•We examined whether loneliness was associated with hyper-vigilance to social threat.•Real-life footage and eye-tracker methodology was used.•Lonely people showed a different visual attention pattern ...to non-lonely people.•Lonely people fixed their attention on the social threat stimuli and later avoided it.
Cacioppo and Hawkley (2009) have hypothesized that lonely people are hyper-vigilant to social threat, with earlier work (Jones & Carver, 1991) linking this bias specifically to threats of social rejection or social exclusion. The current study examined this hypothesis in eighty-five young adults (mean age=18.22; SD=0.46; 17–19years in age) using eye-tracking methodology, which entailed recording their visual attention to social rejecting information. We found a quadratic relation between the participants’ loneliness, as assessed by the revised UCLA loneliness scale, and their visual attention to social threat immediately after presentation (2s). In support of Cacioppo and Hawkley’s (2009) hypothesis, it was found that young adults in the upper quartile range of loneliness exhibited visual vigilance of socially threatening stimuli compared to other participants. There was no relation between loneliness and visual attention to socially threatening stimuli across an extended subsequent period of time. Implications for intervention are considered.
Rationale
Prospective memory (PM) deficits in recreational drug users have been documented in recent years. However, the assessment of PM has largely been restricted to self-reported measures that ...fail to capture the distinction between event-based and time-based PM. The aim of the present study is to address this limitation.
Objectives
Extending our previous research, we augmented the range laboratory measures of PM by employing the CAMPROMPT test battery to investigate the impact of illicit drug use on prospective remembering in a sample of cannabis only, ecstasy/polydrug and non-users of illicit drugs, separating event and time-based PM performance. We also administered measures of executive function and retrospective memory in order to establish whether ecstasy/polydrug deficits in PM were mediated by group differences in these processes.
Results
Ecstasy/polydrug users performed significantly worse on both event and time-based prospective memory tasks in comparison to both cannabis only and non-user groups. Furthermore, it was found that across the whole sample, better retrospective memory and executive functioning was associated with superior PM performance. Nevertheless, this association did not mediate the drug-related effects that were observed. Consistent with our previous study, recreational use of cocaine was linked to PM deficits.
Conclusions
PM deficits have again been found among ecstasy/polydrug users, which appear to be unrelated to group differences in executive function and retrospective memory. However, the possibility that these are attributable to cocaine use cannot be excluded.
Progesterone generally produces anxiolytic effects in rats and mice. However, sex differences in response to this neuroactive steroid have not been systematically investigated. Thus, this study ...investigated the anxiety-modulating actions of acute, chronic and withdrawn progesterone treatment in male and female Mongolian gerbils (
Meriones unguiculatus) in the elevated plus-maze (EPM) and black–white box (BWB). Gerbils were tested after receiving vehicle, 0.5, 2.5, 7.5 or 15
mg/kg progesterone administered acutely, chronically (14 days) or after a 24-h withdrawal period following chronic treatment. Data analyses showed that overall the effects of progesterone were similar in males and females. Progesterone produced few behavioural alterations in the EPM following any of the treatment regimes. However, acute and chronic progesterone reduced anxiety in the BWB (as shown by increased exploration, locomotion and entries into the white compartment). In contrast, withdrawal of progesterone produced minimal effects in the EPM and BWB. This study suggests that the BWB maybe the most suitable test for detecting the anxiolytic effects of neuroactive steroids in gerbils. However, further research is needed to clarify the behavioural effects of progesterone in this species.
The impact of ecstasy/polydrug use on real-world memory (i.e. everyday memory, cognitive failures and prospective memory PM) was investigated in a sample of 42 ecstasy/polydrug users and 31 ...non-ecstasy users. Laboratory-based PM tasks were administered along with self-reported measures of PM to test whether any ecstasy/polydrug-related impairment on the different aspects of PM was present. Self-reported measures of everyday memory and cognitive failures were also administered. Ecstasy/polydrug associated deficits were observed on both laboratory and self-reported measures of PM and everyday memory. The present study extends previous research by demonstrating that deficits in PM are real and cannot be simply attributed to self-misperceptions. The deficits observed reflect some general capacity underpinning both time- and event-based PM contexts and are not task specific. Among this group of ecstasy/polydrug users recreational use of cocaine was also prominently associated with PM deficits. Further research might explore the differential effects of individual illicit drugs on real-world memory.
Ecstasy/polydrug users have exhibited deficits in executive functioning in laboratory tests. We sought to extend these findings by investigating the extent to which ecstasy/polydrug users manifest ...executive deficits in everyday life.
Forty-two current ecstasy/polydrug users, 18 previous (abstinent for at least 6 months) ecstasy/polydrug users, and 50 non-users of ecstasy (including both non-users of any illicit drug and some cannabis-only users) completed the self-report Behavior Rating Inventory of Executive Function-Adult Version (BRIEF-A) measure.
Current ecstasy/polydrug users performed significantly worse than previous users and non-users on subscales measuring inhibition, self-monitoring, initiating action, working memory, planning, monitoring ongoing task performance, and organizational ability. Previous ecstasy/polydrug users did not differ significantly from non-users. In regression analyses, although the current frequency of ecstasy use accounted for statistically significant unique variance on 3 of the 9 BRIEF-A subscales, daily cigarette consumption was the main predictor in 6 of the subscales.
Current ecstasy/polydrug users report more executive dysfunction than do previous users and non-users. This finding appears to relate to some aspect of ongoing ecstasy use and seems largely unrelated to the use of other illicit drugs. An unexpected finding was the association of current nicotine consumption with executive dysfunction.
▶ NK1 receptor antagonists are potential anxiolytics with few side-effects. ▶ Mongolian gerbil NK1 receptors are more like human NK1-Rs than rat or mice ones. ▶ The black-white box, unconditioned ...model, has not been validated in gerbils. ▶ Profiles were inconsistent for the drugs tested and differed between sexes. ▶ The gerbil BWB should not be used as a valid test of anxiety in its current form.
Neurokinin-1, (NK1) receptor antagonists offer strong potential as anxiolytic drugs with few side effects. The use of the Mongolian gerbil for anxiety research offers advantages because gerbil NK1 receptors share a greater homology with human NK1 receptors than those of other rodents. Studies are needed to validate existing tests of anxiety for use with this species. This study examined the effects of two anxiolytics (buspirone and diazepam) and two anxiogenics (caffeine and FG142) on male and female gerbil behaviour in the black-white box (BWB). Diazepam was anxiolytic in males but not females. The anxiolytic effects of buspirone were apparent at the lower doses in both males and females. Higher doses resulted in sedative effects in both sexes. Caffeine produced mild anxiogenesis in females at the lowest dose, and in males at the highest dose. FG7142 was mildly anxiogenic in males and not at all in females. Findings are discussed in light of previous research. The gerbil BWB should not be used as a valid test of anxiety in its current form.
Chronic stress an/or glucocorticoid administration produces atrophy of hippocampal neurons. However, evidence of the impact of glucocorticoids on glial cells, especially in both males and females, is ...limited. In the present study, we investigated the total percentage body weight, hippocampal volume and hippocampal astrocyte numbers following chronic corticosterone treatment in male and female Wistar rats. Males had greater left and right hippocampal volumes overall, but no effect on hippocampal volume was seen after corticosterone treatment. Total body weight was dose-dependently lower in both sexes, but the decrease was more prominent in male rats. Corticosterone treatment dose-dependently increased astrocyte numbers in the CA1 region, but not in the lateral and medial CA3 hippocampal regions. This increase was similar in both male and female rats. The astrogliosis observed following chronic corticosterone may have implications for extrasynaptic communication and neuron-glia interactions and is similar to changes in the astrocytic population observed in aged rats.
Many anxiety and stress-related disorders exhibit definitive sex differences in their prevalence, symptomology, response to treatment and prognosis. Animal studies have increased the understanding of ...these disorders, but much of the current research in this area has been conducted using only male rats or mice. Thus, the investigation of sex differences, especially within other rodent species is still relatively ignored. There is much evidence to implicate the involvement of steroid hormones in the response to anxiety and stress. The neuroactive steroid progesterone has been associated with the regulation of anxiety behaviour in rodents, whilst the steroid corticosterone has been related to the damaging effects of stress, especially within the hippocampus. However, current investigations have failed to examine the influence of gender on these findings. The initial aim of this thesis was to evaluate the suitability of the elevated plus-maze and black-white box tests of anxiety for male and female Mongolian gerbils. The second part of this thesis then evaluates the behavioural effects of progesterone treatment and withdrawal in this species. Finally, this thesis evaluates the influence of chronic corticosterone treatment on hippocampal volume and astrocyte cell numbers in male and female rats. Pharmacological validation of the elevated plus-maze and blackwhite box revealed that diazepam produced similar anxiolysis in male and female gerbils. Buspirone appeared to modulate motor activity rather that anxiety-specific behaviours in both sexes, but to a greater extent in males. Caffeine administration induced anxiety in both tests, but was more prominent in male gerbils. FG7142 also demonstrated some anxiogenic activity, however, this increase in anxiety was represented by different behavioural alterations in each sex. Investigation of the behavioural effects of progesterone treatment revealed that acute and chronic administration produced only weak effects on anxiety-related behaviour. Even so, acute progesterone appeared to produce greater anxiolysis in females, whereas these sex differences in treatment response were abolished by chronic treatment. Withdrawal of chronic progesterone appeared to increase anxiety in both the elevated plus-maze and black-white box, and was comparable for males and females. Examination of the effects of chronic corticosterone in rats revealed no significant alteration in the volume of the hippocampus in either sex, although male rats had larger hippocampal volume than females. Prolonged corticosterone treatment did produce increases in hippocampal astrocyte numbers in specific hippocampal regions. The findings of these investigations are discussed in relation to the aetiology of anxiety disorders and stress-related hippocampal damage.
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