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PubMedDate not supplied

[Dominant factors of rat behavior in response to stimuli in stages].

The adequacy of a modified variant of alimentary Y-maze method used by the authors was tested by studying the role of visual stage stimuli in reaction of free choice in rats. It is shown that the role of visual information is insignificant for acquiring the motor habit--finding of the shortest way to food. The dominant factors are: location of the shortest way, changing of which leads to a search behaviour by the method of "trials and errors", as well as ecologically adequate preference of edges to the center of the "distributor" and motor pretuning of the animal. Observed fixation of the choice of longer ways in comparison with the shortest one, and its stability may be explained by insufficient difference in the ways length before the reinforcement for the transformation of the habit of spatial-motor orientation into a visual one.

Animals↗
PubMed1982

Differences by sex in economic returns associated with physician specialization.

Women comprised only 8.8 percent of active physicians in the United States in 1977. However, recent trends in the sex composition of medical school classes indicate that women will make up at least one-fourth of total physician supply in the future. Consequently, the effect of sex-composition changes on the supply of physicians' services is of importance, especially since much current federal policy is based upon assumptions about physician behavior drawn from observation of the current stock of physicians. This article explores the issue of differences by sex in lifetime earnings associated with alternative specialty choices. Economic incentives to specialize rather than enter general/family practice are examined initially. Then the incentives influencing the decision to specialize in either primary care or non-primary care fields are considered. Findings are reviewed and implications for future trends in specialty distribution of physicians, as well as implications for current and future federal policy affecting physicians' specialty decisions, are discussed.

Adult↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Behavioral changes in Huntington Disease.

OBJECTIVES: This study aimed to gain a better understanding of behavioral abnormalities in Huntington disease (HD) and to develop a method for reliably assessing these changes. BACKGROUND: Behavioral changes are a central feature of HD and often cause considerable distress and difficulty to patients and their relatives. However, they have received little attention from research despite their prevalence and clinical significance. METHODS: One hundred thirty-four patients with HD were assessed using the Problem Behaviors Assessment for Huntington Disease (PBA-HD), an instrument for rating the presence, severity and frequency of behavioral abnormalities in HD. RESULTS: The findings confirm that behavioral problems are common among patients with HD. The most common symptoms were loss of energy and initiative, poor perseverance and quality of work, impaired judgment, poor self-care and emotional blunting. Affective symptoms such as depression, anxiety and irritability occurred in around half the patients studied. Psychotic symptoms (hallucinations and delusions) were rarely reported. Factor analysis distinguished three clusters of behavioral symptoms, which were interpreted respectively as reflecting Apathy, Depression and Irritability. The 'Apathy' factor was highly correlated with duration of illness, whereas no such relationship was observed for the 'Depression' and 'Irritability' factors. CONCLUSIONS: The results suggest that certain behavioral changes are fundamental to the progression of HD, whereas others have a more complex relationship to the disease process. The findings have implications for the choice of behavioral measures used to evaluate efficacy of therapeutic interventions.

Adult↗
PubMed1985

Thermal preference behavior of genetically obese (ob/ob) and genetically lean (+/?) mice.

Chronically lower colonic temperatures (TcS) of genetically-obese (ob/ob) mice at ambient temperatures below thermoneutrality have led to speculation that these mutants regulate a lowered thermal setpoint relative to lean mice. Previous experiments, however, have not provided an opportunity for obese mice to exhibit compensatory thermoregulatory behaviors which might reinstate normal body temperature. In the present experiment, adult obese and lean (+/?) mice were tested at room temperature (25 degrees C) on a copper bar, thermal gradient to determine what temperatures they would select and what effect their selection would have on their TcS. The data revealed that ob/obs were more frequently observed within 25-35 degrees C locales than were lean controls, which spent more time in the below-25 degrees C zone (p less than 0.005). Ob/obs also raised their TcS to pretest values of leans' TcS, although ob/obs' TcS remained significantly lower than those of leans at the conclusion of testing. These data suggest that the hypothermia exhibited by the ob/ob may reflect both the absence of the opportunity to behaviorally thermoregulate and a genetic defect in thermogenesis.

Animals↗
PubMed2004

Gender identity development and issues.

This article focuses on the psychosexual development of children and adolescents who have sex-typed behavioral patterns that correspond to the diagnosis of Gender Identity Disorder, as defined in the fourth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. The author provides an update on phenomenology and diagnosis, associated behavior problems, developmental course, biologic and psychosocial influences, and treatment and ethical issues.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1999

The hierarchical organization of decision making in the primate prefrontal cortex.

The prefrontal cortex plays an important role in making the association between sensory information and specific behavior. For example, in a complex stimulus response situation, such as the Wisconsin card sorting test, prefrontal patients show difficulty in making appropriate decisions. To understand the neural mechanisms, we recorded prefrontal cell activity while monkeys performed a go/no-go selective attention task where the subjects made a go or no-go response depending on the color or the motion direction of compound visual stimuli (moving colored dots). Groups of cells showed differential activity for go and no-go stimuli (go/no-go activity): some showed the activity either in the color or motion attending condition, and others showed the activity both in the color and motion conditions. Cells of shorter latencies, found mainly in the prefrontal subareas receiving visual input, showed go/no-go activity only when task demands necessitated that the monkeys attended to that cell's preferred visual dimension. We also found cells with longer latencies in the motor-related periarcuate area that showed go/no-go activity regardless of the dimension attended. These results suggest that subareas in the prefrontal cortex play different roles in associating the sensory information with its behavioral meaning and are hierarchically organized to make appropriate decisions in complex tasks.

Animals↗
PubMed2002

Children's perceptions of the fairness of parental preferential treatment and their socioemotional well-being.

Being the recipient of favored parental treatment has been identified as a correlate of enhanced socioemotional well-being. However, knowledge of children's perceptions of the legitimacy of preferential treatment may provide a more complete understanding of associations between preferential treatment and children's socioemotional well-being. The current study investigated whether children's well-being varies in accordance with their views about the fairness of preferential parental treatment. One hundred thirty-five children (M = 11.74 years) and their older siblings (M = 14.64 years) were interviewed independently about parents' distribution of affection and control. Although the amount of preferential control children reported experiencing was related to more externalizing behavior problems, lower levels of internalizing behavior problems and greater global self-esteem were indicated when children perceived that such preferential behaviors were fair.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1982

Attention and habituation: odor preferences, long-term memory, and multiple sensory cues of novel stimuli.

Investigation of and habituation to novel stimuli are part of exploratory behavior of rodents. They are necessary for assessing the environment in seeking food and sexual partners and in avoiding predators. Male and female gerbils were tested in the stimulus-elicited investigation paradigm in order to address several questions on three issues: (a) Gerbils initially showed preferences for odors of strange male bedding and for odors of home cage bedding and then habituated. There was no preference between these two odors, although they could be discriminated. The complex odor stimulus elicited more response than any of the components tested. (b) Memory of an object or of an odor was demonstrated up to 4 wk later. (c) Sensory deprivation by blinding, anosmizing, or removing somatosensation of the upper snout made only small differences in investigation. The removal of any two of these sensory inputs produced more interference with the response, but all of the gerbils investigated the stimulus. It is concluded that attention to novelty and habituation after repeated exposure are very robust behaviors and are mediated through multiple sensory channels.

Animals↗
PubMed1980

Cognitive style in adults: task alternatives, task strategy, and time estimation.

Increasing the number of task alternatives in a match-to-sample problem led to longer decision times in cognitively reflective but not in cognitively impulsive adults. Impulsives, as compared to reflectives, were found to verbalize less "thinking out loud" coded verbal behavior, to endorse less motivation for success and more motivation for speed, and to consistently underestimate time (i.e., periods of 10, 20, & 60 seconds). The present results suggest a latency-related response inhibition deficit in cognitively impulsive adults. The potential of a cognitive-behavioral treatment strategy is considered.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2004

Independent coding of reward magnitude and valence in the human brain.

Previous research has shown that two components of the event-related brain potential, the P300 and feedback negativity, are sensitive to information about rewards and penalties. The present study investigated the properties of these components in a simple gambling game that required participants to choose between cards that were unpredictably associated with monetary gains and losses of variable magnitude. The aim was to determine the sensitivity of each component to two critical features of reward stimuli: magnitude (small or large) and valence (win or loss). A double dissociation was observed, with the P300 sensitive to reward magnitude but insensitive to reward valence and the feedback negativity showing the opposite pattern, suggesting that these two fundamental features of rewarding stimuli are evaluated rapidly and separately in the human brain. Subsequent analyses provided additional evidence of functional dissociations between the feedback negativity and P300. First, the P300 (but not the feedback negativity) showed sensitivity to the reward value of alternative, nonselected stimuli. Second, individual differences in the amplitude of the feedback negativity correlated with individual differences in risk-taking behavior observed after monetary losses, whereas individual differences in P300 amplitude were related to behavioral adjustments observed in response to alternative, unchosen outcomes.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2000

Effects of escape to alone versus escape to enriched environments on adaptive and aberrant behavior.

Escape-maintained aberrant behavior may be influenced by two outcomes: (a) a break from the activity and (b) subsequent access to preferred activities. To assess this hypothesis, a treatment was developed that analyzed response allocation across two break options: break alone and break with access to preferred social activities. The break with preferred activities decreased aberrant behavior and increased appropriate behavior.

Adaptation, Psychological↗
PubMed2002

Varying response effort in the treatment of pica maintained by automatic reinforcement.

Pica is a life-threatening behavior displayed by many individuals with developmental disabilities. In the current study, automatic reinforcement maintained the pica of 3 participants. Following functional analyses of pica, response-effort manipulations were conducted in which the effort to obtain pica or alternative items was varied systematically. Several general relations emerged as a result of the study. First, levels of pica were reduced relative to baseline when alternative items were available independent of the effort required to obtain alternative items or pica. Second, increasing the effort for alternative items resulted in increases in pica relative to when effort for alternative items was low. Third, increasing response effort for pica produced reductions in pica relative to baseline when alternative items were unavailable. Fourth, the highest levels of pica occurred when the effort to engage in pica was low or medium and no alternative items were available. These findings are discussed in terms of the relative effects of quality of reinforcement and response effort on behavior.

Adult↗
PubMed2000

The alcohol warning and adolescents: 5-year effects.

OBJECTIVES: This study, a follow-up to the authors earlier report, examined the effects of the alcohol warning label on adolescents during the first 5 years that the warning was required. METHODS: Surveys were administered to 10th-grade (n = 16,661) and 12th-grade (n = 15,856) students from the 1989-1990 school year through the 1994-1995 school year. The measures were awareness of, exposure to, and recognition memory of the alcohol warning label; beliefs about the risks listed on the warning; and open-ended statements about consequences of alcohol use, alcohol consumption, and self-reported driving after drinking. RESULTS: There were increases in warning awareness, exposure, and recognition memory. These effects leveled off approximately 3.5 years after the inclusion of the warning on alcohol beverage containers. There was no beneficial change attributable to the warning in beliefs, alcohol consumption, or driving after drinking. CONCLUSIONS: The initial positive effects of the alcohol warning label on adolescents have leveled off, consistent with theories of repeated exposure to persuasive information. The alcohol warning has not affected adolescents' beliefs about alcohol or alcohol-related behaviors.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1984

Parental behavior after perinatal death: lack of predictive demographic and obstetric variables.

Traditional care for mothers after stillbirth has been based on untested assumptions about appropriate parental behavior. To evaluate these assumptions, 165 families cared for by the Perinatal Mortality Counseling Program because of stillbirth or immediate neonatal death were offered a series of choices about their care, including how they wished to deal with their baby's death. Parental decisions were compared with selected demographic and obstetric features considered as underlying those decisions that traditionally have been made by physicians or the hospital staff. The authors found that parents desire contact with their baby, attention to their feelings, counseling from those providing their care, and information about their baby's death. Few demographic and obstetric features seemed to influence the choices. This suggests that physicians and hospital staff should not presume to determine the wishes of any parent or family faced with this tragedy.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1965

BRIGHTNESS DISCRIMINATION IN THE COLLARED LIZARD.

Eight collared lizards were tested on a modified Lashley apparatus for brightness discrimination. The animals reached the criterion level of learning in 335 trials and exhibited behavior on the choice platform comparable to that of the rat presented with a similar problem. The pattern of latency appears to be atypical in the lizard, since there was little decrement throughout the learning period.

Animals↗
PubMed1999

Short-term impact of safer choices: a multicomponent, school-based HIV, other STD, and pregnancy prevention program.

This study evaluated the effectiveness of the first year of Safer Choices, a theoretically based, multicomponent HIV, STD, and pregnancy prevention program for high school youth. The study featured a randomized trial involving 20 schools in California and Texas, with a cohort of 3,869 ninth-grade students. Students who completed both the baseline and the first follow-up survey approximately seven months later were included in the analysis (n = 3,677). Safer Choices enhanced 9 of 13 psychosocial variables including knowledge, self efficacy for condom use, normative beliefs and attitudes regarding condom use, perceived barriers to condom use, risk perceptions, and parent-child communication. Safer Choices also reduced selected risk behaviors. Specifically, Safer Choices reduced the frequency of intercourse without a condom in the three months prior to the survey, increased use of condoms at last intercourse, and increased use of selected contraceptives at last intercourse.

Adolescent↗