Search

In this article, we define the construct of empathy and its relevance for counseling psychology. The importance of deficits in empathic processes for most of the psychological disorders is presented within the context of the social brain hypothesis (Frith, 2007). We provide a review of empirical research about the neural correlates of empathy in terms of both the central and peripheral nervous system. We present recent evidence on the cortical and subcortical regions involved in different dimensions of empathy— emotional contagion, cognitive and emotional empathy, and self-regulation. Regarding the autonomic correlates of empathy, we present evidence about the correlates of sympathetic arousal associated with empathic processes and review data supporting the idea of the physiological linkage or synchrony as indicator of empathy in interpersonal relationships. The implications of these findings for counseling psychology, particularly for the psychotherapist-client relationship and for context of intimate relationships or couples therapy, are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

From its origins in how the brain controls the endocrine system via the hypothalamus and pituitary gland, neuroendocrinology has evolved into a science that now includes hormone action on many aspects of brain function. These actions involve the whole central nervous system and not just the hypothalamus. Advances in our understanding of cellular and molecular actions of steroid hormones have gone beyond the important cell nuclear actions of steroid hormone receptors to include signaling pathways that intersect with other mediators such as neurotransmitters and neuromodulators. This has, in turn, broadened the search for and identification of steroid receptors to include nonnuclear sites in synapses, dendrites, mitochondria, and glial cells, as well as cell nuclei. The study of estrogen receptors and estrogen actions on processes related to cognition, mood, autonomic regulation, pain, and neuroprotection, among other functions, has led the way in this new view of hormone actions on the brain. In this review, we summarize past and current work in our laboratory on this topic. This exciting and growing field involving many laboratories continues to reshape our ideas and approaches to neuroendocrinology both at the bench and the bedside. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nostalgia, a sentimental longing or wistful affection for the past, is a predominantly positive and social emotion. Recent evidence suggests that nostalgia maintains psychological comfort. Here, we propose, and document in five methodologically diverse studies, a broader homeostatic function for nostalgia that also encompasses the maintenance of physiological comfort. We show that nostalgia--an emotion with a strong connotation of warmth--is triggered by coldness. Participants reported stronger nostalgia on colder (vs. warmer) days and in a cold (vs. neutral or warm) room. Nostalgia, in turn, modulates the interoceptive feeling of temperature. Higher levels of music-evoked nostalgia predicted increased physical warmth, and participants who recalled a nostalgic (vs. ordinary autobiographical) event perceived ambient temperature as higher. Finally, and consistent with the close central nervous system integration of temperature and pain sensations, participants who recalled a nostalgic (vs. ordinary autobiographical) event evinced greater tolerance to noxious cold.

Evidence indicates that voluntary and involuntary movements are altered by affective context as well as the characteristics of an initiating cue. The purpose of this study was to determine the contribution of central and peripheral mechanisms to this phenomenon. During the presentation of pleasant, unpleasant, neutral, and blank images, participants (N = 33) responded to auditory stimuli (startle, 107 dB startle or 80 dB tone) by initiating a bimanual isometric contraction of the wrist and finger extensor muscles. Analyses of electromyography and force measures supported the hypothesis that exposure to unpleasant images accelerates central processing times and increases the gradient of slope of peripheral movement execution. In addition, startle cues as compared with tone cues accelerated and magnified all temporal and amplitude indices. Collectively, these findings have noteworthy implications for (a) those seeking to facilitate the speed and force of voluntary movement (i.e., movement rehabilitation), (b) understanding the higher incidence of motor difficulty in individuals with affective disorders, and (c) those seeking to regulate emotional input so as to optimize the quality of intended movements.

Previous research has shown that sex differences exist in the composition of lateral movements (E. F. Field, I. Q. Whishaw, & S. M. Pellis, 1996, 1997a, 1997b; see also records 1996-06132-009, 1997-05322-015, and 1997-04722-005). An unresolved question is whether sex differences are present in other movements, such as rotation around the longitudinal axis, and whether this difference is dependent on a feminine or masculine skeletomusculature. Female rats (Rattus norvegicus) first rotate their forequarters and then their hindquarters in the same direction. Male rats exhibit rotation of the hindquarters counter to the direction of forequarter rotation. Males with the testicular feminized mutation, who have a feminized skeletomusculature and masculinized central nervous system, are similar to male controls. This study provides evidence that sex differences in movement integration are not restricted to the lateral plane, are not solely due to sex differences in skeletomusculature, and thus are likely mediated by the central nervous system., (2005 APA, all rights reserved)

Impaired glucoregulation is associated with neuropsychological deficits, particularly for tests that measure verbal declarative memory performance in older diabetic patients. The performances of 74 undergraduate students (mean age = 21 years) on several verbal declarative measures, including immediate and delayed paragraph recall, verbal free recall, and order reconstruction tasks, were correlated with glucoregulatory indices. The indices were obtained from glucose and insulin levels after a 75-g glucose load. In general, higher blood glucose levels were associated with poorer performance on all memory tests. Glucose ingestion did not interact with performance except on the most difficult task. Subjects with poorer glucoregulation showed higher evoked glucose and insulin, suggestive of a mild glucose intolerance accompanied by mild insulin insensitivity. Results suggest that poor peripheral glucoregulation has an impact on central nervous system functions.

Previous studies have indicated that asexual reproduction (fissioning) in the planarian Dugesia dorotocephala is socially controlled through a cephalic mechanism: Isolation releases fissioning; grouping inhibits it; decapitation, at the level of the auricles, releases it even in grouped subjects. The brain is not necessary for programming the actual events of fissioning; these are orchestrated by the segmental plexus fissioning (SPF) system. Various surgical cuts were made to ablate selected portions of the central nervous system of isolated and grouped planarians in order to ascertain the inhibitory or facilitatory effects of these in the physiological mediation of such control on the SPF system. These results were synthesized into a model of this control system; the anterior lobes and optic regions of the brain inhibit the SPF system, and the anterior and caudal segmental plexuses facilitate it. These influences are partially tonic and partially contingent upon social stimulation.

Estrous hamster vaginal discharge (HVD) contains both volatile and nonvolatile chemical signals which collectively elicit both male attraction to females and male mating behavior. These two aspects of normal sexual behavior are differentially affected by lesions involving afferents of the main and the accessory olfactory systems. The results of lesions that involve the main olfactory system suggest that it provides information primarily concerning those volatile components of HVD that normally signal the presence of a female. Lesions restricted to the accessory olfactory system do not impair a male's interest in or relative preference for HVD but do significantly interfere with subsequent stages of sexual behavior by reducing the amount of mating obtained upon exposure to HVD. Stimulation of the accessory olfactory system by nonvolatile components of HVD has thus been implicated in the production of mating behavior. In these experiments, male hamsters were attracted to female odor and engaged in significant amounts of mating behavior with surrogate females when only the volatile components of HVD were available to them. These behaviors were further enhanced when both volatile and nonvolatile components of HVD were provided. Lesion studies of the afferents involved reinforce the hypothesis that the main olfactory system is preferentially involved with processing those volatile chemical signals in HVD that denote female attractiveness whereas the accessory olfactory system is preferentially involved with processing those chemical signals, both volatile and nonvolatile, that evoke subsequent steps in male sexual behavior.

Prompted by evidence pointing to a key role of the N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptor system in the induction of long-term potentiation and possibly in the formation of some types of memory, we examined the effect of chronic intraventricular administration of D-amino-phosphono-valeric acid (AP5), a competitive NMDA receptor antagonist, on olfactory discrimination and avoidance learning. These two tasks were selected because they are affected to very different degrees by damage to the hippocampus and other telencephalic structures rich in NMDA receptors. Twenty rats previously trained to solve a series of discriminations between two simultaneously presented odors were infused with either 20 mM D-AP5 or saline (n = 10 per group) for 14 days. An important and unusual feature of the paradigm was that it permitted a comparison of drug effects on acquisition of new discriminations versus retention of old ones. Animals treated with AP5 made significantly more errors than did saline controls in acquiring discriminations between low-intensity odors presented with long intertrial intervals (ITIs). However, no deficit was observed when short ITIs (less than 2 min) or strong odors were used. Animals treated with AP5 had no difficulty in recognizing odors on which they were trained before administration of the drug. After exhaustion of the pumps, performance of the AP5 group was indistinguishable from that of the control group. One-way active avoidance learning was not affected by chronic infusion of AP5. Several possibilities are discussed that could account for the selective olfactory learning deficit.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

The possibility to compensate the loss of olfactory and non-olfactory functions due to removal of the olfactory bulb by embryonal brain grafts was investigated in adult rats. Spatial working memory was examined in an 8-arm radial water maze task 6 weeks after bulbectomy. During 15 daily trials, performance gradually improved in bulbectomized controls (n = 10) and in rats with olfactory bulb transplants (n = 9), but did not attain that of intact controls (n = 10). No improvement was observed in the rats with substantia nigra grafts (n = 8). Eleven weeks after bulbectomy, the same rats were tested in the water tank navigation task. The performance improved during ten 12-trial sessions in bulbectomized rats less than in intact controls, but more than in the transplanted rats. The olfactory food retrieval test performed 14 weeks after bulbectomy revealed almost full recovery of smell in bulbectomized rats, but not in the transplanted animals. It is concluded that the spatial memory deficit is probably due to bulbectomy-induced interference with septohippocampal function which is not alleviated, but rather enhanced by transplantation. The results suggest that the effect of brain grafting is not always beneficial.

Conditioned flavor aversions (CFA) are acquired by anesthetized rats but effects of various anesthetics on acquisition of aversions for separate odor and taste components are unknown. In Experiment 1, rats drank tomato juice and then were tranquilized with "Innovar-Vet" or "Rompun" before receiving injections of lithium chloride. Neither drug interfered with acquisition of aversions. Innovar-Vet alone produced no aversions; Rompun alone produced mild aversions but did not enhance aversions when combined with lithium. In Experiments 2 and 3, rats received a compound odor/taste cue as they drank and then were anesthetized with pentobarbital before lithium injections. Anesthesia alone produced negligible aversions but facilitated taste-lithium aversions. During odor tests, odor aversions were weaker than taste aversions. These data extend previous work and suggest that CFA does not result from ordinary classical conditioning. A tripartite notation that unites CFA and classical conditioning is discussed.

Bilateral 6-hydroxydopamine lesions of the nucleus accumbens septi (NAS) and olfactory tubercle (OT) caused enhanced intake of wet mash in 23-hr-food-deprived rats tested in photocell activity cages during restricted 30-min sessions. This mild hyperphagia was accompanied by a significant hypoactivity in the group with NAS/OT lesions. No hyperphagia was observed during a prolonged 120-min test session or in free-feeding tests conducted in the home cage. Anorexia induced by d-amphetamine (.5 and 1.5 mg/kg) was unaltered by the lesion, although the locomotor stimulant action of the drug was attenuated. A second experiment showed that the NAS/OT lesion also enhanced food intake in the photocell cages during 30-min sessions with dry food pellets but that food-associated drinking was concomitantly reduced. The results are consistent with the hypothesis that the behavioral changes caused by mesolimbic neuron destruction result in part from an inability to switch from one behavioral activity to another.