Abstract Objectives. Intravenous sedation in the intensive care unit (ICU) may contribute to altered consciousness and prolonged mechanical ventilation. We tested the hypothesis that replacing intravenous propofol with inhaled sevoflurane for sedation after cardiac surgery would lead to shorter wake-up times, quicker patient cooperation and less delusional memories. Design. Following ...

Whole brain radiation therapy (WBRT) is commonly used for treatment of primary and metastatic brain tumors; however, cognitive impairment occurs in 40-50% of brain tumor survivors. The etiology of the cognitive impairment following WBRT remains elusive. We recently reported that radiation-induced cerebrovascular rarefaction within hippocampal subregions could be completely reversed ...

The decreased pressure in the cabin of a pressurised aircraft (typically equivalent to ~8000 ft) reduces the oxygen level so that the blood oxygen saturation of all occupants falls from >97% (normoxia) at sea-level to below 92% (mild hypoxia). Although exposure to mild hypoxia does not affect well-learned cognitive and ...

Eyeblink classical conditioning in pre-weanling rabbits was examined in the present study. Using a custom lightweight headpiece and restrainer, New Zealand white littermates were trained once daily in 400 ms delay eyeblink classical conditioning from postnatal days (PD) 17-21 or PD 24-28. These ages were chosen because eyeblink conditioning emerges gradually ...

There is accumulating evidence that a variety of species possess quantitative abilities although their cognitive substrate is still unclear. This study is the first to investigate whether sea lions (Otaria flavescens), in the absence of training, are able to assess and select the larger of two sets of quantities. In ...

Two studies examined the relationships between self-rated and objectively measured creative ability and ease of perceiving alternative interpretations of the ambiguous Duck-Rabbit figure. The studies found empirical support for what has previously been a largely analogical connection between figural reversal and creativity, using both self-rated trait creativity and objectively scored ...

Although vocal mimicry in songbirds is well documented, little is known about the function of such mimicry. One possibility is that the mimic produces the vocalisations of predatory or aggressive species to deter potential predators or competitors. Alternatively, these sounds may be learned in error as a result of their ...

There are consistent individual differences in human intelligence, attributable to a single 'general intelligence' factor, g. The evolutionary basis of g and its links to social learning and culture remain controversial. Conflicting hypotheses regard primate cognition as divided into specialized, independently evolving modules versus a single general process. To assess ...

Communication is a strong selective pressure on brain evolution because the exchange of information between individuals is crucial for fitness-related behaviors, such as mating. Given the importance of communication, the brains of signal senders and receivers are likely to be functionally coordinated. We study vocal behavior and auditory processing in ...

The reliability of information that animals use to make decisions has fitness consequences. Accordingly, selection should favor the evolution of strategies that enhance the reliability of information used in learning and decision making. For example, hosts of avian brood parasites should be selected to increase the reliability of the information ...

Preferences for mates within and between species are often harmonious, as traits that females prefer are usually more developed in conspecifics than heterospecifics. This need not be the case, however. When it is not, conflict between these arenas of mate choice can be resolved if females attend to different cues ...

: Using standard self-evaluation questionnaires, numerous studies have found that subjective memory improves shortly after electroconvulsive therapy (ECT). This change covaries strongly with depression severity and is not associated with objective amnestic effects or treatment parameters. We examined subjective evaluations of ECT's cognitive effects using a novel interview that directly ...

Abstract "The jack-of-all-trades is a master of none" describes the widely held belief that engaging in many tasks comes at the cost of being unable to do those tasks well. However, empirical evidence for generalist fitness costs remains scarce. We used published data from a long-term field survey of aphid ...

Whether or not nonhuman primates exhibit population-level handedness remains a topic of considerable scientific debate. Here, we examined handedness for coordinated bimanual actions in a sample of 777 great apes including chimpanzees, bonobos, gorillas, and orangutans. We found population-level right-handedness in chimpanzees, bonobos and gorillas, but left-handedness in orangutans. Directional ...

Cobalt silicide (CoSi) nanocrystal (NC) layer distributed within narrow spatial region is synthesized by thermal annealing of a sandwich structure comprised of a thin cobalt (Co) film sandwiched between two silicon-rich oxide (SiO(x)) layers. It is shown that the size of the CoSi NCs can be controlled by varying the ...

Social insects are defined by their ability to divide labor among their numerous nestmates. This is achieved via a complex system of chemical communication that allows colonies to organize task activity so as to maximize the productivity of the colony. However, the mechanism by which social insects distinguish task groups ...

Humans readily group component elements into a coherent perceptual whole and perceive the global form of visual patterns in priority over local features, which stands in contrast to at least some data from the animal literature, suggesting possible species differences in perceptual processes. In this study, chimpanzees and baboons were ...

A fundamental prerequisite for prey to avoid being captured is the ability to distinguish dangerous stimuli such as predators and risky habitats from non-dangerous stimuli such as non-predators and safe locations. Most research to date has focused on mechanisms allowing prey to learn to recognize risky stimuli. The paradox of ...

The zebrafish has been one of the primary study species utilized in developmental biology. However, it is also gaining increasing amount of interest in other disciplines of biology including behavioral neuroscience; the numerous genetic tools developed and the large amount of genetic information accumulated for this species by now make ...

Brain and behavioural lateralization at the population level has been recently hypothesized to have evolved under social selective pressures as a strategy to optimize coordination among asymmetrical individuals. Evidence for this hypothesis have been collected in Hymenoptera: eusocial honey bees showed olfactory lateralization at the population level, whereas solitary mason ...

InP nanoparticles were formed using a solution method, and the InP nanoparticles that were embedded in a polystyrene (PS) layer were formed using the spin-coating method. The transmission electron microscopy images showed that the InP nanoparticles were randomly distributed in the PS layer. The measured capacitance-voltage (C-V) of the Al/InP ...

In2O3 nanocrystal memories with barrier-engineered tunnel layers were fabricated on a p-type Si substrate. The structure and thickness of the barrier-engineered tunnel layers were SiO2/Si3N4/SiO2 (ONO) and 2/2/3 nm, respectively. The equivalent oxide thickness of the ONO tunnel layers was 5.64 nm. The average size and density of the In2O3 ...

There is a remarkable diversity of song-learning strategies in songbirds. Establishing whether a species is closed- or open-ended is important to be able to interpret functional and evolutionary consequences of variation in repertoire size. Most of our knowledge regarding the timing of vocal learning is based on laboratory studies, despite ...

Organisms often undergo shifts in habitats as their requirements change with ontogeny.Upon entering a new environment, it is vitally important to be able to rapidly assess predation risk. Predation pressure should selectively promote mechanisms that enable the rapid identification of novel predators. Here we tested the ability of a juvenile ...

When viewing ambiguous figures like the classic duck/rabbit, people alternately perceive one interpretation and then the other, but not both interpretations at once. When two identical ambiguous figures appear together, the majority of observers perceive them as identical, and they typically alternate in unison. Just as most observers cannot see ...

Mushroom bodies (MBs) are prominent neuropils in the insect brain involved in higher order processing such as sensory integration, learning and memory, and spatial orientation. The size and general morphology of MBs are diverse across insects. In this study we comparatively investigated the microstructure of synaptic complexes (microglomeruli) in major ...

Many precocial birds show a robust preference for the maternal call of their own species before and after hatching. This differential responsiveness to species-specific auditory stimuli by embryos and neonates has been the subject of study for more than four decades, but much remains unknown about the dynamics of this ...

Many precocial birds show a robust preference for the maternal call of their own species before and after hatching. This differential responsiveness to species-specific auditory stimuli by embryos and neonates has been the subject of study for more than four decades, but much remains unknown about the dynamics of this ...

The characterization of ability in behavioral sound-localization tasks is an important aspect of understanding how the brain encodes and processes sound location information. In a few species, both physiological and behavioral results related to sound localization are available. In the Mongolian gerbil, physiological sensitivity to interaural time differences in the ...

Ever since the classic work of Ebbinghaus (1885/1964), the default view in scientific psychology has been that memory declines over time. Less well-known clinical and laboratory traditions suggest, however, that memory can also increase over time. Ballard (1913) demonstrated that, actually, memory simultaneously increases and decreases over time and thus ...

Jean-Martin Charcot proposed the radical hypothesis that similar brain processes were responsible for the unexplained neurological symptoms of 'hysteria', now typically diagnosed as 'conversion disorder' or 'dissociative (conversion) disorder', and the temporary effects of hypnosis. While this idea has been largely ignored, recent cognitive neuroscience studies indicate that (i) hypnotisability ...

Introduction. Inconsistencies in the relationship between dissociation and hypnosis may result from heterogeneity among highly suggestible individuals, in particular the existence of distinct highly suggestible subtypes that are of relevance to models of psychopathology and the consequences of trauma. This study contrasted highly suggestible subtypes high or low in dissociation ...

The pretreatment neuropsychological profile of drug-resistant patients with major depressive disorder (MDD) referred for electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) may differ from that of their drug-respondent MDD counterparts. Such differences could help in identifying distinct MDD subtypes, thus offering insights into the neuropathology underlying differential treatment responses.MethodDepressed patients with ECT referral (ECTs), ...

This article examines a 3-decades-old unsolved homicide, where the victim's 4-year-and-9-month-old daughter was deemed the only eyewitness (State of Nebraska v. Donald J. Sykora, 2008). The authors critique the investigative methods employed over 33 years, with particular emphasis on the final "extreme" cognitive interview of the daughter, which persisted for ...

In the first of two recent papers, Pekala, Kumar, Maurer, Elliot-Carter, Moon and Mullen (2010a) review what they consider to be the relationships between trance or altered state effects, suggestibility, and expectancy, and how they relate to the concepts of hypnosis and hypnotism. They also suggest that these concepts can ...

Body sway and locomotion are differentially modulated in high (highs) and low (lows) hypnotizable subjects undergoing alteration of visual and neck/leg proprioceptive inputs. The study's aim was to investigate whether partial impairment of vestibular information due to backward head extension affects postural (Study 1) and locomotor behavior (Study 2) differentially ...

Despite the importance of intrusive memories in clinical disorders, research has been limited by a dearth of paradigms that permit experimental study of intrusions. This study describes a hypnotic paradigm for eliciting intrusive memories. Forty-nine highly hypnotisable participants nominated a distressing memory prior to being hypnotised. During hypnosis, they received ...

Although the induction of a hypnotic state does not seem necessary for suggestive modulation of the Stroop effect, this important phenomenon has seemed to be dependent on the subject's level of hypnotic suggestibility. Raz and Campbell's (2011) study indicates that suggestion can modulate the Stroop effect substantially in very low ...

This study evaluated the effects of hypnosis on self-efficacy and soccer performance. Fifty-nine collegiate soccer players were randomly allocated to either a hypnosis (n = 30) or video attention-control group (n = 29). A pretest-posttest design with an additional 4-week follow-up was used. Self-efficacy was measured via a task-specific questionnaire ...

Cases of memory deficits after electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) have been widely reported particularly short-term memory and to a lesser extent, long-term and autobiographical memory. Explanations for the mechanisms of ECT action have largely been limited to studies of the effect on brain metabolism, neurochemistry, and areas of the brain such ...

The demonstration that hypnotic suggestion can inhibit word/colour Stroop highlights one of the benefits of using hypnosis to explore cognitive psychology and in particular attentional processes. The compelling results using a rigorous design have particular relevance for the presumed automaticity of some forms of information processing. Moreover the results support ...

OBJECTIVE: To compare the memory effects of continuation electroconvulsive therapy (C-ECT) versus continuation pharmacologic intervention (C-PHARM) at 12 and 24 weeks after completion of acute electroconvulsive therapy (ECT). METHOD: Eighty-five patients with Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV-diagnosed unipolar major depressive disorder, enrolled in a multisite, randomized, parallel-design trial conducted at ...

Recent reviews of child sexual abuse (CSA) disclosure indicate that many victims delay disclosing abuse for some period of time (e.g., London, Bruck, Ceci, & Shuman, 2005). During this period of non-disclosure, CSA victims may avoid thinking about or discussing their abuse experiences. Some scholars argue that this may lead ...

Society's interest in sexual abuse waxes and wanes in ways that mirror the fluidity of memory narrated by trauma survivors. Although a great deal of research explores memory processes, including the neurophysiology of trauma, little considers the ways in which disclosure delays and socio-cultural pressures for silence appear in narratives ...

We have previously shown that bereavement life review therapy improves the spiritual well-being of a bereaved family, but the factors that influence the efficacy of this therapy have not been determined. Therefore, this study was performed to identify factors associated with improvement of spiritual well-being of bereaved families. The participants ...

BACKGROUND: The cognitive side-effects of ECT are minimized by individualized, supra-threshold dosing with brief pulse electrical stimuli. Unilateral ECT is associated with fewer cognitive sequelae but bilateral ECT is possibly more effective. Little is known of the relative effectiveness and tolerability of the two placements in the treatment of elderly, ...

Clark Hull's (1933) research on dissociation was based on a 'straw man' formulation of dissociation; he claimed that dissociation requires noninterference. Hull completely ignored the then-current paradigm of dissociation--dissociation as automatism--and claimed that he had refuted the validity of the phenomenon of dissociation. Hull's view of dissociation held sway in ...

We examined posttraumatic stress symptoms and the memory retrieval process in 2 groups of adult survivors of childhood sexual abuse: 29 participants who reported having memories of their abuse prior to entering therapy (PM) and 13 who reported no memories of abuse prior to therapy (NPM). Participants were asked to ...

Can suggestion, particularly hypnotic suggestion, influence cognition? Addressing this intriguing question experimentally is on the rise in cognitive research, nowhere more prevalently than in the domain of cognitive control and attention. This may well rest on the intuitive connection between hypnotic suggestion and attention, where the hypnotist controls the subject's ...

Hypnotizability is a cognitive trait measured by standard scales and associated with peculiar physiological responses to cognitive and physical stimulations. Hypnotizability-related differences can also be observed in non-hypnotic state and in the absence of specific suggestions. In the normal bipedal stance subjects with high hypnotizability (Highs) exhibit a higher tolerance ...