Search

Expert intuition is increasingly considered to be a valid form of knowledge, and research has proven its effectiveness in judgment and decision making in various fields. Theorists seem to recognize the contributions of intuition within evaluative practice, but it has never been well-documented. This article presents a study on expert intuition, addressing the manner in which intuition is developed, as well as how it contributes to producing judgments in the specific context of program evaluation. In-depth, in-person interviews were conducted with eight novice evaluators and eight experienced evaluators in order to assess the contributions of experience and expertise. Two key observations emerged from interview analyses. The first was that intuition is developed through a long, complex, and demanding process in which reflective analysis of experiments, successes, and failures play an essential role; the second was that the development of intuition is fostered by expertise and experience.

Background: Upregulation of the endocannabinoid enzyme fatty acid amide hydrolase (FAAH) has been linked to abnormal activity in frontoamygdalar circuits, a hallmark of posttraumatic stress disorder. We tested the hypothesis that FAAH levels in the amygdala were negatively correlated with functional connectivity between the amygdala and prefrontal cortex, subserving stress and affect control. Methods: Thirty-one healthy participants completed positron emission tomography (PET) imaging with the FAAH probe [C-11]CURB, and resting-state functional MRI scans. Participants were genotyped for the FAAH polymorphism rs324420, and trait neuroticism was assessed. We calculated amygdala functional connectivity using predetermined regions of interest (including the subgenual ventromedial prefrontal cortex [sgvmPFC] and the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex [dACC]) and a seed-to-voxel approach. We conducted correlation analyses on functional connectivity, with amygdala [C-11]CURB binding as a variable of interest. Results: The strength of amygdala functional connectivity with the sgvmPFC and dACC was negatively correlated with [C-11]CURB binding in the amygdala (sgvmPFC: r = -0.38, q = 0.04; dACC: r = -0.44; q = 0.03). Findings were partly replicated using the seed-to-voxel approach, which showed a cluster in the ventromedial prefrontal cortex, including voxels in the dACC but not the sgvmPFC (cluster-level, family-wise error rate corrected p < 0.05). Limitations: We did not replicate earlier findings of a relationship between an FAAH polymorphism (rs324420) and amygdala functional connectivity. Conclusion: Our data provide preliminary evidence that lower levels of FAAH in the amygdala relate to increased frontoamygdalar functional coupling. Our findings were consistent with the role of FAAH in regulating brain circuits that underlie fear and emotion processing in humans., Introduction Emotion dysregulation--characterized by the inability to manage negative emotions such as fear, anger or sadness--is a common symptom of many mental health disorders. Elevated amygdala hyperactivity has been linked [...]

Background: [gamma]-Aminobutyric acidergic (GABAergic) dysfunction and immune activation have been implicated in the pathophysiology of schizophrenia. Preclinical evidence suggests that inflammation-related abnormalities may contribute to GABAergic alterations in the brain, but this has never been investigated in vivo in humans. In this multimodal imaging study, we quantified cerebral GABA plus macromolecule (GABA+) levels in antipsychotic-naive people at clinical high risk for psychosis and in healthy volunteers. We investigated for the first time the association between GABA+ levels and expression of translocator protein 18 kDa (TSPO; a marker of microglial activation) using positron emission tomography (PET). Methods: Thirty-five people at clinical high risk for psychosis and 18 healthy volunteers underwent 3 T proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy to obtain GABA+ levels in the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC). A subset (29 people at clinical high risk for psychosis and 15 healthy volunteers) also underwent a high-resolution [[sup.18]F]FEPPA PET scan to quantify TSPO expression. Each participant was genotyped for the TSPO rs6971 polymorphism. Results: We found that GABA+ levels were significantly associated with TSPO expression in the mPFC ([F.sub.1,40] = 10.45, p = 0.002). We found no significant differences in GABA+ levels in the mPFC ([F.sub.1,51] = 0.00, p > 0.99) between people at clinical high risk for psychosis and healthy volunteers. We found no significant correlations between GABA+ levels or residuals of the association with TSPO expression and the severity of prodromal symptoms or cognition. Limitations: Given the cross-sectional nature of this study, we could determine no cause-and-effect relationships for GABA alterations and TSPO expression. Conclusion: Our findings suggest that TSPO expression is negatively associated with GABA+ levels in the prefrontal cortex, independent of disease status., Introduction [gamma]-Aminobutyric acidergic (GABAergic) dysregulation and immune activation have been separately implicated in the pathophysiology of schizophrenia, but the in vivo relationship between these 2 systems has never been investigated [...]