Fisher and Wright on dominance.

Alleles↗
PubMed2005

Molecular monitoring of the developmental bacterial community in the gastrointestinal tract of Japanese infants.

The dynamics of the developmental bacterial community in the Japanese neonatal gastrointestinal tract were examined by monitoring 16S ribosomal RNA gene (rDNA) diversity in fecal samples by PCR and denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE). The results showed a certain pattern common in infants without antibiotic treatment, in which aerobes, e.g., Pseudomonas, appeared first and were then immediately replaced by facultative anaerobe, Enterococcus, Streptococcus, and Enterobacteriaceae through the first month, and finally strictly anaerobic Bifidobactrerium appeared.

Base Sequence↗
PubMed2006

Cognitive plasticity as a modulating variable on the effects of memory training in elderly persons.

Cognitive plasticity is a topic of interest since it allows us to analyse the potential cognitive modifiability of a person. Previous research has demonstrated the existence of plasticity in old age [Baltes, P. B. (1987). Theoretical propositions of life-span developmental psychology: On the dynamics between growth and decline. Developmental Psychology, 23(5), 611-626] regardless of presence or absence of cognitive deterioration [Calero, M. D., & Navarro, E. (2004). Relationship between plasticity, mild cognitive impairment and cognitive decline. Archives of Clinical Neuropsychology, 19, 653-660]. In this context, the present study was designed to analyse the presence of plasticity in elderly persons who seemed to present cognitive deterioration, and to explore the relation between cognitive plasticity and the results obtained from a memory training programme. One hundred and thirty-three elderly persons participated in the study and were evaluated by means of a cognitive plasticity test (Position test) and various tests for measuring the effects of the training. Part of the elderly population received the memory training, whose effects were measured immediately after the training and again after 9 months. The results demonstrate that the programme significantly improves cognitive performance, while plasticity is shown to be an important modulating variable on the improvement achieved.

Aged↗
PubMed2006

A mutation of beta -actin that alters depolymerization dynamics is associated with autosomal dominant developmental malformations, deafness, and dystonia.

Actin, one of the major filamentous cytoskeletal molecules, is involved in a variety of cellular functions. Whereas an association between muscle actin mutations and skeletal and cardiac myopathies has been well documented, reports of human disease arising from mutations of nonmuscle actin genes have been rare. We have identified a missense point mutation in the gene coding for beta -actin that results in an arginine-to-tryptophan substitution at position 183. The disease phenotype includes developmental midline malformations, sensory hearing loss, and a delayed-onset generalized dystonia syndrome in monozygotic twins. Cellular studies of a lymphoblastoid cell line obtained from an affected patient demonstrated morphological abnormalities of the actin cytoskeleton and altered actin depolymerization dynamics in response to latrunculin A, an actin monomer-sequestering drug. Resistance to latrunculin A was also observed in NIH 3T3 cells expressing the mutant actin. These findings suggest that mutations in nonmuscle actins may be associated with a broad spectrum of developmental malformations and/or neurological abnormalities such as dystonia.

Actins↗
PubMed2006

A developmental contextual perspective on identity construction in emerging adulthood: change dynamics in commitment formation and commitment evaluation.

A developmental contextual test of a dual-cycle model of identity formation is presented. In addition to a commitment-formation cycle-represented by Marcia's (1966) classical dimensions of exploration in breadth and commitment making--the model comprises a commitment-evaluation cycle--constituted by 2 additional dimensions of exploration in depth and identification with commitment. In a sample of 402 college students assessed 4 times over 2 years, both dimensions of the commitment-formation cycle and exploration in depth increased across time. Identification with commitment showed a slight decrease across time. Latent growth curve (LGC) modeling analyses indicated that the 2 identity cycles are interwoven in a dynamic interplay that defines identity formation. Contextual influences on identity development were identified through a natural experiment. Commitment evaluation constituted the core identity cycle in the normative-progression group (i.e., students who moved on to the sophomore year). Both commitment formation and commitment evaluation were at work in the reorientation group (i.e., students who repeated their freshman year or changed their major). Implications and suggestions for future research are discussed.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2003

Balance of cell proliferation and death among dynamic populations: a mathematical model.

Developmental changes in cell numbers represent the dynamic balance between cell proliferation and death. One obstacle to assessing this balance is an inability to quantify the total amount of cell death, i.e., with a positive indicator such as terminal dUTP nick end labeling (TUNEL) or caspase activity. A novel mathematical model is described wherein data on daily cell growth (the change in cell number) and cell cycle kinetics can be used to determine the total amount of cell death. Two sets of data from previously published studies were tested in this model; primary cultured cortical neurons and B104 neuroblastoma cells. These two preparations have contrasting features: neuronal cultures are heterogeneous and have relatively few cells that are actively cycling (i.e., the growth fraction for these cells is low), whereas B104 cells are relatively homogeneous cultures in which the growth fraction is high. In primary cortical cultures, there was a balance in cell production and death. Treatment with a potent anti-mitogen, ethanol (400 mg/dl), affected this balance principally by reducing cell production, although the rate of cell death was also increased. In untreated B104 cells, there was eight-fold more cell production than cell death. Growth factors such as platelet-derived growth factor BB doubled cell production. Ethanol reduced cell production by >60%, and it eliminated growth factor-mediated cell production. All of these changes occurred in the absence of an effect on the amount of cell death. Thus, the model is ideal for predicting the effects of an epigenetic factor (e.g., a growth factor, toxin, or pharmacological agent) on cell development and can be useful in determining the consequences of a genetic manipulation as well.

Animals↗
PubMed2003

Regulation of membrane dynamics in developing epithelia.

A cellular understanding of developmental mechanisms embraces complex dynamic processes at the cell surface. Studies of trafficking pathways and of associated cytoskeletal elements in genetically tractable organisms allow a better analysis of the mechanisms underlying the control of cell polarization and tissue morphogenesis at different stages of animal development. It is now possible to identify signalling pathways that provide the temporal triggers and/or spatial cues to regulate core cellular effectors during migration, morphogenesis and the formation of epithelia.

Animals↗
PubMed1986

Neural dynamics of speech and language coding: developmental programs, perceptual grouping, and competition for short-term memory.

A computational theory of how an observer parses a speech stream into context-sensitive language representations is described. It is shown how temporal lists of events can be chunked into unitized representations, how perceptual groupings of past item sublists can be reorganized due to information carried by newly occurring items, and how item information and temporal order information are bound together into context-sensitive codes. These language units are emergent properties due to intercellular interactions among large numbers of nerve cells. The controlling neural networks can arise through simple rules of neuronal development: random growth of connections along spatial gradients, activity-dependent self-similar cell growth, and competition for conserved synaptic sites. Within these networks, a spatial frequency analysis of temporally evolving activity patterns leads to competitive masking of inappropriate list encodings in short term memory. The neurons obey membrane equations undergoing shunting recurrent on-center off-surround interactions. Several design principles are embodied by the networks, such as the sequence masking principle, the long-term memory invariance principle, and the principle of self-similar growth.

Auditory Pathways↗
PubMed1995

From walking to running: applying a dynamical systems approach to the development of locomotor skills.

Developmental transitions of complex systems may be studied by selecting (collective) variables that constrain the degrees of freedom for each developmental state. In a dynamical systems approach, the transitions from state to state are engendered through the scaling of contributing subsystems (control parameters). In this study, the locomotor skills of walking and running were compared in newly running infants by observing several likely collective variables including relative stance, estimated pathway of center of mass, and segmental/joint action. 4 children were filmed longitudinally at 5.5, 7.5, and 9.5 months of independent walking and then at 3 years of age. 3 trials per gait were selected for single stride analysis and compared with data from 4 adults. In general, the proposed collective variables showed transitional forms over the first few months of running, indicating a relatively continuous change between the 2 gait forms. Coordination of the knee joint was very similar between gaits and across age, but the ankle joint was less consistent for both gaits in the infants. Relative stance and stride length data indicated that the children could not generate vertical and horizontal displacement. These findings echo those found in newly walking infants and suggest that similar rate-limiting parameters are present for both gaits.

Adult↗
PubMed1996

Dynamic changes in expression of glutamate transporter mRNAs in developing brain.

Developmental changes in gene expression for three glutamate transporter subtypes in the mouse brain were analysed by in situ hybridization. During embryonic stages, GluT-1 and GLT-1 mRNAs were expressed at high levels in the ventricular zone, whereas EAAC1 mRNA was not detected in the zone. In the mantle zone, transcription levels of three transporter mRNAs were low during embryonic stages, and these levels, especially those of the GluT-1 and GLT-1 mRNAs, displayed remarkable increases postnatally to reach maximal levels at 14 days of age. These dynamic developmental regulations suggest that the glutamate transporter not only regulates the excitatory synaptic transmission at mature stages, but might also be intimately involved in the brain development.

ATP-Binding Cassette Transporters↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Developmental regulation of skull morphology. I. Ontogenetic dynamics of variance.

In the absence of processes regulating morphogenesis and growth, phenotypic variance of a population experiencing no selective mortality should increase throughout ontogeny. To determine whether it does, we measure variance of skull shape using geometric morphometrics and examine its ontogenetic dynamics in the precocial cotton rat (Sigmodon fulviventer) and the altricial house mouse (Mus musculus domesticus). In both species, variance of shape halves between the two youngest samples measured (between 1 and 10 days postnatal and 10 and 15 days postnatal, respectively) and thereafter is nearly constant. The reduction in variance did not appear to result from a general regulation of skull size or developmental timing, although skull size may also be regulated and developmental timing is an important component of the variation in skull shape of young house mice. The ontogenetic dynamics of variance suggest two possible scenarios. First, variation generated during fetal or early postnatal growth is not immediately compensated and therefore accumulates, whereas later in growth, variation is continually generated and rapidly compensated. Second, variation generated during fetal and early postnatal growth is rapidly compensated, after which no new variance is produced. Based on a general model for bone growth, we hypothesize that variance is generated when bone grows under the direction of disorganized muscular movements and decreases with increasing neuromuscular control. Additionally, increasing coherence of signals transmitted by the growing brain and sensory organs, which exert tensile forces on bone, may also canalize skull shape.

Anatomy↗
PubMed2005

The developmental line of autonomy in the etiology, dynamics, and treatment of borderline personality disorders.

Borderline personality disorder (BPD) is considered as a disorder of autonomy, and is related to both predisposing vulnerabilities and social relationships that fail to support basic psychological needs. Autonomy, which is defined within the self-determination theory as the capacity for self-endorsed action based on integrative, reflective awareness, is discussed as a developmental line that is dependent on specific supports from caregivers. Unresponsiveness, invalidation, or abuse by caregivers is argued to impair the capacity for autonomy and to catalyze an array of processes, both biological and psychological, which impact subsequent development and, in vulnerable individuals, can lead to BPD. Aspects of treatment, including the emphases on validation and acceptance of the patient's experience, and the cultivation of more reflective or mindful regulation of behavior, can be deduced, from this analysis of autonomy disturbance, and these in turn have appeared as the cornerstones of effective treatments for BPD.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1988

Features of embryonic induction.

The patterned distribution of different organs in the amphibian embryo begins with the establishment of two domains, the animal and vegetal regions, that differ in developmental potency. Differences amplify as inductive interactions occur across boundaries between areas of different potency. Embryonic induction establishes a temporally and spatially dynamic area of developmental potency - a morphogenetic field. The final arrangement and differentiation of cell types within the field emerge from subsequent interactions occurring primarily within the field. These principles are illustrated in a review of the induction of the lens and the heart. Recent studies show that the induction of the lens of the eye and the induction of the heart begin early in development. Most of lens inductions occurs before the formation of the optic vesicle, and the heart appears to be part of a complex of dorsal structures whose formation is dependent upon the establishment of the dorsoventral axis. Suppressive as well as inductive tissue interactions occur during the determination of both of these organs, affecting their position and time of appearance. The complex processes of induction defined by the past nine decades of experimental work present many challenging questions that can now be addressed, especially in terms of the molecular events, cellular behaviour and regulatory physiology of the responding tissue.

Animals↗
PubMed2001

The twin poles of order and chaos. Development as a dynamic, self-ordering system.

The diversity of theories regarding children's development is commensurate with the enormity of the task of seeking ordering designs for explaining behavioral and psychic ontogeny in infants, children, and adults. The purpose of this paper is to look at these developmental theories as epigenetic stages themselves. I shall suggest that the next stage in the epigenesis of theories of development is to see variability and disorder on a continuum with order and stability, as a constant dialectic that moves development along, whether at the level of the cell or at the level of fantasy. I shall explore four questions that are implicitly about development as an ordering process and about theories of development as methods for bringing order to what is an inherently messy, even chaotic. The first two questions--what does it mean to take a developmental perspective, and what does any theory of development need to explain--set the stage for the consideration of some different perspectives for thinking about development. These other perspectives, borrowed from general systems theory, focus on the interplay of order-stability and variability-instability in psychological development. The third question, asks what does a more detailed consideration of the variability or noise in development add to our current developmental perspectives? Exploring dynamic systems and self-ordering processes will lead to several fields not explicitly clinical, psychological, or even psychoanalytic, but I shall circle back to apply these ideas to psychoanalytic perspectives on development, change, and adaptation in the fourth and concluding question. What can these cross-disciplinary attitudes offer to the psychoanalytic developmental perspective, whether in the form of our theories or our work with patients?

Adolescent↗