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The article explores whether Mīmāṃsā epistemology, as presented by Pārthasārathi, aligns with an internalist perspective by emphasizing the role of prima facie justification based on appearances in cognition. Topics include the comparison between Pārthasārathi's internalist view of svatah. prāmāṇya and Uṃveka's externalist interpretation, the implications for precluding radical skepticism, and the avoidance of infinite regress in justifications.

The article focuses on the likely outcome of the impending general election in Britain, with the Labour Party expected to benefit from the decline of the Conservative government. Topics discussed include Communist Party's role in electoral calculations, discussed Labour's gains and losses that Conservative party suffered in marking a transition from victory to defeat and series of electoral defeats in 1950s to the Labour Party, which did not win general election since 1945.

The following article will analyze the WWE show: American wrestling, from a perspective that combines the concepts of corporeality, values and sexuality. The confluence of these concepts, in a context of simulated competition, will be sifted by two objectives: victory and defeat. Through the speculative apparatus of Foucault’s sexual investigations and psychoanalysis, it will be argued that the values of competition are related to do domination as well as in an atmosphere of celebration of bodies, including sexuality. In this way, the proposed textual analysis will be carried out in two ways. First, an entire television show will be analyzed to find out how the program is built around the fighter; how it directs the gaze towards them; what are the routines and ceremonies that this generates and what are its meanings. Secondly, the movements in the struggle will be analyzed, with special attention to the definitive ones, to those that mark victory and defeat, and will be understood as signs of sexual domination. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is usually considered that some time after the defeat and death of Pyrrhos in Argos in 272 his heir Alexander II signed a peace treaty with Antigonos Gonatas, despite the fact that no information about a such treaty has been preserved in the sources. But if a supposed treaty was ever concluded, it could have been signed by Gonatas and Helenos, another son of Pyrrhos, who was captured in Argos and later released with honors. Helenos was sent by Gonatas to Epeiros, but his later fate is unknown since he is never again mentioned in the very scattered sources. Alexander II's invasion of Macedonia in the second half of the 260s suggests that he had no personal obligations to Antigonos Gonatas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Is Moore's principle of organic unities true? Does it matter whether it is? I argue that it is true and important. I defend the principle of organic unites and the view that intrinsic value can be defeated by presenting examples of the defeat of intrinsic value. I next respond to two objections. The first claims the examples fail since the allegedly defeated parts lack actual intrinsic value—they are "evaluatively inadequate". The second is that the principle of organic unities lacks "theoretical significance" since there is no precise way to measure intrinsic value. Finally, I illustrate the importance of the principle by considering the Indispensability Argument which claims that if some type of good is an indispensable good, then it is the only good, that pluralism must be false. I argue that appealing to the concept of defeat allows the pluralist to consistently hold both (i) that pluralism is true and (ii) that some goods are indispensable for a life or a world to be very good. Since the debate between pluralists and monists in axiology is important and since the concept of defeat provides the pluralist with a reasonable way to reply to the Indispensability Argument, the principle of organic unities is important. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article reports that pictures of the early summer of 1945 included broken Wehrmacht soldiers who a few years earlier wanted to become Europe's masters. Topics include considered that physically and mentally marked by total defeat, clad in the remains of their tattered uniform, the returnees accepted the Rubble landscape of the "collapse society".

In this article, I will examine a difficult subject in competitive sports: loss and defeat. Defeat is painful because we do not enter into competitive games to be defeated, although defeat is a strong possible outcome of the game, especially among more or less equal contestants. If losing a game is an existential condition that lies ahead of every athlete and team, even the best ones, why is defeat difficult to accept, especially in modern times in contrast to ancient times? I will explore recent studies and ideas on sacrifice, especially those of Bataille, and discuss Heidegger’s notion of being-toward-death within the context of defeat in sports. Every defeat presupposes a form of sacrifice, understood in the loose sense, and every sacrifice presupposes a certain disposition toward death. Not only is defeat an inevitable condition in sport-making, but it is intrinsically linked to regimes of victory. Nietzsche acknowledges this intrinsic connection between defeat and victory. I will detour into this area to show that Nietzsche’s agonistics does not dismiss the necessity of loss, defeat, sacrifice, and death in competition; on the contrary, and this may not be obvious to modern readers, he sees them as necessary in the practices of self-transformation toward higher goals and states. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In 2020, American society experienced a number of crises. They involved raced relations precipitated by the Black Lives Matter movement, the Covid 19 pandemic with its huge loss of life and rates of illness, the economic recession that accompanied the pandemic and efforts to control it, and the tensions of the national political campaign, followed by the refusal of President Trump to acknowledge his defeat. Each of these crises led to cleavages in the relationships of solidarity in the societal community subsystem of American society. The cleavages may prove to be the most enduring of the crises. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The results of sport would not interest us if either they were necessitated or they were a matter of pure chance. And if either case were true, the playing of sport would seem to make no sense either. This poses a dilemma. But there is something between these two options, namely the dispositional modality. Sporting prowess can be understood as a disposition towards victory and sporting liabilities a disposition towards defeat. The sporting contest then pits these net prowesses against each other. The stronger will tend to beat the weaker but no more than tend. This makes sense of the sporting contest in which the weaker knows they still can win. The stronger team can lose though they do not tend to do so. The dilemma is thus escaped. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Studies of the effect of past actions have focused on yielding without a fight. What happens, however, when states fight and lose? This article assesses the effect of defeat on a state's behavior and finds that recently defeated states are more likely to initiate disputes than are undefeated or victorious states or states that fight to a draw. This aggression comes at the expense of states responsible for defeat and third-party states uninvolved in the original defeat. The analysis below examines the validity of five potential explanations for postdefeat aggression, including models rooted in failed political objectives, an emotional desire for revenge and reputation-building and finds evidence in support for the latter two. These existing mechanisms fail, however, to explain a key finding—the systematic targeting of weaker, third-party states—which, I argue, is best explained by a desire to bolster the state's status and confidence in the aftermath of defeat. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction. Social defeat (SD) is defined as a feeling of having lost the fight leading to a loss of valuable status or of important personal goals, and has been associated to depression and suicidal behavior, among other disorders. Furthermore, it has been proposed as a mediating variable between social and clinical elements. Objective. To adapt and validate a Spanish version of the Defeat Scale. Method. A back translation into Spanish was carried out. SD, hopelessness, and social well-being were measured in 546 university students (Mean age = 20.93 years, SD = 2.98; 68.7% females). Results. An exploratory factor analysis offered a two-dimension structure in the scale made up by the dimension defeat and triumph. A confirmatory factor analysis found good fit indicators for the two-dimension model (df = 89; χ2 = 188.96; CFI = .942; RMSEA = .061; IFI = .943). Both dimensions present good internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha > .70). SD was associated to higher levels of hopelessness and lower levels of social well-being. Discussion and conclusion. The Spanish version of the Defeat Scale presents good psychometric properties. Its use can help deepen the understanding of psychopathological phenomena and their link to social elements within the context of Spanish speaking countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Seeing a red hat can (i) increase my credence in the hat is red, and (ii) introduce a negative dependence between that proposition and potential undermining defeaters such as the light is red. The rigidity of Jeffrey Conditionalization makes this awkward, as rigidity preserves independence. The picture is less awkward given 'Holistic Conditionalization', or so it is claimed. I defend Jeffrey Conditionalization's consistency with underminable perceptual learning and its superiority to Holistic Conditionalization, arguing that the latter is merely a special case of the former, is itself rigid, and is committed to implausible accounts of perceptual confirmation and of undermining defeat. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The rapid development of Chinese cinema in the twenty-first century has witnessed a blossoming of genre films with frequent references to Hollywood. The Great Wall (2016), the monster blockbuster by the Fifth Generation auteur Zhang Yimou, tells a peculiar story of a westerner helping the valiant army to defeat the ravenous hordes of Tao Tie and save humans from annihilation in medieval China. Compared to the western cinematic tradition in which monsters incarnate popular concern of the impacts of techno-scientific development, the Chinese film bestows the ancient monster with allegorical meaning of greediness. The bending of Hollywood genres into the Chinese context illuminates the intricate dynamics between the local and the global in cross-cultural encounter. By tracing the development of monster films and the changing notions of modernity in Chinese historiography, the paper examines the re-invention of Hollywood vernaculars in The Great Wall to construct an alternative vision of modernity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses sport and utopia. The author states that an ideal world is devoid of pain, suffering or disappointment. Sport, at a high level, involves pain, suffering and disappointment. Therefore, there can be no place for such sport in an ideal world. The conclusion of this syllogism is unacceptable to lovers of sports. The author discusses the book titled "Grasshopper: Games, Life and Utopia," by Bernard Suits in which Suits' idealizes sport and games and argues that one needs to contrive "sports and games unthought of today." Suits' reluctantly lets back in emotions such as "the bitterness of defeat," which he had earlier rejected because they reeked of conflict. According to the author, Suits' problem is that he both clings to the concept of utopia and abandons it.

Past studies indicate that angry facial expressions automatically activate an aggressive response, seeming to support the view that humans possess an inborn, automatic tendencies to aggress. However, the current authors drew on influential models from evolutionary game theory to suggest that experiences of defeat may modulate this tendency. To examine this, four experiments were conducted to explore how defeat may modulate this aggressive response. In each study, participants executed simulated fight or flight responses based a computerized opponent's facial expression. Across studies, participants were typically faster to initiate fight (than flight) responses against an angry opponent. Simply losing simulated fights (Experiment 1) or experiencing aversive, white noise following simulated losses (Experiment 2) did not eliminate this tendency. However, when aversive noise was specifically experienced after losing to an angry opponent, the automatic aggressive response was eliminated (Experiment 3). This result was directly replicated (Experiment 4). Thus, these studies isolate the cues which automatize submissive behavior and show that fighting experience can modulate even our automatic aggressive responses to others' anger displays. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Enzo Traverso's inspired book Left‐Wing Melancholia revisits iconic representations of revolutionary hopes and defeats not to draw up an inventory of what has been lost but rather to remind his readers that past defeats also contain the traces of unfulfilled possibilities. After the end of the Soviet Union and the global triumph of neoliberal capitalism, the communist utopian imagination of a classless society, Traverso suggests, can be reignited through memorial practices of resilient, resistant melancholy. Traverso's argument draws on Walter Benjamin's notions of materialist history, redemptive memory, and knowing melancholy. Yet the nameless vanquished masses to whom Benjamin's concept of history seeks to do justice remain marginal in Traverso's book. Instead, revolutionary defeat is cast in the tragic mold of succeeding by failing, a trope exemplified by figures such as Auguste Blanqui, Charles Péguy, or Daniel Bensaïd. In response to Traverso's reliance on the transhistorical category of the tragic, this essay argues for a more abstractly theoretical understanding of left‐wing melancholy as conditioned by historically specific class relations that constrain and challenge the engaged intellectual. Moreover, this essay questions Traverso's dualistic treatment of politically committed (Benjamin, Brecht, C. L. R. James) and elitist intellectuals (Adorno) and concludes that the concept of left‐wing melancholy must ultimately be interrogated against the backdrop of a lingering uncertainty about the relationship between theory and praxis that, as Adorno claims, one can already find in Karl Marx—an uncertainty that is hence inscribed into the history of any Marxist theory of revolution and history. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In a recent paper on Goodman's paradox, I have argued that 'grue' is unprojectible because the grue-evidence is doxastically dependent on the evidence that the samples are examined before t. Christopher Dorst replies that doxastic dependence is unable to yield a language-independent asymmetry with respect to 'green' and 'grue' and hence cannot resolve Goodman's paradox. In this response I hope to show that Dorst's considerations are flawed: his argument for the language-relativity of doxastic dependence is inconclusive at best—even if his construal of doxastic dependence were correct. It is incorrect, however: Dorst mistakes counterfactual dependence of beliefs for belief in counterfactual dependence. I will also argue that doxastic dependence properly understood is not threatened by any of his objections. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The standard reliabilist line on defeat is open to counterexamples regarding its necessity and sufficiency. In this paper, I present three problems for the standard reliabilist line from the recent literature on defeat before arguing that reliabilists can solve those problems by adopting an account of justification that ties defeat to the evidence possessed by the relevant agent. In doing so, I show that there is a conception of having evidence that reliabilists can adopt without giving up on the core commitments of their research program, namely the reduction of epistemic facts and having a psychologically realistic account of justification. My account of defeat draws on the account of propositional justification, transglobal evidentialism, defended by David Henderson, Terry Horgan, and Matjaž Potrč. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study examines whether defeat in war increases the probability that states will be involved in an international crisis (as a diversionary policy), enter a process of political liberalization, or alternatively, curtail political rights. More generally, it examines the impact of the leaders' weakness on their tendency to adopt these different strategies in order to overcome internal unrest. We look at defeat in war as an indicator of the leader's weakness since we can assume a strong correlation exists between the two. The results showed a significant positive connection to political rights liberalization, indicating that defeat in war increases the probability of liberalization in political rights but does not significantly increase the probability of de-liberalization and diversionary policies. Therefore, the study strengthens the claim that a leader's weakness tends to push him or her toward initiating political reforms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The notion of an American diaspora has become increasingly salient among the minority of Ulster Protestants who ascribe to the "Ulster-Scots" ethnic identity in Northern Ireland. Especially in light of the well-established conception of an Irish-American diaspora, the effort Ulster's "Protestant community" to construct and delineate a separate, non-Irish genealogical diaspora reveals much about their collective self-conceptions and aspirations. In this paper, I argue that the descriptions of Ulster-Scots-American diaspora represent both means of recasting "their" actions and ideologies as ethnically predestined, and an attempt to regain a sense of collective dignity in light of palpable postbellum defeatism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present evidence of sudden-death aversion (SDA)-the tendency to avoid "fast" strategies that provide a greater chance of success, but include the possibility of immediate defeat, in favor of "slow" strategies that reduce the possibility of losing quickly, but have lower odds of ultimate success. Using a combination of archival analyses and controlled experiments, we explore the psychology behind SDA. First, we provide evidence for SDA and its cost to decision makers by tabulating how often NFL teams send games into overtime by kicking an extra point rather than going for the 2-point conversion (Study 1) and how often NBA teams attempt potentially game-tying 2-point shots rather than potentially game-winning 3-pointers (Study 2). To confirm that SDA is not limited to sports, we demonstrate SDA in a military scenario (Study 3). We then explore two mechanisms that contribute to SDA: myopic loss aversion and concerns about "tempting fate." Studies 4 and 5 show that SDA is due, in part, to myopic loss aversion, such that decision makers narrow the decision frame, paying attention to the prospect of immediate loss with the "fast" strategy, but not the downstream consequences of the "slow" strategy. Study 6 finds that people are more pessimistic about a risky strategy that needn't be pursued (opting for sudden death) than the same strategy that must be pursued. We end by discussing how these twin mechanisms lead to differential expectations of blame from the self and others, and how SDA influences decisions in several different walks of life. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Epidemiological studies have shown a close association between pain and depression. There is evidence showing this association as patients with depression show a high chronic pain prevalence and vice versa. Considering that social stress is critical for the development of depression in humans, we used a social defeat stress (SDS) model which induces depressive‐like behavior in mice. In this model, mice are exposed to an aggressor mouse for ten days, suffering brief periods of agonistic contact and long periods of sensory contact. Some mice display social avoidance, a depressive‐like behavior, and are considered susceptible, while some mice do not, and are considered resilient. Thus, we investigated the nociceptive behavior of mice submitted to SDS and the neuroplastic changes in dopaminergic mesolimbic system. Our results showed that the stressed mice (resilient and susceptible) presented a higher sensitivity to pain than the control mice in chemical and mechanical tests. We also verified that susceptible mice have higher Bdnf mRNA in the VTA compared to the resilient and control mice. The stressed mice had less mature BDNF and more truncated BDNF protein in the NAc compared with control mice. Although social stress may trigger the development of depression and hyperalgesia, these two conditions may manifest independently as social stress induced hyperalgesia even in mice that did not display depressive‐like behavior. Also, increased Bdnf in the VTA seems to be associated with depressive‐like behavior, whereas high levels of truncated BDNF and low mature BDNF appear to be associated with hyperalgesia induced by social defeat stress. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The association between stress and mental illness has been well documented, but the molecular consequences of repeated exposure to stress have not been completely identified. The present study sought to elucidate the combinatorial effects of early-life maternal separation stress and adult social defeat stress on alterations in signal transduction and gene expression that have been previously implicated in susceptibility to psychosocial stress. Molecular analyses were performed in the prelimbic/infralimbic cortex, amygdala, and nucleus accumbens, three brain regions that have been suggested to play critical roles in determining stress responses. The current data reveal that both maternal separation and social defeat significantly impact the expression of genes involved in histone methylation and the β-catenin-, endogenous opioid-, neurotrophin-, and glucocorticoid signaling pathways. Although the effects of maternal separation and social defeat were largely non-overlapping, a subset of genes in each brain region were governed by additive, opposing, or other types of interactions between these stress paradigms, thus highlighting potential molecular mechanisms through which these stressors might coordinately regulate brain function and behavior. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Contemporary psychological theoretical models of suicide hypothesize that defeat and entrapment underlie the development of suicidal ideation. This hypothesis has never been tested in people who experience bipolar disorder. Regression analysis revealed that defeat and entrapment significantly predicted suicidal ideation at 4-month follow-up. The relationship between defeat and suicidal ideation was mediated by total entrapment and internal entrapment, but not external entrapment. Results suggest that perceived defeat and entrapment underlie the development of prospective suicidal ideation in bipolar disorder. Findings could potentially improve the assessment of suicide risk in people who experience bipolar disorder. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Defeat and entrapment have been shown to be of central relevance to the development of different disorders. However, it remains unclear whether they represent two distinct constructs or one overall latent variable. One reason for the unclarity is that traditional factor analytic techniques have trouble estimating the right number of clusters in highly correlated data. In this study, we applied a novel approach based on network analysis that can deal with correlated data to establish whether defeat and entrapment are best thought of as one or multiple constructs.Methods: Explanatory graph analysis was used to estimate the number of dimensions within the 32 items that make up the defeat and entrapment scales in two samples: an online community sample of 480 participants, and a clinical sample of 147 inpatients admitted to a psychiatric hospital after a suicidal attempt or severe suicidal crisis. Confirmatory Factor analysis (CFA) was used to test whether the proposed structure fits the data.Results: In both samples, bootstrapped exploratory graph analysis suggested that the defeat and entrapment items belonged to different dimensions. Within the entrapment items, two separate dimensions were detected, labelled internal and external entrapment. Defeat appeared to be multifaceted only in the online sample. When comparing the CFA outcomes of the one, two, three and four factor models, the one factor model was preferred.Conclusions: Defeat and entrapment can be viewed as distinct, yet, highly associated constructs. Thus, although replication is needed, results are in line with theories differentiating between these two constructs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Certain stressful life events have been associated with the onset of depression. This study aims to investigate if 7-fluoro-1,3-diphenylisoquinoline-1-amine (FDPI) is effective against social avoidance induced by social defeat stress model in mice. Furthermore, it was investigated the effects of FDPI in the mouse prefrontal cortical plasticity-related proteins and some parameters of toxicity. Adult Swiss mice were subjected to social defeat stress for 10 days. Two protocols with FDPI were carried out: 1- FDPI (25 mg/kg, intragastric) was administered to mice 24 h after the last social defeat stress episode; 2- FDPI (1–25 mg/kg, intragastric) was administered to mice once a day for 10 days concomitant with the social defeat stress. The mice performed social avoidance and locomotor tests. The prefrontal cortical protein contents of kinase B (Akt), extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK), cAMP-response element binding protein (CREB), pro-brain-derived neurotrophic factor (proBDNF), p75 NTR , neuronal nuclear protein (NeuN) and nuclear factor-κB (NF-κB) were determined in mice. A single administration of FDPI (25 mg/kg) partially protected against social avoidance induced by stress in mice. Repeated administration of FDPI (25 mg/kg) protected against social avoidance induced by stress in mice. Social defeat stress decreased the protein contents of p75 NTR , NeuN and the pERK/ERK ratio but increased those of proBDNF and the pCREB/CREB ratio, without changing that of NF-κB. Repeated administration of FDPI modulated signaling pathways altered by social defeat stress in mice. The present findings demonstrate that FDPI promoted resilience to stress in mice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the components of inflicting total defeat on the adversary's standard facilities in combat actions (operations), and substantiates proposals for improving the conceptual apparatus of the military art definition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The use of football programs as a vehicle for social change has increased exponentially in recent decades. This article utilizes Goffman’s sociology as a framework to approach the Homeless World Cup (HWC). Firstly, we examine how the participants interviewed refer to their journeys and how, throughout the HWC’s preparation, they were able to positively reconfigure their self-presentation. Secondly, we consider the frame of repeated defeats for participants whose expectations of success within this tournament were not fulfilled, reinforcing previously held feelings of stigma. Thirdly, the symbolic distance between winning and losing teams is discussed. Finally, we propose some reflections about the tournament’s format in order to remove, or at least reduce, negative experiences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Chemical and psychological stressors can exert long lasting changes in brain function and behaviour. Changes in DNA methylation have been shown to be an important mechanism mediating long lasting changes in neural function and behaviour, especially for anxiety-like or stress responses. In the present study, we examined the effects of either a social or chemical stressor on DNA methyltransferase (DNMT) gene expression in the amygdala, an important brain region modulating stress responses and anxiety. In adult California mice (Peromyscus californicus) that were naïve to social defeat, females had higher levels of Dnmt1 expression in punch samples of the central amygdala (CeA) than males. In addition, mice that underwent social defeat stress showed reduced Dnmt1 and Dnmt3a expression in the CeA of females but not males. A second study using more anatomically specific punch samples replicated these effects for Dnmt1. Perinatal exposure (spanning from periconception through lactation) to bisphenol A or ethinyl oestradiol (oestrogens in birth control pills) also abolished sex differences in Dnmt1 expression in the CeA but not the basolateral amygdala. These findings identify a robust sex difference in Dnmt1 expression in the CeA that is sensitive to both psychological and chemical stressors. Future studies should aim to examine the impact of psychological and chemical stressors on DNA methylation in the CeA and also investigate whether Dnmt1 may have an underappreciated role in plasticity in behaviour. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes a new externalist account of defeaters, in terms of reliable indicators, as an integral part of a unified externalist account of warrant and defeat. It is argued that posing externalist conditions on warrant, but internalist conditions on defeat lead to undesirable tensions. The proposal is contrasted to some rival accounts and then tested on some widely discussed cases, like the airport case. Misleading defeaters, where Laurence BonJour's reliable clairvoyants serve as examples, also receive treatment, partly because they illustrate how internalist constraints are inserted into the set up of the problem and therefore unduly constrain the domain of satisfactory solutions. Lastly, the proposal is defended against some objections. Firstly, that by posing externalist conditions on defeat, the account becomes too open. Secondly, that an externalist account fails to take into account the epistemic assessments of our fellows in the epistemic practice of forming beliefs and making epistemic claims, which can be based on accessible warrant only. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Losing a fight (social defeat) induces submissiveness and behavioral depression in many animals, but the mechanisms are unclear. Here we investigate how the social defeat syndrome can be established as a result of experiencing aversive stimuli and the roles of neuromodulators in the process. While biogenic amines and nitric oxide (NO) are associated with reduced aggression in mammals and insects, their specific actions during conflict are unknown. Although the social defeat syndrome normally results from complex interactions, we could induce it in male crickets simply by applying aversive stimuli (AS) in an aggressive context. Aggressive crickets became immediately submissive and behaved like losers after experiencing two brief AS (light wind puffs to the cerci), but only when preceded by a priming stimulus (PS, stroking the antenna with another male antenna). Notably, submissiveness was not induced when the PS preceded the AS by more than 1 min, or when the PS followed the AS, or using a female antenna as the preceding stimulus. These findings suggest that any potentially detrimental stimulus can acquire the attribute of an aversive agonistic signal when experienced in an aggressive context. Crickets, it seems, need only to evaluate their net sensory impact rather than the qualities of a variety of complex agonistic signals. Selective drug treatments revealed that NO, but not serotonin, dopamine or octopamine, is necessary to establish the submissive status following pairing of the priming and aversive stimuli. Moreover, treatment with an NO donor also induced the social defeat syndrome, but only when combined with the PS. This confirms our hypothesis that aversive agonistic experiences accumulated by crickets during fighting invoke social defeat via the action of NO and illustrates that a relatively simple mechanism underlies the seemingly complex social decision to flee. The simple stimulus regime described here for inducing social defeat opens new avenues for investigating the cellular control of subordinate behavior and post-conflict depression. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social stress modifies the activity of brain areas involved in the rewarding effects of psychostimulants, inducing neuroadaptations in the dopaminergic mesolimbic system and modifying the sensitivity of dopamine receptors. In the present study we evaluated the effect of the dopamine D 1 - and D 2 -like receptor antagonists (SCH23390 and raclopride, respectively) on the short-time effects of acute social defeat (ASD). Male OF1 mice were socially defeated before each conditioning session of the conditioned place preference (CPP) induced by 1 mg/kg or 25 mg/kg of cocaine plus the corresponding dopamine antagonist. A final experiment was designed to evaluate the effect of the dopamine antagonists on the CPP induced by 3 mg/kg of cocaine with or without a stress experience. Mice exposed to ASD showed an increase in reinstatement of the conditioned reinforcing effects of cocaine that was blocked by all of the dopamine receptor antagonists. Blockade of dopamine D 2 -like receptors with raclopride specifically prevented the effects of stress without affecting the rewarding properties of cocaine. However, SCH23390 inhibited cocaine-induced preference in the control groups and even induced aversion in defeated mice conditioned with the lower dose of cocaine. Moreover, the lowest dose of SCH23390 blocked the rewarding effects of 3 mg/kg of cocaine-induced CPP. Our results confirm that the dopamine D 2 receptor is involved in the short-term effects of ASD on the rewarding effects of cocaine. The dopamine D 1 receptor is clearly involved in the rewarding effects of cocaine, but its role in the effects of ASD remains to be demonstrated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We have previously observed the impairing effects of chronic social defeat stress (CSDS) on emotional memory in mice. Given the relation between stress and inflammatory processes, we sought to study the effectiveness of the anti-inflammatory indomethacin in reversing the detrimental effects of CSDS on emotional memory in mice. The effects of CSDS and indomethacin on recognition memory were also evaluated. Male CD1 mice were randomly divided into four groups: non-stressed + saline (NS+SAL); non-stressed + indomethacin (NS+IND); stressed + saline (S+SAL); and stressed + indomethacin (S+IND). Stressed animals were exposed to a daily 10 min agonistic confrontation (CSDS) for 20 days. All subjects were treated daily with saline or indomethacin (10 mg/kg, i.p.). 24 h after the CSDS period, all the mice were evaluated in a social interaction test to distinguish between those that were resilient or susceptible to social stress. All subjects (n = 10–12 per group) were then evaluated in inhibitory avoidance (IA), novel object recognition (NOR), elevated plus maze and hot plate tests. As in control animals (NS+SAL group), IA learning was observed in the resilient groups, as well as in the susceptible mice treated with indomethacin (S+IND group). Recognition memory was observed in the non-stressed and the resilient mice, but not in the susceptible animals. Also, stressed mice exhibited higher anxiety levels. No significant differences were observed in locomotor activity or analgesia. In conclusion, CSDS induces anxiety in post-pubertal mice and impairs emotional and recognition memory in the susceptible subjects. The effects of CSDS on emotional memory, but not on recognition memory and anxiety, are reversed by indomethacin. Moreover, memory impairment is not secondary to the effects of CSDS on locomotor activity, emotionality or pain sensitivity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Human facial expressions can be recognized rapidly and effortlessly. However, for intense emotions from real life, positive and negative facial expressions are difficult to discriminate and the judgment of facial expressions is biased towards simultaneously perceived body expressions. This study employed event-related potentials (ERPs) to investigate the neural dynamics involved in the integration of emotional signals from facial and body expressions of victory and defeat. Emotional expressions of professional players were used to create pictures of face-body compounds, with either matched or mismatched emotional expressions in faces and bodies. Behavioral results showed that congruent emotional information of face and body facilitated the recognition of facial expressions. ERP data revealed larger P1 amplitudes for incongruent compared to congruent stimuli. Also, a main effect of body valence on the P1 was observed, with enhanced amplitudes for the stimuli with losing compared to winning bodies. The main effect of body expression was also observed in N170 and N2, with winning bodies producing larger N170/N2 amplitudes. In the later stage, a significant interaction of congruence by body valence was found on the P3 component. Winning bodies elicited lager P3 amplitudes than losing bodies did when face and body conveyed congruent emotional signals. Beyond the knowledge based on prototypical facial and body expressions, the results of this study facilitate us to understand the complexity of emotion evaluation and categorization out of laboratory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Psychosocial stress can cause mental conditions such as depression in humans. To develop drug therapies for the treatment of depression, it is necessary to use animal models of depression to screen drug candidates that exhibit anti-depressive effects. Unfortunately, the present methods of drug screening for antidepressants, the forced-swim test and tail-suspension test, are limiting factors in drug discovery because they are not based on the constructive validity of objective phenotypes in depression. Previously, we discovered that the onset of nest building is severely delayed in mice exposed to subchronic mild social defeat stress (sCSDS). Therefore, a novel paradigm combining acute social defeat stress (ASDS) and the nest-building test (SNB) were established for the efficient screening of drugs for depressive-like symptoms. Since ASDS severely delayed the nest-building process as shown in chronically social defeated mice, we sought to rescue the delayed nest-building behavior in ASDS mice. Injecting a specific serotonin 2a receptor antagonist (SR-46349B), the nest-building deficit exhibited by ASDS mice was partially rescued. On the other hand, a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (fluoxetine) did not rescue the nest-building deficit in ASDS mice. Therefore, we conclude that the SNB paradigm is an another potential behavioral method for screening drugs for depressive-like symptoms including attention deficit, anxiety, low locomotion, and decreased motivation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

‘Flash-forwards’ - mental images of suicide - have been reported in selected Caucasian samples. Perceptions of defeat and entrapment are considered to be associated with suicidal ideation. We aimed to investigate (1) the presence of suicidal flash-forwards in people with recent suicidal ideation versus those without such ideation in an Asian sample, and (2) associations between suicidal flash-forwards, and perceptions of entrapment accounting for suicidal ideation. Eighty two suicidal and 80 non-suicidal participants from the Hong Kong Mental Morbidity Survey completed questionnaires including suicidal ideation, presence of suicidal flash-forward images, defeat and entrapment, at baseline and seven weeks later. Suicidal ‘flash-forwards’ were present only in suicidal cases. People with recent suicidal ideation and suicidal flash-forwards had more severe suicidal ideation than those without flash-forwards. Compared to those without suicidal ideation, people with recent suicidal ideation reported higher entrapment and defeat levels. Resolution of suicidal ideation over time was associated with fewer suicidal flash-forwards and reduced entrapment perceptions. At baseline and seven weeks, suicidal ideation was predicted by an interaction between suicidal flash-forwards presence and perceptions of entrapment. Mental imagery of suicide appears to be associated with suicidal ideation, and may represent a novel target in suicidal risk assessment and prevention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]