Facebook or Memory: Which Is the Real Threat to Your Relationship?

This study examined the role of Facebook friends lists in identifying potential sexual and committed relationship alternatives and the effects this had on relationship investment in a sample of 371 young adult undergraduates. A Facebook versus memory experimental protocol was developed to test whether Facebook friends lists act as primers for recognition of potential sexual and committed relationship partners and whether identifying these potential partners (either from Facebook or from memory) caused lower relationship investment. Facebook friends lists did act as memory primers for potential partners, but only for sexual partners, and the effect was stronger for men than it was for women. However, identifying potential partners through Facebook actually lowered a person's perceptions of the quality of their alternatives. In contrast, merely thinking about potential alternatives from one's social sphere lowered relationship satisfaction and commitment with one's current committed partner. The implications of these findings are discussed in relation to current work on the negative effects of Facebook use on relationship outcomes.

Extending animal models to explore social rewards associated with designated smoking areas on college campuses.

OBJECTIVE: Animal studies have shown that when nicotine is administered in the presence of other animals (as compared with alone), it is more rewarding. As a human analogue to these studies, rewards associated with designated smoking areas on university campuses were examined, since these areas promote using nicotine in the presence of others. PARTICIPANTS: Participants were 118 (Sample 1, collected November 2011) and 94 (Sample 2, collected April 2012) student smokers at a midwestern university. METHOD: Data were collected via an Internet survey. RESULTS: Social interaction while smoking on campus (as compared with smoking alone) significantly increased the perceived reward of smoking, looking forward to spending time in the campus smoking areas, and how many times the campus smoking areas were visited. CONCLUSIONS: Although designated smoking areas may protect nonsmoking students from the dangers of secondhand smoke, these areas may increase the rewards associated with nicotine for the smokers who use them.

Feeling threatened about the future: Whites' emotional reactions to anticipated ethnic demographic changes.

In many Western countries, the proportion of the population that is White will drop below 50% within the next century. Two experiments examined how anticipation of these future ethnic demographics affects current intergroup processes. In Study 1, White Americans who viewed actual demographic projections for a time when Whites are no longer a numerical majority felt more angry toward and fearful of ethnic minorities than Whites who did not view future projections. Whites who viewed the future projections also felt more sympathy for their ingroup than Whites in the control condition. In Study 2, the authors replicated the effects for intergroup emotions with a sample of White Canadians. White Canadians who thought about a future in which Whites were a numerical minority appraised the ingroup as more threatened, which mediated the effect of condition on intergroup emotions. The authors discuss the implications of these findings for race relations in increasingly diverse societies.

Anterior cingulate cortex and benefit of predictive cueing on response inhibition in stimulant dependent individuals.

BACKGROUND: Methamphetamine dependence (MD) is associated with impaired response inhibition and with structural abnormalities and functional hypoactivity in the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC). The need to inhibit behavior is often forewarned by cues that do not call for immediate inhibition. We sought to determine whether such cues would engage the ACC and improve inhibition in MD individuals. METHODS: We used functional MRI to measure ACC activation during performance of a go/nogo response inhibition task in which certain go stimuli (cues) were much more likely than others (noncues) to be followed by nogo trials. Nineteen MD individuals (inpatient treatment, 25-50 days abstinence) were compared with 19 age- and education-matched healthy comparison (HC) subjects. RESULTS: MD and HC groups had statistically comparable performance, but only MD participants showed an ACC response and lower false alarm rates associated with cues as compared with noncues. Cue-related ACC activity in MD subjects was positively correlated with this cue-related improvement in inhibitory performance. CONCLUSIONS: The ACC, an area associated with error detection and response conflict, may predict the degree to which advance warning may attenuate MD individuals' difficulty with response inhibition.

Lorazepam dose-dependently decreases risk-taking related activation in limbic areas.

RATIONALE: Several studies have examined the role of different neurotransmitter systems in modulating risk-taking behavior. OBJECTIVE: This investigation was aimed to determine whether the benzodiazepine lorazepam dose-dependently alters risk-taking behavior and underlying neural substrates. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Fifteen healthy, nonsmoking, individuals (six women, nine men), aged 18-39 years (mean 27.6 +/- 1.4 years) with 12-18 years of education (mean 15.6 +/- 0.3 years) underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging while performing a risk-taking decision-making task. RESULTS: Our results show that lorazepam did not affect risky behavior at 0.25 and 1 mg, but dose-dependently attenuated activation in (a) the amygdala and medial prefrontal cortex during the response selection phase, and in (b) the bilateral insular cortex and amygdala during the outcome (i.e., rewarded or punished) phase. Furthermore, a lorazepam-induced increase in insular cortex activation was associated with less risky responses. CONCLUSIONS: Taken together, our findings support the idea that GABAergic modulation in limbic and paralimbic structures is important during both the response selection and outcome phase of risk-taking decision-making.

Individuals with schizophrenia present hypo- and hyperactivation during implicit cueing in an inhibitory task.

BACKGROUND: The primary purpose of this investigation was to assess the neural correlates of implicit cueing during an inhibitory task in schizophrenia when performance accuracy was matched with healthy comparison subjects. METHODS: We compared 17 individuals with chronic schizophrenia (SZ; medicated, 13.9 average years of illness) and 17 healthy comparison subjects (HC) matched for hit and false alarm rates, age, and education on a visual Go/Nogo task during functional magnetic resonance imaging. In this task, one of the go stimuli also served implicitly as a cue predictive of a subsequent inhibitory (Nogo) trial. CONCLUSIONS: Findings suggest that even when matched for overall performance accuracy, individuals with SZ exhibit difficulties with inhibition and cue processing that may relate to core deficits in cognitive control and stimulus processing. In particular, these findings point towards an important role of the parietal cortex for cued inhibitory processes in healthy populations.

Targeted ablation of plasma membrane Ca2+-ATPase (PMCA) 1 and 4 indicates a major housekeeping function for PMCA1 and a critical role in hyperactivated sperm motility and male fertility for PMCA4.

The relative importance of plasma membrane Ca2+-ATPase (PMCA) 1 and PMCA4 was assessed in mice carrying null mutations in their genes (Atp2b1 and Atp2b4). Loss of both copies of the gene encoding PMCA1 caused embryolethality, whereas heterozygous mutants had no overt disease phenotype. Despite widespread and abundant expression of PMCA4, PMCA4 null (Pmca4-/-) mutants exhibited no embryolethality and appeared outwardly normal. Loss of PMCA4 impaired phasic contractions and caused apoptosis in portal vein smooth muscle in vitro; however, this phenotype was dependent on the mouse strain being employed. Pmca4-/- mice on a Black Swiss background did not exhibit the phenotype unless they also carried a null mutation in one copy of the Pmca1 gene. Pmca4-/- male mice were infertile but had normal spermatogenesis and mating behavior. Pmca4-/- sperm that had not undergone capacitation exhibited normal motility but could not achieve hyperactivated motility needed to traverse the female genital tract. Ultrastructure of the motility apparatus in Pmca4-/- sperm tails was normal, but an increased incidence of mitochondrial condensation indicated Ca2+ overload. Immunoblotting and immunohistochemistry showed that PMCA4 is the most abundant isoform in testis and sperm and that it is localized to the principle piece of the sperm tail, which is also the location of the major Ca2+ channel (CatSper) required for sperm motility. These results are consistent with an essential housekeeping or developmental function for PMCA1, but not PMCA4, and show that PMCA4 expression in the principle piece of the sperm tail is essential for hyperactivated motility and male fertility.