The ability to regulate positive affect to maintain a relative ratio of positive over negative affect appears to be an important aspect of successful adjustment in late life. Further research is needed on objective indicators of quality of life and on whether intra-individual shifts in affect balance are coupled with shifts in indicators of positive mental health.”
“Purpose: Chronic exposure to heroin induced cerebral structural abnormalities may underlie heroin-related behaviors. The aim of this study was
to: (1) identify cerebral structural abnormalities in heroin-dependent individuals (HDIs) by an automated and unbiased morphometric technique. (2) Define the correlation between these cerebral structural abnormalities and the impulsivity characteristic in HDIs.
Methods: 24 HDIs and 24 control subjects were completed GDC-0449 molecular weight with (1) high resolution structural magnetic resonance imaging scanning and analysis of gray matter volume using voxel-based morphometry implemented in Statistical Parametric Mapping and (2) a Chinese translation Barratt Impulsiveness Scale-11 questionnaire
survey. Differences in regional gray matter volume were tested using an analysis of covariance model, co-varying for global gray matter and age. Statistical maps were set at p < 0.05, corrected for multiple comparisons. The abnormal learn more brain regions were correlated with the duration of heroin use and impulsivity scores.
Results: After adjusting for effects of age and total gray matter volume, cortical gray matter volume in the bilateral medial prefrontal cortex, bilateral dorsal lateral prefrontal cortex, and right fusiform cortex were significantly reduced in HDIs. Moreover, the gray matter volume in prefrontal cortex that showed group differences was negatively correlated with the duration of heroin use and negatively correlated with the impulsivity characteristic
in HDIs.
Conclusion: These findings reveal the prefrontal cortex was impaired in HDIs, meanwhile, indicate the changes in gray matter volume are relating to the duration of heroin use www.selleck.cn/products/erastin.html and the impulsivity characteristic of the HDIs. (C) 2013 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.”
“One of the most exciting issues in psychology is, What are the psychological mechanisms underlying human tool use? The computational approach assumes that the use of a tool (e.g., a hammer) requires the extraction of sensory information about object properties (heavy, rigid), which can then be translated into appropriate motor outputs (grasping, hammering). The ecological approach suggests that humans perceive not the properties of tools per se but what they afford (a heavy, rigid object affords pounding). This is the theory of affordances. In this article, we examine the potential of the computational view and the ecological view to account for human tool use.