Search PubMed⌕ Search

SEARCH · Search PubMed

Results for “Behaviorism”

Search indexed PubMed citations on genomics, clinical trials, systematic reviews and public health. Explore titles, authors and supplied subject terms, then open the PubMed record.

Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.

At least 955 records · Page 53Linked to original sources
PubMedDate not supplied

Religion and spirituality: influence on health/risk behavior and cancer screening behavior of African Americans.

In spite of the diversity in the principles, expression and practice, it is believed that significant improvements can occur in the health status of African Americans if health education and outreach efforts are presented and promoted through religious, spiritual and faith-based venues. Several reports published in the peer-reviewed literature address issues related to religion, spirituality and cancer control among African Americans. This growing body of literature describes outcomes of several cancer prevention and control programs designed for and conducted within the African American faith community. However, few efforts have been undertaken to examine the influence of religion and spirituality on health/risk behavior and cancer screening practices of African Americans within the faith community. This report presents the outcomes of an exploratory study undertaken to examine the influence of religion and spirituality on the health/risk behavior and cancer screening practices of African American congregants. Data suggest a need for tailored and targeted health education, outreach and programming among the targeted group of congregants focused specifically on tobacco control, diet and nutrition, exercise and physical activity, weight management, and cancer screening. The same appears to be the case relative to the need for education, outreach and programming focused on communication with primary care providers.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1990

Enhanced behavioral conditioning to context and impaired behavioral and neuroendocrine responses to conditioned stimuli following ceruleocortical noradrenergic lesions: support for an attentional hypothesis of central noradrenergic function.

This study tested the hypothesis that cortical noradrenaline (NA) depletion induced by 6-hydroxydopamine (6-OHDA) widens attentional span, impairing the acquisition of conditioning to an explicit stimulus while enhancing conditioning to contextual stimuli. Sham-operated and NA-depleted rats were exposed to pairings of an auditory (clicker) CS and (footshock) US in a distinctive environment. Half of the lesioned and half of the control animals were trained with a short trace interval between presentations of clicker and shock, and half with a long trace. Associative learning theory predicts that a long trace interval should bias intact animals towards stronger contextual conditioning and, in contrast, a short trace interval should bias controls towards stronger CS conditioning. During testing, NA-depleted animals showed impaired fear conditioning to explicit cues, compared with controls, indicated by their reduced suppression of drinking when the CS was introduced into a separate, lick-operant chamber. In contrast, the same animals exhibited enhanced fear of contextual cues, as shown by their greater preference for a "safe" environment over the one in which they were shocked. The behavioral and plasma corticosterone responses of individual animals to the CS were positively correlated in both the lesion and sham groups. Corticosterone levels corroborated the impairment in CS conditioning caused by the lesion. In contrast, behavioral and corticosterone responses to contextual stimuli were not significantly correlated in either group, and there was no enhancement of the corticosterone response to contextual stimuli in the lesioned animals.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Acoustic Stimulation↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Modulation of action of kainic acid on the behavior of rats by p-chlorophenylalanine and by gaba-mimetic drugs. Biochemical correlation between behavior and treatments.

Systemic injection of kainic acid (KA, 11 mg/kg i.p.) to male albino Sprague-Dawley rats produced a sequence of behavioral events: stereotypies, convulsions, aphagia and aggressiveness in the form of sparring at artificial night fall, as well as a decline in brain-Gaba and brain-dopamine (DA)-levels followed by an increase in DA-levels on days 6 and 10 after treatment. No notable variations in serotonin (5-HT) was observed. Pretreatments of rats with GABA-mimetic drugs (gamma-vinyl GABA, 900 mg/kg i.p.; THIP, 1 microgram/1 microliter/rat, i.c.v.) prevented the occurrence of convulsion, aphagia and aggressiveness. Systemic injection of p-chlorophenylalanine (PCPA) (300 mg/kg i.p.) induced aggressiveness in the form of sparring at night fall. Treatment with PCPA followed by injection of KA shifted mild aggressive behavior to a violent one in the form of biting and killing familiar rats. The findings suggest that KA-neurotoxicity is due in part to its effects on GABA- and DA-neurotransmissions. It is shown also that convulsions are induced by a decline in GABA-level while sparring is provoked by an enhancement in DA-level. Violent aggressiveness is induced by the additive disruptive effects on GABA- and 5-HT-neurotransmissions in PCPA + KA treated animals.

Aggression↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Testing strategies in behavioral teratology: III. Microanalysis of behavior.

After having been tested in a standard behavioral teratology test battery, as reported in Part I of this study, a random sample of male offspring of rat dams exposed to methylmercury starting two weeks prior to pairing until weaning were further tested in a wheel-shaped activity monitor and in an operant conditioning paradigm (spatial alternation discrete trial acquisition). In the activity monitor a non-significant increase in locomotor activity, a significant interaction between locomotion and radial activity monitor compartments and a significant increase in stereotyped locomotion was observed. While the preliminary training phases of operant conditioning showed only weak effects due to methylmercury, strong and highly significant increases of the number of unresponded trials and of the response latency, as well as of the session to session variation of these measures were detected during the spatial alternation schedule. A microanalysis of this observation revealed that the number of unresponded trials and its instability were affected in essence due to an increased number of response pauses, and to a lesser degree to an increased length of these pauses. In addition, short attention spans (number of trials responded between two pauses) were about four times more frequent in treated animals. The distributions of both response latency and duration were shifted significantly to longer values. These observations are interpreted as an indication of a reduced attention and behavioral stability, induced by the schedule challenge. This interpretation is compared with the signs of minimal brain dysfunction in school-children.

Animals↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Behavioral effects of prenatal methylmercury in rats: a parallel trial to the Collaborative Behavioral Teratology Study.

Pregnant Sprague-Dawley rats treated with 0, 2.0 or 6.0 mg/kg of methylmercury on days 6-9 of gestation or left untreated as part of the Collaborative Behavioral Teratology Study (CBTS) were assigned to either the CBTS or Cincinnati Test protocol after birth. Offspring assigned to the Cincinnati test system were evaluated for growth, mortality, incisor eruption, eye opening, vaginal patency, surface righting, negative geotaxis, pivoting, olfactory orientation, swimming ontogeny, figure-8 activity, and complex water maze (Biel) problem solving. Methylmercury lengthened gestation, reduced maternal weight, and increased offspring preweaning mortality at the higher dose. This dose also accelerated upper and lower incisor eruption and delayed vaginal patency development. The high dose produced a non-significant reduction in offspring weight from shortly after birth to 30 days of age, and a significant reduction in weight by 60 days of age. This dose caused a significant delay in surface righting development and swimming ontogeny, while the low dose accelerated negative geotaxis turning and swimming angle development. The high dose reduced postweaning figure-8 activity, increased Biel water maze time, errors, and proportion of trial failures (no escape within 6 min), although the effect on errors was not significant. It was concluded that at the doses and exposure period used here, methylmercury was confirmed to be a potent behavioral teratogen using the Cincinnati test system. This finding is in agreement with the results obtained with the same treatment regimen in the CBTS. Two tests from the Cincinnati test system, swimming ontogeny and Biel maze, provided evidence that they would significantly improve the detection power of the CBTS test battery.

Aging↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Reported changes in the sexual behavior of men at risk for AIDS, San Francisco, 1982-84--the AIDS Behavioral Research Project.

We surveyed 454 men in November 1983 and in May 1984 regarding their sexual practices during the month before the survey. In the 1983 survey, we also asked for reports about sexual behavior during the same month 1 year prior to the survey. The sample consisted of men recruited as they left bath-houses and bars, men who had not used bars or baths for meeting sexual partners for 2 months prior to the November 1983 survey, and men in committed primary relationships with another man. We found substantial changes in reported sexual behavior with persons other than a primary partner. The average number of male partners declined from 6.3 in November 1982 to 3.9 in May 1984. Receptive anal intercourse without condom declined from 1.9 to 0.7, oral-anal contact declined from 1.1 to 0.3, and swallowing semen declined from 2.8 to 0.7 in terms of the number of times that the respondent engaged in the act in the last month. These same changes did not occur in relation to sex with a primary partner. Only one variable, namely, increased length of time since the first homosexual experience, distinguished persons maintaining few sexual partners from those increasing the number of sexual partners from November 1983 to May 1984. Four variables distinguished those retaining high numbers of sexual partners from those lowering the number of sexual partners, namely, ability to remember a visual image of AIDS deterioration, age, relationship status, and length of time since first homosexual experience.

Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome↗
PubMed1983

Behavioral studies of shaking behavior induced by thyrotropin-releasing hormone and morphine withdrawal in rats.

A behavioral study was performed in an attempt to understand the neuronal mechanisms involved in wet dog body shaking in rats induced by the administration of thyrotropin-releasing hormone (TRH). The body shaking evoked by TRH (10 mg/kg, i.p.) was not affected by pretreatment with methysergide, scopolamine, levallorphan or phentolamine, but was inhibited by clonidine, haloperidol and reserpine. Body shaking behavior was also elicited by injection of levallorphan to morphine-dependent rats. The morphine-withdrawal body shaking was antagonized by pretreatment with TRH in the doses (10, 20 mg/kg, i.p.) which alone induced body shaking. A dose of TRH (10 mg/kg, i.p.) which induces body shaking in control rats, was without effect in morphine-dependent rats that had undergone withdrawal. The present results imply that TRH-induced body shaking is not associated with the increased activity of serotonergic, cholinergic and enkephalinergic neurons in the brain, and also its mechanisms seem to be different from that of morphine-withdrawal body shaking.

Animals↗
PubMed1981

Amphetamine behavioral toxicity: rotational behavior after chronic intrastriatal infusion.

The behavioral "reverse tolerance" to d-amphetamine in rats has not been clearly established for the high-dose, sustained d-amphetamine exposure relevant to human behavioral toxicity, especially the amphetamine psychosis. We have looked for alterations in the d-amphetamine response following pretreatment by a newer pharmacologic intervention, the continuous chronic unilateral infusion of highdose d-amphetamine into the caudate-putamen. We found that the circling response to a subsequent intraperitoneal injections of d-amphetamine is consistently ipsilateral compared to saline controls, suggesting tolerance development. This finding, and that of minimal apomorphine-induced rotation in these animals, is discussed in terms of a functional imbalance of right and left nigrostriatal dopamine activity, possibly due to dopamine depletion.

Animals↗
PubMed1981

Serotoninergic control of punished behavior: effects of intra-raphe microinjections of chlordiazepoxide, GABA and 5-HT on behavioral suppression in rats.

The effects of intra dorsalis raphe microinjections of chlordiazepoxide, GABA and 5-HT were studied on a model of behavioral suppression in rats. The suppression of responding for food was elicited by a 10 min presentation of a signal previously associated with the delivery of electric foot shocks. Microinjections of chlordiazepoxide, GABA and 5-HT (0.2 microliters) performed in awake hand-held rats reduced the behavioral suppression. Chlordiazepoxide and 5-HT acted in a synergistic way, while such a synergy could not be obtained when chlordiazepoxide and GABA were coadministered. Moreover, the effects of intra-raphe chloridazepoxide no longer appeared in rats given intra dorsalis raphe 5-7 dihydroxytryptamine (3 micrograms in 0.4 microliters) 3 weeks before testing. All these results further support the hypothesis of the involvement of 5-HT neurons both in punishment-induced inhibition and in the antipunishment activity of benzodiazepines. No evidence was obtained suggesting a GABAergic mediation for the functional interaction of chlordiazepoxide with 5-HT neurons in this experimental model. Since high 3H-flunitrazepam binding was found at the raphe dorsalis level, and since a 30% decrease in the number of intra-raphe 3H-flunitrazepam binding sites was detected after intra-raphe 5-7 dihydroxytryptamine, it is possible that intra-raphe chlordiazepoxide controls 5-HT neurons partly through some benzodiazepine binding sites located on 5-HT cells.

5,7-Dihydroxytryptamine↗
PubMedDate not supplied

[Behavioral dimensions and behavior problems in 2 1/2-year-old children].

The present article gives a literature review on rating scales and psychometric instruments used for behavior rating in infants and toddlers. The results of gender specific factor analysis in a German normative sample of 2 1/2 year old children (N = 751) are compared to Achenbach's syndrome scales of the CBCL 2-3. In contrast to psychiatric diagnostic manuals (DSM-IV, ICD-10), which currently do not provide correct descriptions of the developmental psychopathology in this age group an empirically derived classification of age specific behavior is presented. Our own factor analysis replicated identically Achenbach's sleep-problem-scale for this age group and came very next to Achenbach's syndrome scales. A comparison of the published international normative samples for the CBCL 2-3 shows, that the results in the Netherlands, in the United States and Canada are not statistically different from our German group. In the context of developmental psychopathology we prognose gender specific factor solutions derived from a normative sample and not from a clinical population. Psychometric data of these different versions are presented and discussed from a child psychiatrists view on developmental psychopathology.

Child Behavior Disorders↗
PubMed1995

Establishing behavioral and physiological functions of central oxytocin: insights from studies of oxytocin and ingestive behaviors.

Plasma oxytocin (OT) levels are strongly correlated with inhibition of ingestion in many models of stimulated food and NaCl intake in rats, but peripheral administration of OT or OT antagonists has little or no effect on these behaviors. These findings led us to propose that central OT secretion from parvocellular neurons occurring in parallel with pituitary secretion from magnocellular neurons acts to inhibit ingestion of both food and salt. Multiple lines of evidence now support this hypothesis: 1) intracerebroventricular (icv) OT administration inhibits food intake in fasted rats and NaCl intake in hypovolemic rats; 2) icv administration of OT-receptor antagonists significantly blunts the effects of anorexigenic agents on food intake and the action of naloxone to inhibit hypovolemia-induced intake of NaCl, but not water; 3) most treatments that inhibit food and/or NaCl intake stimulate expression of c-fos in parvocellular as well as magnocellular OT neurons, indicating simultaneous activation of both centrally-projecting and pituitary-projecting OT neurons; 4) icv treatment with cytotoxic conjugates of ricin A and OT to disable cells bearing OT receptors leads to a disinhibition of NaCl intake similar to that produced by OT antagonists; 5) administration of ethanol, a well known inhibitor of OT secretion, produces effects on stimulated food and NaCl intake in rats analogous to those produced by OT-antagonists and ricin-OT conjugates. In conjunction with studies demonstrating natriuretic effects of circulating OT, these results therefore support the concept of coordinated central and peripheral OT secretion as a mechanism for regulating body solute homeostasis in rats. These phenomena will be used as a framework to discuss and critically evaluate the criteria that are both necessary and sufficient to firmly establish behavioral and physiological functions of centrally-secreted peptides such as OT.

Animals↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Behavioral treatment in migraine. Cognitive-behavioral therapy and blood-volume-pulse biofeedback: a cross-over study with a two-year follow-up.

The aim of the present study was to ascertain the effects of two behavioral medicine approaches to the treatment of migraine. We also evaluated the specific effect of the sequence of the two treatments. Thirty-eight patients, suffering from migraine without aura, either obtained treatment in the following sequence: blood-volume-pulse biofeedback followed by cognitive behavioral therapy (Group I) or were given the treatment in reverse order (Group II). The effects of treatment in Group I were significantly better than those in Group II. We conclude that the application of biofeedback helps the patient to recognize the influence of thoughts and emotions on bodily reactions and therefore prepares the way for successful cognitive treatment.

Adolescent↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Effects of cocaine hydrochloride on reproductive function and sexual behavior of male rats and on the behavior of their offspring.

Cocaine hydrochloride (30, 15, or 0 mg/kg) was administered daily subcutaneously to male rats for a minimum of 72 days. Animals receiving the 15-mg/kg and 0-mg/kg doses were pair-fed with animals receiving the higher dose. A fourth group served as a nontreated ad libitum-fed control to assess the role of cocaine-associated decreases in food and water intake. Administration of cocaine resulted in dose-related decreases in body weights, increases in locomotor activity, and decreases in estradiol levels. The high dose of cocaine was also associated with an increase in the percentage of spermatozoa with heads separated from tails. Cocaine did not affect sexual behavior, relative weights of the testis or accessory organs, histology of the testis, number of implantations, resorptions, fetal or newborn weight of offspring, or offspring weight at 21 days of age but did result in hyperactivity and increased perseverance in a T maze.

Animals↗
PubMed1980

Behavioral effects of hashish in mice. II. Nursing behavior and development of the sucklings.

Adult mice were treated from parturition to weaning of their first litter with a hashish extract containing 40% delta 9-tetrahydrocannabinol (delta 9-THC), 45% cannabidiol, 9% cannabinol, and 6% other cannabinoids. Oral administrations of 20 mg delta 9-THC/kg three times a week decreased the weight gain of pups from days 3-6 and 6-10 significantly, resulting in about 15% lower body weights on days 6 and 10 compared with control sucklings. Other parameters of development such as the general appearance of the pups were little affected, except for a slight tendency by day 13, when some additional control pups already had both eyes open. The effects of hashish in sucklings might be caused by drug intake with mother's milk, as well as by a decreased lactation of drugged dams. In addition, our pup retrieving tests at the day 3, 1.5-2 h after the second application of hashish extract, showed a decrease in the mother's locomotive and nonsocial activities and pointed to at least transient impairment of the maternal behavior. By day 10, after the fifth administration of hashish extract, a partial tolerance occurred, with normal care for the young, but still decreased nonsocial activities of the drugged dams. Thus our experiments showed distinct effects of cannabis on mice litters when the parents were drugged postnatally during the period of lactation only.

Aggression↗
PubMed2005

The effect of neonatal handling on adult feeding behavior is not an anxiety-like behavior.

Brief periods of handling during the neonatal period have been shown to have profound and long-lasting physiological consequences. Previous studies performed in our laboratory have demonstrated that handling the pups during the neonatal period leads to increased sweet food ingestion in adult life. The objective of this study is to verify if this effect could be explained by the enhanced anxiety levels in these animals. Litters were divided in: (1) intact; (2) handled (10 min in an incubator/day) and (3) handled + tactile stimulation (10 min/day). Procedures were performed on days 1-10 after birth. When adults, rats were tested in the elevated plus maze apparatus, light dark exploration test and open field test. They were also tested for sweet food ingestion, being injected with 2 mg/kg diazepam or vehicle 60 min before the test. Handling and handling + tactile stimulation do not alter performance in the plus maze test, but handled rats presented more crossings in the light/dark exploration test and open field (two-way ANOVA). Females also spent more % time in the open arms in the plus maze and more time in the lit compartment in the light/dark test, presenting more crossings in both tests. Both treated rats (handled and handled + tactile stimulation groups) consumed more sweet food than intact ones (two-way ANOVA). When diazepam was injected prior to the measurement of sweet food ingestion, there was no effect of the drug. We suggest that handling during the neonatal period leads to plastic alterations in the central nervous system of these animals, causing an increased ingestion of palatable food in adult life, and this alteration does not express an anxiety-like behavior.

Analysis of Variance↗
PubMed2002

Compensating behaviors, regret, and heterogeneity in the dynamics of smoking behavior.

This paper studied smoking behavior in the context of the interactions among health, smoking, exercise and seeking medical care using a microeconomic model. Based on a dynamic optimal choice theory, a simultaneous equation system was used in the empirical estimation. This study found that smokers with longer smoking history tend to have extra incentives to maintain or improve their health. It was found that they tend to use more medical services and to be more active in exercise than smokers with shorter smoking history. Health status nonlinearly affects smoking decisions. Quitting incentives can be "curative" or "preventive", depending on one's health status. Light smokers' addiction is qualitatively and quantitatively different from heavy smokers'.

Adult↗
PubMed2004

Peptide effects on social behavior: effects of vasotocin and isotocin on social approach behavior in male goldfish (Carassius auratus).

The authors measured the effects of centrally infused peptides on social approach behaviors in goldfish (Carassius auratus), a social teleost. Vasotocin (VT) inhibited approach responses toward the visual stimuli of conspecifics in the absence of aggressive or sexual olfactory contextual cues in males, and a V1 receptor antagonist stimulated such responses, at least in males that were not highly social in baseline conditions, as did isotocin (IT). In the absence of social stimuli, VT did not affect activity, therefore indicating that the inhibition was not the result of nonspecific effects on arousal or motor functioning. These experiments indicate that VT and IT induce opposite effects on social approach responses in male goldfish and that endogenous VT, at least, is associated with levels of sociality.

Animals↗